FARMINGTON -- The strand of purple hair simply gave her away.
Scanning the busy parlor at the Briar Rose Bakery here for a recent interview with Pamela Foster, the middle-aged writer looked just like many of the other middle-aged women meeting for morning coffee and a quiet moment early in the day.
But it was Foster's signature purple strand of hair, discretely tucked in amid the fading salt and pepper mix of her emerging gray, that announced her unique presence in the room.
A native of Northern California, she has lived all over the world. Relocating here five years ago from Panama - one of her many foreign sojourns -- this move would be the springboard for a life-of-writing into publishing her works.
Why Farmington?
She would get to that later, first and in an orderly fashion she had books to discuss.
Quickly over a cup of tea, the writer, who has published eight books since landing in Farmington and Northwest Arkansas a short five years ago, got quickly to the task at hand.
It isn't that she doesn't like interviews. She does.
It isn't that she is shy about talking about her books. She certainly is not.
But she was, you see, burning some of her precious daily writing time, set aside for the interview about her books and her writing.
Once committed to the interview, she multi-tasked by wedging in a couple of weekly chores into the interview schedule.
She makes sure every minute is scripted.
Sort of like her books. Every written word has a meaning. And she is somewhat of a minimalist in her craft.
She likes order. She likes structure. Sort of like her life here in Arkansas currently.
But that's not always been the case.
Foster's Writing Regimen
Foster did come prepared with a list of the eight books she had published. And she included simple instructions where to find the books, both in traditional ink on paper settings as well as electronic versions of her work. Foster is quick to tell you she is more interested in seeing libraries order her books, than individual sales.
Her books are about a wide variety of topics and characters -- not real people as her characters, but often a composite of real life, that melds itself into the characters in her books, if you will.
Her daily regimen here in Arkansas is to write about six to eight hours a day. The backdrop to her writing is very few interruptions, quiet solitude and she does it all on a keyboard to her computer.
No pens, paper or interruptions please.
How Foster (her pen name) and her husband came to Northwest Arkansas was through a selection process from their stay in Panama.
"We looked for several things," she said. "We wanted it to be near a major university, we wanted it to be near a Veterans Administration Hospital and it had to be pretty here."
Seems like the Farmington area in Northwest Arkansas was a perfect fit.
And it turns out to also have all the "other" things, such as a writer's group, that Foster, an unpublished writer when she arrived five years ago, was searching for in the perfect chapter of their lives.
Now, she sadly admits that chapter is ending and she may soon move from Northwest Arkansas.
Jack, her aging spouse, is a Vietnam veteran who requires more intensive medical care and certainly more help from family care.
The impending move may be back to Northern California, where two of Foster's three sons live.
Since coming to Farmington, she has found the means to publish through smaller presses and independent presses. She does not dislike the major corporate press, but has discovered more books are not published due to budgets, meetings and conference calls than ever before.
She has been liberated to search for independent presses that cultivate "good writing" over instant economics or genre writing.
One of the brightest delights of moving to Northwest Arkansas was her quick immersion and the rabid support of a writer's group that has helped shepherd her books into published works. Now she is a mentor in that group, also helping others turn their writing into published works.
Before NWA
Prior to coming to Northwest Arkansas, Foster has been a wife, mother, single mother of three small boys, and has since remarried in later life to her husband, a Vietnam veteran who suffers from decades of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder -- a theme in at least two of her published works. The books are about what PTSD is like, not so much about her own family's struggle in that arena.
After her divorce and being a single mom of three boys, Foster went back to school, earned a double major of English and Philosophy, but ended up as stockbroker for several years.
Later she was in banking, rising from teller to branch manager in seven years, while raising her family. And quietly suppressing her urge to be a writer.
After she remarried, she and her husband, with family all grown, left for Hawaii. She taught school there.
One day on a retirement type lark, they set off for a four-month backpacking trip to Mexico. Then came stops in Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal and Vietnam. Back home to America -- dropping off in southern Arizona. Then, a lengthy stay in the Republic of Panama before choosing NW Arkansas.
Farmington was next and for the last five years has been home.
There are some hard and fast rules Foster has maintained about reading and publishing writing into book form.
"I will absolutely not read anything that is not properly edited," she said. The type of genre doesn't matter but bad writing is still bad writing.
In addition to writing and publishing, Foster is often a speaker on health issues affecting veterans and also on life in general. She also speaks on how to turn one's writing into published works or to turn memories into family memoir works.
Her Calling Card
While she is well known as a speaker, writer and editor, she's got a signature look most don't expect.
She is known for that purple streak in her hair -- something she said she did on a whim. It is sort of her calling card -- so to speak -- and it is featured on her business card.
Laughing about her signature hair, she said. "I sort of did it as a warning to people -- I've got a wild streak and this ought to warn people a bit," she said smiling.
"I may be an aging woman, but I am not tied down to any restraints of society or sensibilities. I mean what I say and I let the strand of purple hair sort of speak for itself."
It sure stood out both as a calling card and a signature of one unique writer in Northwest Arkansas' thriving literary community.
General News on 07/29/2015