The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

This week, we bid adieu to Reporter Ruby Murray. She joined our staff a little over a year ago and has produced some outstanding work.

Reporting was to be a part-time job for her, allowing her to work on her creative writing endeavors.

She's enjoyed success with her creative writing, and has been pressed to balance both careers, so it was time for a choice, and the creative writing became her top goal.

We'll miss her, and we wish her good luck.

Following is her farewell:

On becoming a novelist

by Ruby Murray

A year ago I stopped fulltime work as a geriatric social worker to sidestep into life as a novelist. I agreed to work half-time for The Eagle, knowing the demands and gifts of being a reporter. As I expected I’ve enjoyed meeting people across the county and sharing their enthusiasm.

A year ago, liberated from a commute, I celebrated every morning, working on the novel in the kitchen where I watched the black birds. I learned the difference between juvenile and adult red-winged blackbirds and watched them mature.

It’s been a good year. Author Pam Houston liked a chapter of my novel. I pitched my historic novel at two conferences and I have a list of agents and editors willing to take a look. I presented at Timberland Regional Library sponsored by Hypatia-in-the-Woods from Shelton, WA and I read at Powell’s on Hawthorne with other contributors to American Ghost: Poets on Life after Industry on a snowy weekend.

I’m looking forward to working on the novel full time, starting with a fellowship residency at Playa in eastern Oregon with the moon over the long winter vista.

It’s been good to work for Rick and Betsy. I’ll miss Geri and Caroline and The Eagle environment, the historic building and the daily espresso rituals. This sunny winter, I am loving the night sky and the chance to step all the way into my life as a writer.