Sally J. Walker

Well, there's my website at http://www.sallyjwalker.com

What isn't there specifically, I guess is that I was born in Exira, IA, to a poor farm family and went to various schools in Iowa and Nebraska as my father worked as a farm hand. He was groundskeeper for four years at Omaha's Peony Park with its huge pool and playgrounds, but returned to farming. When he finally left the land in 1959, my folks bought a house in LaVista, NE, a suburb of Omaha. I paid for my own dance lessons, participated in every school activity I could and worked as an editor for our school paper while being a part-time receptionist at the local small town paper. With my parents discouraging thoughts of college, I graduated from high school in Papillion in 1965 and married at age 18. My first husband was an unskilled worker and wanderer. My employment credits included clothing store clerk, waitress, insurance company file clerk, insurance claims secretary, and nurse's aide.

In New Mexico, a cancer patient honored my nurse's aide work by making arrangements for me to attend the University of Albuquerque School of Nursing. During my studies there, I took a one semester writing course and won fine arts honors for a short story. At that time I also became a member of a volunteer search and rescue group, beginning my fascination for emergency medicine and earning my climbing certification with the Marine Reserves. After graduating with my Associate Degree in Nursing in 1973, I divorced and worked to be accepted in the Nurse Practitioner Program at UNM. Instead of doing that, I came home for my 10 year class reunion in 1975, fell in love with the incredible man I am still married to and moved back to Nebraska. We raised three accomplished daughters from our home in Ralston, while I continued to work as a full-time critical care R.N. I finally, finally retired from that part of my life in 2006 (because of a knee injury doing Scottish Highland dancing at a screenwriters' party, but that's another story).

Along with all the usual family-oriented stuff of Girl Scouts, Episcopal church and community service, I started part-time work in 1977 on a degree in creative writing at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The head of the drama department got a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the production of the play I wrote under him in an independent study. And in 1985 one of my senior thesis stories was critiqued by visiting speaker Richard Ford (before his Pultizer) who encouraged me to expand the work into a novel. Thus, LETTING GO OF SACRED THINGS was published in 2001 with some really nice literary reviews and an acknowledgement of Ford's encouragement. My 1994 romance THE HEALING TOUCH was nominated for the best audio book of the year but was beat out by two points by STAR WARS. In 1998 a western screenplay THE LONELY MAN was one of the 233 quarterfinalists out of the 4,442 entries in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science's annual Nicholl competition.

I've had a smattering of obscure poetry recognitions, too. One of my favorites is one religious poem's "Honorable Mention" by the Episcopalian Journalists. Another was when an editor of a publication of the C.S. Lewis Society compared my poetic style to the great Gerard Manley Hopkins. I'm sure that Jesuit priest was spinning in his grave. My attention to detail caught the eye of publisher Ray Hoy of The Fiction Works who moved me from copy-editing to Editorial Director in 2000 when he expanded his company. The TFW hours varied from part-time to over-time . . . and came to an end in the summer of 2018 when, at the age of 83, Ray decided to close the company doors. I can proudly say that publishing company never practiced nepotism. Every work published there was stringently evaluated, including my own.

My nonfiction publications grew out of my on-site and on-line teaching of creative writing. Drawing from my years of study, intense practice, coaching by many industry professionals and teaching, I put together materials for the Write Now Workshops series. Revising the three TFW screenwriting texts, I evolved two textbooks that included a total of five of my courses and simply called the series "LEARN." The other four textbooks focused on fiction fundamentals and advanced concepts repeatedly requested over my teaching years.

I am an advocate of professional writers commiserating and working with other writers as much as possible. With the sponsorship of the library in Ralston, I founded the Nebraska Writers Workshop in 1985 that continues to meet weekly to discuss and share poetry, scripting and fiction. One of my greatest joys there is mentoring some very talented teens. I joined the Nebraska Writers Guild in 1989, the year after I joined Western Writes of America. In 1991 I paid my first dues to Romance Writers of America, later serving in several local chapter positions. My Hi-Lo literacy publications made me eligible for Active membership in the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators in 2005. One of the honors of my life was my 2007 election to the presidency of the Nebraska Writers Guild, a prestigious organization founded in 1925 by some of Nebraska's literary greats. My four years of responsibility were not taken lightly, especially considering NWG grew from 67 dues paid members to over 175 in 2011 when I left office. In 2012 I was nominated for inclusion in a select group of women at The New Revolutionists. To be considered, one is vetted for actively taking a stance on a particular issue. Mine is the need for writers to commit themselves to ONLY publishing their "Best of the Best" and writing with a "Creative Conscience" that puts the reader before self.

Since the Nebraska Writers Workshop programming required prepping continuing education material for brief discussions, I accumulated material that evolved into the constantly up-dated Write Now Workshops. I have taught locally, nationally and now internationally on-line and led to Omaha's Metropolitan Community College recruiting me as an adjunct professor of screenwriting (my favorite writing form, after all).

What a hoot my journey has been! I certainly don't profess to know everything about writing, but the one thing I do know is that I can infect others with my addictive passion for writing. I hope I am still learning and pouring out carefully crafted writing when I'm 103! Right now I stand on the shoulders of the many fine people who have encouraged, taught and critiqued me, especially the remarkable Lew Hunter (retired UCLA Film Department chair with a 50-year Hollywood career) and my team of agents. I am humbled by everyone's belief in me, as well as the successes of so many of my students.