Writer Spotlight: Laura Luptowski Seeley

Horses, "Happy, snappy, juicy apple," MSU publications, and the "Cat Ambassador": Laura Luptowski Seeley

Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet editor, writer and animal lover Laura Luptowski Seeley.

Tell us where your fascination with horses came from.

My love of horses began with riding the “real ponies” at the pony rings at the county fairs and festivals when I was probably around seven years old. My two sisters and I would beg my mom to let us ride “just one more time!” I specifically remember  falling in love with the ponies at our church festival one year. Once the carnival company pulled out that Sunday night, I missed those ponies so much that I actually prayed for them by name—Scout, Misty, Midnight, Ringo, and Rex—every night for the rest of the summer. It was the only way I could think of to remain “connected” with them.

Laura and Rango, 1967

From there, I advanced to riding at Bay View Stables in Bay City, Mich., the town where I grew up. In the summer of 1967, my mom took us out to ride nearly every Sunday evening during the summer months; I rode a big bay named Rango.

A couple of years later, my parents bought us a horse—a big red chestnut named Fox. When I was about 11 years old, I got my very own horse—Peppy; he was a beautiful palomino (golden, with a white mane and tail). I showed him at the county fair 4-H horse show for the first time in 1970 (see photo).

Laura  and Peppy

We kept our horses at the farm of a family friend (Mr. Whipple), which was just around the corner from our house. My sisters and I were tiny—but mighty little girls! We took full responsibility for the care of our horses—we pitched manure, hauled water buckets, and tossed heavy bales of hay and straw out of the hayloft without complaint.

My first paying job was working for a horse trainer when I was in high school. My sister and I shared the job cleaning stalls, and feeding and grooming horses at a 16-stall facility.

In the early 1990s, Peppy got sick and I had to have him put down, just a month before his 31st birthday. As his veterinarian said, “He was a grand old horse.”

Since that time, I have missed being around horses. Recently, an opportunity came up for me to get back into the horse world. I now work at a farm two days a week, cleaning horses’ stalls, feeding, and grooming. I also help tend to the 16 emus, several peacocks, and 100 chickens! I enjoy working outdoors, summer or winter. I love the physical labor; it’s a nice break from sitting at a computer.

Who influenced your early reading and writing?

My mom, and my creative writing teacher in high school.

Both of my sisters and I knew how to read before entering kindergarten. I remember sitting on my tiny chair in front of the easel with the four-foot-tall flip chart. Ms. Angeline asked the class to read the list of words on each page. I read all of the words to myself while the rest of the kids were still struggling to sound out the first two or three words. I couldn’t believe my little kindergarten ears that many of these kids did not know how to read!

Before my little sister started school, I taught her how to read out of her favorite book—A Good, Good Morning (written and illustrated by Bonnie and Bill Rutherford). We were lying on our tummies on the living room rug as I turned the pages and read the words out loud to Cindy. “Happy, snappy, juicy apple!” Cindy repeated out loud as I turned one of the pages. I recall running down the hall shouting to my mom that Cindy could read!

Several years ago, I had wanted to purchase that book and present it to my sister on her 50th birthday. I could not find it online, because I didn’t know the title or the author. The only thing I remembered about it was the “. . . happy, snappy juicy apple” line. So I  had asked a book seller to help me find it. About a year later, at one of the book shows I attended, the book seller approached me and asked if the book I was looking for was a Whitman Pillow Book; he handed me the book and the cover was unfamiliar to me. I told him I didn’t think that was the book I was looking for . . . until I flipped through the pages and read the words: “Happy, snappy, juicy apple!”

In elementary school, my sisters and I were always reading, writing, and drawing. We even “produced” our own horse magazines—which included articles, drawings of horses, and even made-up “letters to the editor.”

In high school, I took a creative writing class and wrote short stories, poetry, and plays. My teacher wrote a note on one of my poems that if I continued to improve, he thought I could be published one day. Several years ago, I wrote him a note to tell him about my career path, thanking him for encouraging me as a young writer. He wrote back to say he always wondered if he made any difference in his students’ lives, so he appreciated hearing from me. (If you’ve never thanked a teacher for how they’ve influenced your life, I encourage you to take the time to do it today!)

You retired from Michigan State University in 2013 after more than 25 years. What positions at MSU have you held over the years?

I earned my bachelor’s degree in journalism from MSU. I was hired by MSU in 1986, and worked in various departments and capacities. I wrote news releases as well as articles for campus magazines, newsletters, e-newsletters and websites. I managed the scholarly journals program at MSU Press, and was instrumental in launching their new creative nonfiction journal—Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction—which is still published today, 24 years later. I was the director of publications and media relations at the College of Engineering for 13 years before retiring; one of the accomplishments I am most proud of was overseeing the development of a new alumni publication—Currents Magazine.

Over the years, my work also appeared in several newspapers and magazines outside of MSU—including EQUUS magazine. In addition, I wrote a monthly humor column for the Arabian Horse Express from 1992-1997.

I now work as a freelance writer/editor/proofreader and absolutely love the freedom of setting my own schedule.

Tell us about your latest WIP.

You could say it was a “dream come true.”

Several years ago, I woke up laughing about a dream I’d had about an unusual looking cat. “Where the heck did that come from?” I then realized that the cat in my dream looked like the pattern of my old sofa that I had put out by the dumpster when I’d moved out of my apartment a few months earlier. LOL!

This dream led me to write my first picture book manuscript. I have since attended several writers’ conferences, where I have met with editors and agents who critiqued the manuscript and offered suggestions for improving it. I plan to continue to submit it for publication and hope to see it in print one day.

I also have another picture book manuscript completed, as well as several nonfiction children’s book manuscripts in the works—most of them about animals.

What event do you remember most fondly in SCBWI?

I don’t recall how I first heard about SCBWI, but I knew if I wanted to break into the children’s market I’d need to connect and network with other writers who were writing for children. Soon after I became a member, I attended the 2016 Midwest conference. I attended the pre-conference Picture Book Bootcamp and also submitted a picture book manuscript for critique.

During one of the evening sessions, I met some attendees from the town where I currently live (Haslett, Mich.), and they recommended I join the Lansing Area Shop Talk (LAST) group. Through LAST, three of us branched off and started a writers’ critique group.

SCBWI, LAST, and my writers’ critique group have provided the valuable information and the support I need to continue working on manuscripts for the children’s market.

You are the founder and president of The Cat Ambassador. What is the goal of your organization?

I have always loved animals. I grew up out in the country, and people often dumped off their unwanted pets in front of our house. As an adult, I began to take in stray and sick cats to have them vetted, spayed/neutered, and adopted into loving homes—using my own money.

In 2013, I officially founded my 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Cat Ambassador. My aim is to provide assistance for cats—and their people—so pets will not be surrendered to a shelter if their owners cannot afford vet care, food, and litter.

In addition to helping indoor pets, I am getting more and more calls to help feral and stray kitties. We have a “cat crisis” across the country right now. We get several calls daily from people desperate for help with sick and injured cats; pregnant cats; kittens thrown out of moving cars; and cats that were put outside after a relative died and no one wanted to take responsibility for the pets. Shelters, humane societies, and rescue groups are at capacity and out of funds. So we have to say “no” to many of the requests for help, and it’s heartbreaking. That’s why we need more people in every community across the country to step up to foster cats and kittens, volunteer to help with the work we do, and donate money.

Animal shelters and rescue groups are also working to put laws into place that prosecute individuals who neglect, abandon, or abuse animals.

What is your most poignant story from your work as The Cat Ambassador?

There are so many stories I could share. Here are two of my favorites.

Six years ago, we received a call on a scorching hot summer day about some newborn kittens that had been abandoned in the middle of someone’s yard. The umbilical cord of one of the kittens was tangled up around the rear leg of another, and a third kitten was caught up in the bundle. We surmised that the mama cat, not knowing what to do with her tangle of kittens, must have abandoned them, along with her three other kittens that we later found under some shrubbery.

Harley feeding Gabby

One of the kittens did not survive, but my husband and I took in the other five and began bottle feeding them. The kitten who had the umbilical cord wrapped around its leg had to have her leg amputated when she was two days old. Amazingly, she survived surgery and was later adopted by our veterinarian, who named her Trinity. A vet tech adopted one kitten; and my husband and I kept the three orange tigers.

A couple of years ago, I got a call about a feral mama Manx cat and four kittens who were living at a highway rest area. One of the cats appeared to have a broken leg. The employees at the rest area noticed that one of the other kittens would jump up into the trash bins and toss food scraps down to the brown tiger kitten with the injured leg who could no longer get his own meals. Over the next week, with several volunteers and multiple traps, we were able to catch all of the kitties and all were vetted and adopted. The brown tiger kitten, now named Ahsa, had to have his right front leg amputated. He  gets along just fine on three legs, and was adopted by a woman who just happens to have her own medical limitations.

Gabby, Rio and Bolt

Stories like these are why I continue doing cat rescue.

 

Follow Laura on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Lauraseeleywriter