San Francisco’s The Writing Salon’s Lit Lounge Interview

Fall 2023 Newsletter Featured Student: Anne M. Breedlove

Congratulations on the publication of your book Part-Time Nomads! What inspired you to bike the world, and how did you end up writing about it?

Friends and relatives who followed our adventures kept telling me I should write a book. I finally started writing in 2019, after signing up for your courses. While reading my pieces in the various classes many listeners were confused, bombarding me with questions – “What’s a pannier?” “What do you mean by free camping?” “Just the two of you, not really, what about a tour guide?” Finally in June of 2020, in Katharine Harer’s travel writing class, I had an “ah-ha” moment. I realized I needed to write the back story, of how Jim and I evolved from just two grownups riding bikes for fun and exercise, to independent world travel cyclists. I wrote the first six chapters in Kathy Garlick’s class, my fingertips were on fire! Too busy to write a book as well as send emails while traveling on the bike, Covid lockdown was the perfect time. I pulled out my old writing and sketch journals, my old maps, brochures and photos, and the rest of the 24 chapters followed. And I had a blast doing it, not having looked at a lot of the stuff since the trips. Here I was in lockdown but I was traveling anew!

What advice would you give to other writers interested in publishing a memoir?

Nose to the grindstone, pull out all the resources and materials for inspiration, commit, sit down, focus, and write!

You’ve taken quite a few classes at The Writing Salon, and worked one-on-one with Katherine Harer through our Services Program. How have these experiences helped you grow as a writer?

Absolutely. Katharine and Erin Van Rheenen, who I also worked with, are both mentioned in the Acknowledgements section of my book. Buy a copy and read it 🙂 If memory serves, I took 9 classes from May 2019 to July 2020, and then I just took off. I think your classes were essential to me and my path to writing. Besides Katharine, Kathy and Erin, I also benefited greatly from classes with Kerry Muir and Kathleen McClung. It was a wonderful experience. FYI, I am now about 34,000 words into my next book.

In addition to writing, you’re a fine art printmaker. How do the two practices support (or distract from!) each other?

It’s the best of both worlds. I had a teacher in 4th grade who supported my art and I fell in love with social studies in 5th. Art and history are my two fields and they complement one another. My book is more expensive than a mere “armchair travel” book because it has 80 color photos and 23 hand drawn-maps, making it kind of a coffee table book. For my first solo art show (at Bazaar Cafe at California and 21st Ave), September 2022, I went back to my bicycle sketch books and printed a new series, 10 prints. They sold better than anything else at the show. My art feeds my writing and my writing feeds my art. I definitely plan to have sketches as well as photos in book #2 – recounting our first post-retirement trip in 2008, six months crossing the US and 2/3s of the way back.