VanLaeys said she must balance her life as a writer with her other career as a wife and mother. I do think of it as my work, but I also think of motherhood and homemaking as my work, too. Realize you're still learning. You can't expect the first thing you write to be published. A pile of rejection slips, she says, can be looked at, not as a badge of failure, but instead as proof positive that the writer is forging ahead with his craft.
Perseverance is a very big part of writing.
Writing, says VanLaeys, is deeply rooted in her being. She says she really never imagined herself as anything but a writer. It's an extremely competitive field, and even though I've been only marginally successful, I still feel that it is the thing I can do best. People, a profile of area residents not normally in the news, appears each week in the community news section of The Daily Star. Send nominations to Lisa Miller, community editor, The Daily Star, P.O. Box 250, Oneonta, N.Y. 13820.