Alumna Writer Turns Wanderlust into Manuscript

By Gretchen Kilss
"It's nice to break into the book world," says author and George Mason alumna Kristen Raub Blum, M.F.A. Creative Writing '94, "that always seemed like a world just above reach." Blum describes her excitement after having her first book, The Greater Evergreen Area Guide, published. In an effort to focus in on the picturesque Evergreen area of Colorado, Blum has fulfilled her dream to write professionally.

A former resident of the Evergreen area, Blum wanted to expose the community's abundance of beauty and nature to the rest of the country. Writing about this "world away" from Denver, as she calls it in her comprehensive travel guide, was also a way to exercise her talents as a creative writer. Her training in creative writing allowed her to, as Blum puts it, "enhance the descriptions, tease the five senses, be observant, [and] play with language."

While working on the college newspaper staff at DePauw University, where she studied English and French as an undergraduate, Blum dreamed of being a foreign correspondent. With her deep interest in different cultures and traveling, she would picture herself living all over the world and writing about it. However, life led her to begin teaching--an experience she found to be "incredibly satisfying."

Blum has been able to incorporate her experiences and her passion to write and to travel in the classroom. Teaching involves "energy, enthusiasm, patience, [and] perseverance," says Blum. She has found that her explorations in the United States, Europe, and Nepal have made it easier to relate to foreign students. Blum, who has been teaching English at the community college level, believes "showing the students [her] book and explaining the process made their own research papers seem a bit more worthwhile." She says her own writing has not only helped her to become a better writer but also a better teacher of writing.

Blum chose George Mason for her graduate studies because of the writing faculty. Blum was familiar with the work of Susan Richards Shreve, Richard Bausch, and Alan Cheuse. "I enjoyed their writing, " she says. "And thought their style was compatible with my own."

Since her book has been published, Blum has found it increased her confidence and credibility both creatively and as a writer. "It was tough getting into the book world," she says, "but it feels good." And she has started telling people that she is a writer. "People definitely respect authors, even in these days of TV, movies, and mass entertainment," she says.

Today Blum resides in Seattle with her husband, who designed the cover for her book. Though they share many of the same hobbies, this was their first project together, and they hope to work together again on other pieces. She has been working seriously on her fiction, writing short stories for a workshop she is enrolled in at the University of Washington. But for now writing is still just a hobby, not a full-time profession.

Blum hopes to one day write another guide similar to Evergreen. In fact, the Library Journal has almost demanded she do so. In their review of her book, the journal wrote that the book "demands to be replicated by other areas in the United States." Blum says she could replicate the guide fairly easily if she could spend time researching another area and getting a system down. And of course she would need to travel to this new area and spend some time there. " I definitely like the travel idea," she says.