Bert Whittier

Bert Whittier has spent most of his professional life as a freelance writer. His work focused on scripting for broadcast, corporate, and educational video. In the early 1970's, while in graduate school in Washington, DC, he wrote two scripts for a children's educational television program, and that experience caused a major reset in his life's goals. Returning to Boston, he worked for a major retailer, writing and producing radio and television commercials. There he learned to tell a clear and compelling story "in 75 words or less." But it was in his childhood that he really learned about storytelling. At family gatherings someone was always telling a story, especially his grandfather, a retired sea captain. Bert loved sitting on the floor while his grandfather sat in his rocking chair, smoking his pipe, and telling the most incredible--and sometimes hilarious--stories.

Leaving the safety of a "real" job, Bert started freelancing. One thing led to another, and in the early 1980's he won an Emmy award from the New England Chapter of the National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences. Bert says, "Writing has given me opportunities I could never have imagined." Freelance assignments have taken him all across North America, Central America, Europe, and the Middle East. "I got to do some pretty exciting things," he says. "One assignment had me driving a car around Talladaga SuperSpeedway at 140 miles an hour! Amazing! I also got to interview some pretty famous people--a First Lady, for example--and I even spent a day with an astronaut who walked on the moon!"

In recent years, Bert's interests in writing have shifted, now choosing to focus on stories for kids. This is linked to his work for the past several years as a sixth grade English teacher. AJ and the Keeper of the Dead is his first published novel for middle grade readers, with more on the way.

Bert is drawn to the ocean. "The ocean pulls at me like a magnet," he says. "I love the way it constantly changes, sometimes gentle and glassy-smooth, sometimes angry and dangerous." He is lucky enough to have a home on the coast of Maine, where the sea is always close. The ocean has inspired some of his stories, and his Maine home is his favorite place to write.