After polishing and perfecting my writing, next to creating
the blurb to sell it, the most difficult thing to write is the dreaded author biography.
I don’t want to bore readers with the mundane details of my very ordinary life,
nor do I want to come off as being aloof and unreachable by not providing
enough information. The problem is, finding the right balance.
The sad fact is, my life is really quite normal. Happily
married with four boys and a dog; I’m a fulltime mom, part time chauffeur and
hardly-there housekeeper. We don’t have dust bunnies in our house; we have fully
grown dirt dragons, complete with wings.
My life experiences are very suburban. I might have started
out on a farm but it’s not like I had to collect eggs from the chickens or
anything like that. In fact, we didn’t even have chickens. I do remember
confiscating my brother’s Tonka trucks to use as Barbie cars, since they were
the perfect size. I also remember creating elaborate villages in the sandbox
and flooding it with water to create rivers and lakes which drained as quickly
as they formed.
Life as a teenager was typical. At least, I think it was. My
taste in music was much to be desired. We’ll call that a blip since it improved
tremendously as I matured. I had a solid group of girlfriends (who I’m happy to
say I still keep in touch with), a boyfriend, and a part time job. My biggest claim to fame was being the editor
of my high school newspaper. As an adult, I can now admit I used to skip
classes to work on “editing” articles. I’m surprised my teachers fell for that
line. I was such a rebel – what I was really doing was reading or writing
something just for me. (Sorry Mom and Dad – I did try to be a good kid most of
the time.)
University followed, where I met my husband through a mutual
friend, but that’s another story. Upon graduation, I didn’t find my dream job;
rather I stumbled along that rocky road, taking what I could get until I wriggled my way into a fulltime writing position. It was only proposal writing,
but I didn’t care because it meant I didn’t have to spend my days on the phone trying
to sell somebody something. From there, I ventured into some technical writing
before becoming a full time copy writer for a software company.
Then, there came the children – four in total – quite literally
one after another. All boys, all very dynamic, and all somewhat demanding. To
be honest, I wouldn’t change anything about them for the world – except for the
asthma and allergies – that I would change if it were an option. Shortly after
the arrival of the third child, we moved to the Montreal area and I decided to
focus on raising my boys.
When the youngest started Kindergarten, a small void opened
in my life. I decided I needed a dog, and Panda came into our lives. The
problem was, she wasn’t quite enough to fill that hole, so I started writing
again. The results? Remember Newvember,
followed by Reflections. That’s it.
That’s my life.
There are more ups and downs and bits and pieces, but
essentially, these are the highlights. What it boils down to is: Jennifer
Bogart lives outside of Montreal with her husband, four boys and the family
pet. Not terribly exciting, but the best I can do.
I don’t have a story of success overcoming hardship and I
haven’t traveled or lived in exotic places. We make our own adventures in life.
Mine might seem simple, but trust me, raising a family and being a writer makes for a very busy and chaotic life.
