I may have said before, as a pre-teen I read every piece of fiction in the women's magazines mother subscribed to and made up my mind at that time that I would be a writer.  To me, the only way one could be designated as a writer (author) was through selling fiction and having it published in major magazines.

One of the magazines that came into our home besides Good Housekeeping, etc.the was Westways, published by the Auto Club of Southern California. My parents' vehicles were insured with the Auto Club, hence the mlonthly magazine.  The major content was travel stories and auto care but in the front was a "catch all" page that had brief anecdotes about readers and their presumed interests. The summer following my first college year, I worked as a "soda jerk" in a local drug store.  An elderly INative American came in most afternoons and asked for an ice cream cone.  He did this by pointing to one of the three pictured cones on a poster that stood on the counter portraying vanilla, chocolate and strawberry cones. His pronunciation was "manilla."

I wrote approximately a 1000 words about him and sent the little piece to the editor of Westways, along with a snapshot of the Indian made with my Brownie camera. The editor reduced my story to about 300 words and sent me a check for $10. Ahhhh!  I was a published and PAID writer at age 19. But it was not fiction.  Before I ever made a first fiction sale I wrote, photographed, and sold approximately 50 travel articles. 

I titled this blog: "Photos & Writing" because key to those many travel article sales was the fact that I was able to illustrate them–not just with scenics but showing people enjoying or engaging in the scenes.  I have met people (artistic photographers) who believe that including people in illustrations ruins the scenery.  Not so; people add two major elements to a photograph:  human interest and perspective.   As you wait to publish the great American novel, consider doing travel, and other article writing, illustrated with your photos.–Willma