"How did you ever get started in writing?"

People always ask me how I got started in writing, and I never have enough time to tell them the whole story. But now I do, so here it is.

How I became a writer

In the mid-70’s I was in my 20’s, working for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. At that time, I was a big letter writer, mostly because I was a big reader. I’d read something that affected me one way or another, and I’d want to express my feelings to the author. I wrote to John Irving after reading an excerpt from “The World According to Garp” in Esquire magazine (to tell him about a similar experience I’d had) and got a really nice letter back from him. He even said something about how well-written my letter was. I wrote to Phil Donahue (a fan letter of sorts) and got a hand-written letter back from him. I also got one back from Barbara Walters and some other people I had written to.

I wrote a few letters to magazines that got published, too. The first one was in Playboy (which was also the beginning of the end of my first marriage; another story). Shortly after that, I had letters published in Esquire, People (twice), and MS. It wasn't that I was constantly writing letters to magazines, but almost every time I did, it got published. And once I wrote a letter to Kellogg’s about a burnt Frosted Flake that had chipped my tooth. A claims guy came to see me (with a check for $300) and said, “I figured you were either a professional claimant or a darn good letter writer.”

In 1978, I met a guy named Joel Clark, who was a writer for “Wonderland” magazine at the Grand Rapids Press, which was a kind of local version of Parade, with features, profiles, etc.

I was telling Joel about how much fun I was having writing letters to people and what a great hobby it was. Joel said to me, "Hey, that might be a good article in Wonderland. Do you want to write something up?" Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. I was so excited about the idea of writing a real article!

So my letter-writing article got published, and it was very well received. Joel, on the other hand, was killed in a car crash, but I ended up getting a weekly column in Wonderland. That lasted about a year; then the Press discontinued that pub.

By 1979, my marriage was also being discontinued; I moved out of the house in May. The previous Christmas, I had gotten my first subscription to Writer’s Digest, and I learned about their annual Writing Contest. So I entered it (at the last possible moment) with a piece called, “How to Get Through a Divorce Without Going Crazy,” and won first place in the non-fiction category. I was thrilled. I couldn’t believe it! My prize was an electric typewriter.

After the divorce, I started a Go-Fer business for ad agencies (another long story). It was sort of an errand/delivery service, where I’d run props around, pick up talent, etc. One day, Dave Kagan, who was a partner at the Johnson & Dean ad agency, and who had been reading my columns in Wonderland, said to me, "Have you ever thought about becoming a copywriter? Because we're looking for one and I think you might be good at it." Well, I tried out and got the job. That's how I got into advertising.

While I was at J&D, some of us decided to form a Writer’s Group as an outlet for writing our own stuff, as opposed to the stuff we had to write. We met every Thursday and it was a great learning experience – we had to bring something every week to read and have critiqued. I look back on that now and think, How the hell did we do that?! We were so prolific!

Writer’s Group lasted for several years, but my job at Johnson & Dean ended after about two. It was very fun, but my kids, Jamie and Brenna, were only six and four, so after Art and I got married, I quit.

In the early ‘80s, a little magazine came out locally called Metropolitan Parent. I sent some of my stuff in to them, mostly from Writer’s Group, and I’ll never forget the call I got afterwards. It was a Saturday morning in the summertime. For some reason, I was sleeping in the top bunk in Brenna’s room, and the phone rang, very early. I picked it up and heard this voice say, “Is this Keasha Palmer? This is Mary Sorensen, the editor of Metropolitan Parent magazine, and I just had to call to tell you I love your stuff…”

That led to a monthly column in Metropolitan Parent, which was really great because I could write about anything I wanted to. Plus, a lot of people read that magazine—it was in doctors' offices throughout West Michigan. I'd get calls from old boyfriends saying, "I saw your article in Metropolitan Parent…" Although I only very sporadically made $25 here and there, it was by far my favorite writing job of all time. My god, I was a magazine columnist!!

I wrote for MP for about three years, till they were purchased by Grand Rapids Magazine, and also started freelancing for some ad agencies and doing more articles for the G.R. Press. Then, in 1986, Art’s business went bankrupt, so I went to work at Sefton, an agency where I stayed till 1995. After leaving Sefton, I started freelancing again and have been sitting in my basement ever since. And every day, I say, “Thank you, Jesus, that I will never have to put on another freaking pair of pantyhose as long as I live.”