Who’s on Fourth: YeahWrite Interviews Erin of If At First You Don’t Succeed

Welcome to Who’s on Fourth where we interview one member of the YeahWrite community, and the interview will publish the fourth Monday of each month. Next in the series features Arden Ruth interviewing Erin of If At First You Don’t Succeed.

YeahWrite on YeahWrite: Arden interviews Erin

A little while ago, a writer named Erin stumbled upon our little corner of the Internet and ended up creating her first blog in order to participate in our weekly challenges.

YeahWrite was one of the first sites I came across when searching for a way to get my brain back in writing mode. I tried out a writing contest that took place on a monthly basis, but that wasn’t enough for me to feel like I was working toward something bigger. When I found the YeahWrite page, I started my first blog and subsequently discovered a new community of writers with similar interests and ideas. One of the things I like the most about YeahWrite that keeps me coming back is the code of conduct with constructive criticism. I love to give and receive concrit, and while I am guilty of not always getting the opportunity to give as much as I would like to, I am always so grateful for any little bit that I receive. It really is what will mold us all into writers that write for our readers and not just for ourselves.

You can typically find Erin on our nonfiction grid, but she hopes that may change in the future.

When I first started posting, I definitely preferred the nonfiction grid. I’ve always been a person who wrote from experience, or about emotion. Over the course of time, I’ve found that I get tired of talking about myself.​ I’m hoping my imagination will take the reins for a while, so you may see me pop up on the fiction grids more often in the upcoming weeks.

We hope to see you there! As always, I wanted to know what advice Erin would give to any lurkers or YeahWrite virgins out there who haven’t jumped onto our grids just yet.

I would strongly urge any virgins out there to read through the last few weeks of entries before posting their first link. There is a ton of helpful advice in each entry, and you never want to be “that guy” who just did exactly what the editors took the time to teach us not to do.

Erin is a mid-30s, mother of three from Long Island, New York. She currently works for her local school district in the Fine Arts & Music department, though she’ll note her second job is driving ‘Mom’s Taxi’ in the afternoons and evenings, Monday through Friday. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for writing, but she somehow manages to find a way around all the other duties and loves in her life.

When I’m not writing, you can usually find me at my daughter’s dance studio, a dance competition, a boy scout event, a basketball game, a soccer field, or watching my oldest daughter sing on any stage that will have her. My girls are big into the performing arts and my son loves sports, so this tends to consume most of my time. I love it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Like many of us, Erin discovered a love of writing at a young age, but a hiatus to focus on her children meant putting that passion aside for a short awhile. Lucky for us, she’s back at it here at YeahWrite.

I started writing in the sixth grade. I joined my school’s literary magazine as a part of the panel and a contributor until I graduated in 2000. When I found out that there was a group of students starting a literary magazine at my college I joined them and became a flagship member. I reported for a local newspaper after graduation but put down my pen in exchange for diapers and bottles. In April of this year, I realized that this was a huge portion of my life that was missing, and I ​decided that it was time to try again.

As for writing goals? She’s playing the field a bit when it comes to that.

I’m not really much of a blogger.  I only started it so that I could participate on YeahWrite.  I would love to write a novel, but I haven’t met an idea that I can commit to just yet. I would really love to work on a school literary magazine. I found a lot of joy in it during my teen years, and I’d love to be the person that brought that same joy to kids looking to find their niche.

Oh, you want more? Well here are five things you never knew about Erin:

1. She’s done everything in her life absolutely backwards. She met her husband at 16. They started a family at 22. They got a house at 24. They got married at 30. She got a full time job at 31. Now she’s trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up.
2. She has a tendency to smile and laugh in tense situations. It’s a pretty inappropriate defense mechanism, but some people enjoy the levity that it brings during times of stress. If she’s REALLY nervous, she may even take on a British accent.
3. There is an eerie similarity between herself and just about every character Amy Poehler has ever played (in one way or another). It makes Erin wonder if she also speaks with a British accent when she’s nervous…
4. She has a pretty impressive list of things that she’s allergic to. Ceclor, Levaquin, Invanz, Anceph, Sulfa, Cipro, Latex, bee stings, and wasp stings are the main group that she rattles off at the beginning of most doctor’s appointments. She also gets a rash if an inch worm lands on her. So yeah, she carries an epi-pen, but she’s never needed to use it.
5. She once participated in a beauty pageant with the secret strategy of derailing the whole thing. It was 2002, and Erin and her sorority sisters thought it was pretty archaic to have a Greek Week Beauty Pageant. She wore a wet suit and flippers for the bathing suit portion and rapped U.N.I.T.Y. by Queen Latifah for the talent competition. Needless to say she lost, but she was definitely the crowd favorite.

Are you ready for the YeahWrite #341 Weekly Writing Challenges opening this week? We hope so! Your badges await in the sidebar. Grab the code, paste into the text or HTML view of your post, and submit your post to the grids for a little friendly competition. We’re glad you’re here.

YeahWrite’s Super Challenge #6 is now underway! Good luck to all our participants! Be sure to sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss out on any announcements for upcoming challenges.

About the author:

Arden joined YeahWrite in early 2014 to operate as its Social Media Manager. She also heads up YeahWrite’s Who’s on Fourth feature, as well as the Weekend Writing Showcase. Working day-to-day as a paralegal, she spends most of her free time writing short stories and the occasional nonfiction essay at her website. She is currently working on the first novel of her Hybrid trilogy as well as a fantasy anthology with three other writers.