“Not Competing Against Anyone” RPLA Showcase: Wendy Samford

Wendy received a calling: write a certain story that needed investigating, one of great importance in her family. After facing rejection, she had to move forward motivated by her passion for writing and for this story in particular. She was rewarded with a job well done, very well done in fact. Bloom Where Planted won Gold in the LGBTQ+ category and Silver in the General Catch All category in the 2019 Royal Palm Literary Awards. Wendy discusses shifting from writing for the educational field to writing creative nonfiction, the importance of passion, and why earning money from book sales isn’t too important on this week’s RPLA showcase.

Wendy’s Writing Journey

I never wanted to be a writer, in fact, I am a terrible speller!  In high school, back in the day, I took vocational classes in business and that meant taking shorthand.  I learned to spell phonetically and that is something I struggle with to this day.  My professional background is in accounting in the field of business and later as a high school business teacher.  I taught for a few years and was recruited into the district office as an administrator in special programs.  Part of my job was grant writing where I quickly fell in love with the “power of the pen.”

After I obtained my Ph.D., I was asked to contribute a chapter for a book entitled “Reconceptualizing Curriculum Development: Inspiring and Informing Action.”  The chapter primarily looked at teaching the way you want to teach or teaching the way you are told to teach.  At the time, the standardized testing insanity had just begun and I was enraged about the pressures it placed on our kids and on teachers.  I decided that one chapter was not enough on the topic so I left my position as an administrator and stayed home to write my first book, “Out of the Dark: A Direction for Change in Education” about over testing in the United States.  Shortly after I wrote this book, I was asked to be a part of a three-year grant with Kent State University and the Ohio Department of Education to increase teacher leadership in the state of Ohio.  I accepted and my supervisor and I co-edited a book entitled “Creating a Culture of Support for Teacher Leaders: A Vision for Change and Hope.”  We elicited the help of five very brave administrators that dared to look at education through a different lens than the one that was directed by state and federal mandates.

During this time, my family moved to Florida and my life took a turn.  I felt called to write a book about my daughter-in-law’s life growing up in foster care.  She fascinated me with her beautiful outlook on life and her unbelievable survival skills, against all odds.  I completely switched genres and co-wrote “Bloom Where Planted” by Winifred Grace and Ava McCarthy.

Unexpectedly, we became award winning authors!

Because of this book, I am now writing a book about other people who went through the system and survived.  All of the people in the new book, “The First Wrinkle,” somehow know Ava. Our lives are connected and together, we will do our best to dig at the truth.

The Winning Entry, Bloom Where Planted

Logline: This book chronicles the life story of Ava, a girl caught up in “the system.” This story illustrates the hidden world of abuse and the challenge of overcoming adversity.

“Bloom Where Planted” by Winifred Grace and Ava McCarthy was inspired by the life of my daughter-in-law, Ava, growing up in “the system.”  We used pseudonyms to protect the identity of her daughter, my granddaughter, from any middle school backlash.

When I first met Ava, I judged her based on her tattoos.  This book is about not judging people from the outside.  We all have a story and we are all at different places in our journey in this life.

Ava’s life was hard as she was repeatedly taken from “home” with her mom.  Removed from deplorable conditions and placed into foster homes, group homes, and eventually lockup facilities, Ava’s story is filled with sadness and humor, defeat and tenacity, neglect and perseverance.    The book begins with Ava as a girl trying to fit in to her surroundings.  She writes; “I would make up a life that was any life but my own.  When I lived with a family that studied Catholicism, I became Catholic.  When I lived with a family that didn’t have any money, I became a poor girl.  Every home represented a new opportunity to reinvent myself and to wear a ‘different hat.’  Anything would be better than dealing with my own reality.”

Through the help of God, loved ones, and a very good therapist, Ava is now a recent college graduate with her own business.

This award means the world to me on behalf of Ava.  She never received an award.  No dance class ribbon, no little league trophy, no spelling bee certificate.  Her life was not a fairytale so I entered this book into this competition specifically hoping that she would win a trophy and a happy ending.  Her first trophy.  Now she has two trophies as we won Gold in the LGBTQ category and received Silver in the Catch-all category. Cinderella ending after all!

“Dear Me,” (Advice to My Younger Writing Self)

1. Keep the passion, lose the competition.
2. Write for the love of the subject, not to get published.
3. Don’t think about the money, there isn’t any.

On Passion/Competition:

Writing is difficult.  I spent a year in my basement writing my first book.  I had quit my job and went from a very social, busy, lucrative life to a very lonely, quiet, uncompensated life.  I did this because of passion for my subject, but it was hard.  Writing non-fiction is based on research and reading.  Most of the books I read are very different but a common strand is that the authors have a passion for their topic.  I would now tell myself, Wendy when you are reading, reach out to the authors, most people have a story to share and are willing to do so.  I would tell myself you are not competing against anyone.  Writing is like a dog show.  The dogs are not competing against the other dogs; they are competing against the specific qualifications of the breed. Write because there is a point to be made and you have decided to do so to the best of your ability.  No other dog matters, only that you do the best to represent your topic.

On Getting Published:

After I finished the first three chapters of my first book, I stopped writing and started submitting it to publishers.  I sent it in to three different publishing houses and was rejected by all.  This, of course, is very time consuming as you can only send it in to one at a time and the applications are extremely individualized and lengthy, not to mention the emotional strain with each rejection.  I decided to trust God and my path and keep writing.  When I finished the book, the first publisher I sent it to accepted it and published it.

I would tell myself, you are not writing to get published, you are writing because you have something that needs investigated.  You have a passion and there is a problem that needs to be looked into, so read and write the truth to the best of your ability.  The publishing will come in the right time.

On Compensation:

I am blessed because I have a husband that supports my writing career.  I could not financially do this without his support.  I would say to myself, Wendy if you are going to do this, then don’t beat yourself up about financial compensation.  If you have something to say that is important, say it well and get the word out there.  Your compensation is no longer monetary.  Your compensation is now qualitative.  The person that says, “Thank you for sharing this story. It really hit home with me as a teacher to think about my foster care students in a different manner.”  The person who says, “I read this book in one day.  It is so real and I had no idea these things happen.  We need to get the word out there and make some changes in the system.” These are now the payments for a job well done.

Other Works by Wendy

Samford W.L (2015) Deliberative conversation: Cross-paradigm and negotiation.  In J. Henderson (Ed.) Reconceptualizing curriculum development: Inspiring and informing action (pp. 85-98). New York, NY: Routledge.

Samford, W.L. (2016) Out of the dark: A direction for change in education.  Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock.

Samford, W.L. (2017) Teachers and administrators as lead professionals for democratic ethics: From course design to collaborative journeys of becoming. In M. Uljens & R.M. Ylimaki (Eds.), Bridging educational leadership, curriculum theory and didaktik: Non-affirmative theory of education. Springer-Kluher.

Samford, W.L. (2018). So how do you build a culture of support for leaders?  In W.L. Samford & R. Gornik (Eds.), Creating a culture of support for teacher leaders: A vision for change and hope. (pp. 25-42). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Samford, W.L. & Gornik, R. (2018). Creating a culture of support for teacher leaders: A vision for change and hope.  Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Grace, W., & McCarthy, A., (2018).  Bloom where planted. Tampa, FL: Self-published pseudonym, Amazon.

COMING IN 2020:

Samford, W.L., (2020). The First Wrinkle.

Connect with this Author

Learn more about Wendy by visiting her websites: www.wsamford.com and www.bloomwhereplantedbook.com. You can also follow her on social media: Twitter: @WendySamford and Facebook: @WendySamfordAuthor or @WinifredGrace98

More about RPLA

The Royal Palm Literary Awards competition is a service of the Florida Writers Association established to recognize excellence in members’ published and unpublished works while providing objective and constructive written assessments for all entrants. Judges include literary agents, publishers, film producers, current or retired professors, teachers, librarians, editors, bestselling and award-winning authors, and journalists from across the nation. Entries are scored against the criteria set by RPLA using rubrics tailored to each genre. Winners are announced at the annual FWA conference during the RPLA awards banquet. To learn more about RPLA, click here for the guidelines.