A Rusch to Succeed.

By Bob Griggs


I don’t know what there is about being a service brat…maybe it’s genetic, but it seems to me that a surprising number of these children grow up to become children’s literature writers.

Let’s add Liz Rusch’s name to the list. Liz, third of six kids, nearly had a taxi cab in Queens New York listed as her place of birth, but thanks to a cab driver with a lead foot, her mom arrived at the hospital just in time. Her siblings, two brothers and three sisters, all arrived in less frantic circumstances.

Her dad was in the navy at the time and as usual in such circumstances the family moved frequently, living in such places as Diamond Bar, L.A., Croton, New York, and Atlanta GA. He finally left the navy and launched a civilian career as a distribution manager in engineering design. Her mom was a nurse.

Liz started her writing mission in Catholic elementary school, St. Mary’s in Greenville, South Carolina. Her first book, as yet unpublished, was a dramatic effort. Consider horse racing, her two protagonists, young girls named, oddly enough, Lilli (Liz’s brother Mark’s efforts to pronounce her name), and Sharon, the name of her younger sister. Already she had learned a prime lesson for writers, write about what you know.

She also became an accomplished playwright and producer, creating with best friend Karen Anderson, a series of plays called “the Carter Girls,” featuring a cast starring themselves and Liz’s sisters. They even wrote songs for the productions but alas, their efforts remained off-Broadway. Nevertheless, they were performed. Few aspiring playwrights can claim the same.

She also did a little outsourcing by appearing in local productions of Tom Sawyer, Oliver, and Oedipus Rex.
Elementary school was not distinguished by Liz’s academic accomplishments. She found it more interesting to read like crazy, everything in print, including the backs of cereal boxes. School grades were way down on the bottom of her interest list.

Eventually she looked up from her books to find that there were really a lot of interesting things to learn in school. The things you could see through a microscope or its big brother the telescope. What you could find out in Social Science and in English class where one was actually encouraged to write poetry. Once she got past the preliminaries, she found that she even liked math. In fact, she found that just about everything was interesting.
This discovery continued into college, Duke University, where she majored in Economics. Why? It was a subject she knew the least about.

Out of college, she pursued a short-lived waitressing career. Times were tight; she shared an apartment and was working long, smoky hours when opportunity knocked, loudly! A go-getter by the name of Ron Wolk was starting a magazine for teachers called Teacher Magazine and he offered Liz a position on the start-up team. What absolute bliss; to work with focus groups, brain storming, budgets…aha, economics!

Their first direct mail offering got a great response, which led to the hiring of highly qualified staff members, and lo, publication began. Liz, an acknowledged “terrible speller” became copy editor. Ron told her she’d grow into the job….and she did! She began to write; small pieces at first, larger ones next, and surprise, surprise, next a move to assistant editor and then managing editor and feature writer. She said it was heaven. For five years she worked with nationally known top editors and gained a whole new education.

Where did she go next? Why a Master’s degree in Public Policy with a full scholarship at Berkley.
That took two years and then she spent the next year working with U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy where she was involved in producing memos, talking points and speeches. Interesting, enjoyable, but darn it all, she missed real writing.

Finally she decided to give herself a full year to see if she could make it as a freelance writer…and she did.
She became a contributing editor for Child Magazine, and did stories for Backpacker Magazine (travel) and served as an investigative reporter working on pregnancy medications.

The years 1998-99 were productive; she was making a good living, but she began to feel it was writing she could do in her sleep. She had ideas for adult short stories and a plan for a kid’s book.

Oh, I almost forgot. Along the line, and back in Washington D.C., Liz met and married Craig. Together they decided they should move to Portland Oregon (lucky us) where they have lived for the past thirteen years.

The family now includes Isabel (Izzy) four, who is already sure she wants to be an artist/illustrator and Cobi seven, who is going to be an inventor and write stories. Craig is a technology guru working with the nonprofit Alberta Kerr Center.

Liz has been a prolific writer, responsible for over one hundred articles and has appeared in, among other magazines, Muse, American Girl and Mother Jones, and my oh my, she has books to her credit.

Her first children’s book, Generation Fix was a finalist for the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award, The Smithsonian Magazine Children’s Book Award, and the Oregon Book Award, and is in its second printing.

Other books – A Day with No Crayons (Rising Moon 2007), Will it Blow?: Become a Volcano Detective at Mount St. Helens (Sasquatch 2007), Girl’s Tennis, Conquering the Court (Capstone Press 2007), and The Planet Hunter, The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto (Rising Moon 2007). She’s presently working on a new book, working title, April Fool and has a number of other projects in mind. You can learn more at her website, www.elizabethrusch.com.

She says that with all of her writing success, she still has to accept the inevitable dealing with rejection. It’s going to happen and every writer has to find their own way with dealing with it, and not give up writing and submitting.

Liz is an outdoor girl. Hobbies include kayaking, hiking, backpacking, and skiing with her kids. She is also a runner and has completed a half marathon. That’s thirteen miles folks.
She still loves to read (anything) and provide good food for family and friends.
She has a writing group and is eternally grateful for the help and support she has received from its members. She has also been working with aspiring young grad writing students at PSU and has spoken at three SCBWI-Oregon summer conferences.

Where does she want to find herself in ten years? Writing with a good house and really challenging editors. She wants each book she writes to be better than her last, and as a final wish, to make some semblance of a reasonable amount of money as a full-time children’s author.

As to how and why she writes? I’d like to go on writing about this amazing lady, but I suggest you visit the Internet and go to http://www.embracingthechild.com/arush.html. It’s a fine interview with a lovely person and a fine writer.