judysalamachafeb29

When we moved from my birthplace in the heartland of California, Bakersfield to Morro Bay on the Central Coast of California, I knew I didn't want to retire from a marketing/public relations career in Bakersfield, CA. I wanted to write. I have been blessed write - and publish weekly and bi-weekly stories for fifteen years. First, I chased and secured a reporter job for The Bay News covering activities of the Estero Bay -- Morro Bay, Cayucos, and Los Osos...and sometime Cambria. I served for about a year as publisher of The Bay News. I had managed people in another life. Writing was what I wanted to spend my retirement career doing. That's what you do when you move to the Central Coast - if blessed, your work is what you were always passionate about when you worked for a salary. I wanted to write for newspapers since high school. My goal was Northwestern University in Chicago - the best journalism school in the country. I had to travel traditional roads and there were many "careers" before finding my "road less traveled" at the beach. Writing for the local free press opened up the dream to write a column offered by a forevermore beloved editor. It was for the SLO Tribune. I thought I'd finally made it to the top of my career opportunities, but... there would be more. When The Bay News/Coast News/SLO City News partnership became the sole properties of Bret & Lani Colhouer, I returned to writing stories about people, businesses and sometimes event for my former bosses. They encouraged me to stretch my story boundaries. When they added magazines to their brand, I stretched again to also write for the renamed properties of Simply Clear Marketing & Media. But in 2018, as the company became a fully digital company with one print property, Living Lavishly Magazine, timing was concurrent as I told my boss. I wanted to escape from the bonds of deadlines. I was ready to retire. Bret asked me to continue writing for their magazine. Deadlines are good for my psyche even if only twice a year instead of twice a month. I guess I'll always be a career gypsy and builder of projects. In between my community news writing I was invited to direct the Central Coast Writers Conference. A love-job for five years which taught me the tricks of the writing and publishing trade from talented authors all over the world. A project that finally felt like I could move-on from my birthplace dropped in my lap. I co-wrote with my friend Sandra Mittelsteadt the creative nonfiction life story of Colonel Thomas Baker, the namesake of Bakersfield, CA with guidance and historical collection of his great-great grandson, Chris Brewer. I was also so proud to introduce my daughter Jody Salamacha Hollier as our illustrator and formatter for the book -- she creatively took from Chris' archives historical photography and used her innate talents to create a vision of how our book should present to a reader. Our second print we are particularly proud to say donated 1,200 copies of COLONEL BAKER'S FIELD: AN AMERICAN PIONEER STORY to the middle schools of Bakersfield and many in Kern County so residents younger and older would always have a resource to know their founder - their history. From another story I'd written for The Bay News I found my legacy project for my time spent here in Morro Bay. I thought I would morph into writing for a maritime museum someday, but first we had to build Larry Newland's 20-year-plus dream, the Morro Bay Maritime Museum. An amazing tiny core group of "builders" got the job done and I then I moved on - again. I spent 2019 working on a middle school historical fiction, Sandra and I thought we would write before the Baker Book offered us our Bakersfield legacy project. Sandra visioned a children's picture book. With her permission I drafted the Harper family's trek and adventures west to California during 1869 when transportation opportunities changed dramatically in America, thus, life as it was lived before changed. I thought the book was marketable in December 2019, but during my fourth year volunteering at the San Francisco Writers Conference I learned I had a book of interest to pitch, but I suddenly realized chapter one was missing. That's my challenge now -- finishing the first of a three-books. Wheels West is the working title of book one. And during the midst of this 2020 pandemic I discovered another biography I obsessively want to co-author - but that's still my dream more than his. I also remembered I had the talent and the network to highlight the amazing small businesses that are surviving COVID-19 in 2020. Estero Bay News accepted publishing their stories, so I'm back to deadline writing, but I'm writing - again. Contributing to my piece of the world seems to be my purpose and that keeps me young as I age older. I've also realized I have a talent for finding stories my fellow Rotarians want to hear firsthand at our weekly meetings. I able to give many a voice to tell their story and increase their network. My intent years ago with this blog was to update and/or reprint the many stories I have written for publication here where I write from my home in Morro Bay looking up and out at Morro Rock over the top of my MacBook Air. And taking breaks to walk with CJ - and Bob, our piece of paradise on the Central Coast. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing them.