Hooray! New boss!
Sheri Wallace has been hired as the new editor-in-chief at ePregnancy!
I really like Sheri. I first met her on a very small writing list and she was this insanely focused person. She decided to be a writer because she wanted to be at home with her daughter and so she looked around at what was getting published and immediately began amassing clips.
I was very bitter about it. Seriously. (I’m going to send her the link to this blog when I’m done writing it and I bet you she’ll laugh.) I’d see her posts and scowl as I read them. “Damn her!” I thought. “She’s using up all the writer success vibes!!!!!” Even though I wasn’t quite ready to take her advice (I was too busy not writing to actually write much), I did save a lot of her posts because what she had to say was always really useful. She’s one of those writers, too, who wants to share what she’s learned. She’s never jealous about professional information and is sincerely happy when other people get great clips. In the face of such generosity, I reluctantly had to let go of my bitterness.
After that list folded I ran into her again on another small list and got to know her more as a person and as a parent. Happily, I also finally found myself in a place to listen to some of her professional advice. She really knows what she’s talking about.
When I heard from the Majestic Media people and they mentioned her as one of the people they were considering for the editor-in-chief position, I was thrilled. I don’t know what happened between Myria and Majestic and it’s likely I’ll never know. Because I didn’t feel I could rely on rumors and innuendoes to make my decision, I knew that whether or not I stayed would depend a great deal on the integrity of the person who was willing to take over. Sheri is someone I can trust.
She’s made it very clear that she has no desire to get in the middle of whatever conflicts continue; she wants to get the magazine moving forward so that the writers can get back to work.
I am sorry that things didn’t work out for Betsy and Nancy in this venture and I hope that the new plans on the horizon work out for them. No hard feelings. I am also excited to be working with Sheri and extremely thankful that I still have a job.
I hold Sheri responsible for the success I have achieved as a writer. I met Sheri on the same small writers’ list you mentioned. I had recently given birth to my fourth child and was looking for a way to earn some money from home. Sheri gave me my first lead and has always been there to cheer me on and give me valuable advice. I “met” her online about four and a half years ago. We have been sharing leads ever since.
Sheri and I finally met in person in January, 2003. I attended the Wrangling with Writing Conference in Tucson, Arizona. I wanted to go to the conference, and I wanted to meet Sheri and her family. Sheri invited me to stay in her home. Although it was our first meeting in person, from the very beginning, I felt as though I had known Sheri for decades. I felt as comfortable in her home as I do in mine (however, I must add that her house is much cleaner than mine).
Sheri is a true professional, and she makes me laugh in a way that nobody else can. She deserves her new position, and I prompted her to apply when I heard about it. Sheri worked very hard from the beginning of her freelance career, and now she has the dream job of any writer working from home while raising a child.
I met Sheri’s daughter, husband and mother while I stayed with her in Tucson. I discovered that Sheri’s husband loves the B-52s, my fav group of all time. Also, my husband and Sheri’s husband have a lot in common - they both love classic movies and have many of the same favorites. I can’t wait to introduce them to each other someday.
“If you decide that it is not your business when someone else suffers, don’t think that your understanding of karma will permit your act of callousness to go without its effects upon you. The suffering that you see is fair. Every experience in this Earth school is fair, but if you use your realization of this to ignore the suffering of your brothers and sisters, you create a world in which your suffering, also, is of no concern to others. That is karma.
“Everything that you do is a choice, and every choice that you make creates experiences that you will encounter. That is karma.” ~Gary Zukav