I'm originally from Davenport, Iowa. When I graduated from high school in 1969, "geek" mean someone who bit the heads off chickens and before Bill Gates made it cool. Winning science fair awards and talking about prime number theory sure doesn't make a girl popular. My ex-husband still jokes about thinking the name of the town was "Davenport-Gee-I-was-glad-to-get-out-of-there, Iowa."
College was a lot better. I went to Case Institute of Technology, which is now part of Case Western Reserve. First time I ever felt like I belonged. Wow! Look at all these weird people who think math and science is fun! I worked as hard as I ever will - took a full load, had to hold down jobs to make tuition, got the second high gradepoint in my department, and was near complete physical collapse by the time I got my BS.
Bell Telephone Laboratories offered me a job. Actually, a choice of three jobs. I had wanted to head West not move to New Jersey, but in those days a budding engineer turned them down about as often as programmer refuses stock options today. Besides, they said they would pay for my Master's degree. I got an MS from Columbia while with them and liked the Labs a lot, but New Jersey didn't suit me much better than Iowa.
When I was offered a two-year assignment at Pacific Northwest Bell in Seattle, my jaw dropped. Twist my arm! I fell in love with Seattle the first time I flew into SeaTac. I took the assignment. That was over twenty years ago.
Seattle is the place for me. I don't know what it would take to get me out of here, but I can tell you right now that neither love nor money will do it because both have been tested. Yes, it rains a lot here and the winter nights are long, but I still tear up with joy at the beauty of this place. Further, I'd been in New Jersey for years without finding even a handful of people who felt close, and in Seattle I almost instantly lucked into a community that's been the mainstay of my life ever since.
I quit the phone company in 1984 to see if I could write the stories that had been floating in and out of my head all my life. I'd been saving my money for a long time, shooting for enough to take five years off. I sure was shocked when the numbers said, "Now's the time." Say what? Y'mean, I can do it?
Pretty scary move. I was in the corporate budget staff by then, and informally overseeing the introduction of the company's first PC's. I was being groomed for promotion and had myself lined up to run a planned corporate Information Center. Fun work, good people, good money.
But I did it. I quit. I went from a job where I was one of the hot performers into spending thousands of hours alone writing lousy stories.
My money lasted almost seven years. By the end, my stories weren't lousy anymore. Not stuff to shake the world, but pretty good and getting better rapidly. I wrote three or four novels (depending on how you count), a handful of novellas, and dozens of short stories. I got nice rejection letters. Any of you who've submitted fiction know that's not a bad sign. I eventually got a contract to write the novelization of a CD-ROM interactive movie partly on the strength of those stories.
Still, I needed to start making some more money. By dint of telling people that and rambling around a bit, I started landing freelance programming jobs. After a few years of that, I wound up working for an Internet startup that did what most of them do: Went bankrupt. The job was real interesting and I'm glad I took it. These days, I've made another change of direction and I'm writing programmer documention out at Microsoft.
On the personal life front, I've had a hectic and stressful time the last couple years but life is good. For example, last year Luke decided to leave me, which was a big bad surprise. Yet, he also treated me with astonishing fairness, we talk often, and he smiles when he sees me. So, while this is not what I wanted with him, it's lovely to have him as a friend.
Wishing you what we all need,
Love and luck,
Jane
Last modified: 12/13/99
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