Saturday, October 20, 2007

Bill Love, professional forester

Name: Bill Love

First clue you wanted to be a writer; summarize the situation:

Earliest remembered writing and publishing experience:

As president of my college band at McNeese State University, I had a letter published in the college newspaper encouraging participation and support from students to follow the marching band into the football stadium as a way of showing school spirit.

What part of your education helped you most on your path to writing?

My seventh-grade English teacher was in his first year of teaching having recently retired as an Army drill instructor. Although he only last twelve weeks before being reassigned to high school, he taught the equivalent of a college-level grammar class. That “boot camp in grammar” carried me through high school and college English classes.

A good knowledge of grammar provides a necessary foundation that allows creativity to thrive.

Who influenced you most along your way and how?

Reading the writing of good authors is always inspirational.

Most satisfying piece(s) you’ve ever written----its audience:

Without a doubt, the most satisfying pieces have been personal correspondence intended for an audience of one. These pieces tend to be written from the heart.

Your publications or venues for writing:

Mostly personal correspondence but some local/regional forestry publications and the
(www.geocaching.com) website: Geo-caching, sometimes referred to as "the fastest growing sport you've never heard of, " involves a high-tech treasure hunt. Coordinates obtained from an Internet website are plugged into a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to send the geo-cacher searching for a hidden container. Once found, the geo-cache contains trade items such as trinkets or keychains, along with a notebook to log your visit. A return visit to the geo-caching website further documents discovery of the cache.

In addition to listing the latitude and longitude coordinates on the website, the "owner" offers a variety of comments, describing unique aspects of this particular cache.

As owner of more than 20 geo-caches, I like to place them in locations that have a story to tell. I use the website to tell that story. For example, an old telephone wire strung between trees along a ridge allows me to tell about an extensive hand-crank telephone system employed by the Forest Service to communicate with fire lookouts and remote ranger stations.

I placed two geo-caches at abandoned mines to tell the history of an old mining district.

A cache located next to a survey monument on the Idaho/Montana border describes the delineation between two states.

I use writing skills to creatively describe the unique aspects of my geo-caches. I hope that fellow geo-cachers enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

Nuggets of advice for young writers in middle school and high school:

Keep writing.