|
|
|
|
|
ABOUT MIMS CUSHING
|
|
Mims Cushing is owned by a puppy named Lily and two cats, Laptop and Eliza Doolittle. People call her "Booklady" at the PLAYERS Senior Community Center because she maintains Booklovers Library there.
|
Dear Reader
I was born in New York City and moved to the suburbs of Larchmont when I was in third grade and started keeping a daily diary. I have done so for 58 years. (Good job with the math: yes, I am 66.)
Writing was the only thing I cared about in school, except for singing in the choir and glee club. I graduated from Pine Manor College (AA) and Skidmore College (BA). In 1966 I worked in New York City with Young & Rubicam—not exactly the TV show Mad Men, but close. After a couple of years I married and settled in Stamford, Connecticut, with my babies, a boy and a girl.
As they grew up, I began writing a good deal and in the 70s wrote many humorous essays for the local paper, the Stamford Advocate, on everything from boating to how to live in suburbia.
Eventually I wrote more than 100 articles—some of which were feature length or cover stories—for the New York Times “Connecticut Section,” Connecticut Magazine, Business Digest, Progressive Grocer, Spotlight, Profiles, Practical Gourmet, Southern Connecticut Business Journal, Working Smart, CaribbeanTravel and Life, and others.
|
|
Moving to Florida in 1992, I taught creative writing to fourth and fifth graders at Marjorie K. Rawlings School, Ponte Vedra Beach, in The Afterschool Express and chaired that program for two years. I wrote book reviews for The Florida Times Union for five years. I loved being a part of Radio Readers, and read at WJCT radio station in Jacksonville to blind listeners for many years.
Having cut my teeth on teaching creative writing to children, I signed on to work with adults and periodically taught “Treasures for Tomorrow,” a memoir writing course at Florida Community College of Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra Beach Branch Library, and Players Community Senior Center. I also wrote a monthly column for “Senior Living,” in the local paper called “Write From the Heart.” My book of essays, If You’re Having a Crummy Day Brush off the Crumbs (2002) stems largely from essays written during my memoir classes.
I am currently the children’s book reviewer for The Recorder and have written more than 1600 book reviews since 1995. Several of my reflections pieces have been published in Water’s Edge, a Jacksonville magazine.
Today I live in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, but visit my children and grandchildren in Connecticut when I can. I’m a member of the River City Writers at the Beaches, Florida Writers Association, Singers by the Sea, and an aqua aerobics class if the water temperature is idyllic. Give me free time and I read endlessly, dillydally with my cats and dog, and volunteer with various humane societies. I’ve collected more than 200 books on writing, which, I would think, should entitle me to some kind of an award. A Pulitzer, would be nice.
Mims Cushing
Thank you for stopping by to read this. I hope you'll consider reading a sample chapter. See if it appeals to you.
|
|
|
|