Countdown to Publication: Fun Fact 21--I Woulda, Coulda Been a Hallmark Greeting Card Writer

My first professional job as a writer was at Hallmark Cards as a greeting card writer. I worked at the headquarters in Kansas City for the summer between sophomore and junior year--and I had a great time. Creativity and making sure your creativity was fueled at all times was paramount. Reading, going to the movies, seeing plays--all of this was encouraged and as I recall, paid for by the company. Heaven. The work was fun too. You'd pick an assignment and work to deadline. An assignment would have these kinds of specifications: Easter, from son to dad, humorous. My job was to come up with as many variations on this as I could. And then each week, the editors would get together to decide what got accepted. I think the acceptance rate was something like 7 or 8 percent. I was thrilled the day I got two sentiments (that's what the card message is called) accepted for that Easter assignment. It used to be that the sentiments (if they sold well) would be recycled every two or three seasons--and the art work would be changed. I haven't checked in a while, but I remember just a few years ago seeing at least one of my sentiments at a Hallmark store. It really was the coolest job!