Life in the Slow Lane

Collected from Ten Years in Two-Lane Livin' Magazine.

Even though it no longer exists, I am so proud of what we accomplished with Two-Lane Livin’ Magazine. For ten years, from the very first issue, we could not print enough copies. Readers loved it. I had no idea if anyone would want to read it, but readers loved it.

And why not? With writers like Mack Samples, Sherri Brake, Granny Sue Holstein, and others — we had quality content, for sure. Many of our columnists compiled their pieces in our magazine into books, and so, I did the same.

Over ten years, I wrote 120 installments of my column, “Two-Lane for Life.” For Life in the Slow Lane, I selected 42 of my favorites and organized them into four sections: Garden Life, Simple Life, Outdoor Life, and Purposeful Life.

I asked a few of my fellow columnists to review the book for me.

Lisa includes here the best of her best columns from her haighly praised regional magazine, Two-Lane Livin’. Her writing left controversy by the wayside and presented the simpler way of life to her many readers.

Such a wonderful quote from Janet Smart, who wrote a children’s column for the magazine (Fun Facts for Kids), author of Cooking with Family, Duck and Cover, and Where the Stars Grant Wishes — and two collections for kids from her long-running column in Two-Lane Livin’.

I asked Mack Samples, a West Virginia legend who blessed our magazine with his own column, to write the introduction for the book. (Mack received the Vandalia Award, West Virginia's highest honor for those who have been involved in the preservation of traditional music and life. )

When you opened Two-Lane Livin’ each month, Lisa’s reflections of living in rural West Virginia greeted you. She wrote about the scenery, dawns, and sunsets she enjoyed each day. She told her readers about the ducks, geese, and aquatic life that inhabited the pond near her house. The readers learned about her efforts in her garden. She shared her successes and her failures, often in great detail…

Some of her columns discussed the trials and tribulations of living in the rural, sometimes isolated, areas of West Virginia. But mostly, she ballyhooed the joys and serenity of rural living. While readers read about the hazards of driving the two-lane roads when they were covered with snow and ice, they also read about the under-reported joy of the splendor that autumn months always brought to our state. Everyone enjoyed reading about the old Subaru that Lisa used to deliver papers each month. She wrote about adventures with which rural folks could identify.

Two-Lane Livin’ fans also got a view of Lisa’s inner reflections on life itself from her columns. She probed areas that everybody ponders such as, am I living the life that I should be living, or should I be doing something else? She wrote about forks in the road we all encounter, never knowing for sure which road to take. But those of us who knew her well knew she “took the one less traveled.” Who among us has not had such thoughts? Yet she never sermonized. None of her columns ever told anyone how to live their life.”

Wow. I mean WOW. Mack Samples said that about me! My writing! My magazine! I did that! Just being me!

I miss those readers. I miss writing for them. I don’t miss delivering the magazine each month, or selling ads, or the business side of any of it, but I do miss working with other writers, and having a mindset of gratitude and appreciation for the life we are living here. And I miss the relationship I had with our readers.

Like the big, tattooed man who saw me delivering the mag in a Clendenin grocery store and grabbed me in a bear hug.

Or the critically ill elderly woman who wanted her subscription transferred to her daughter.

Or the homeschool students who sent their photography to our monthly cover contest.

Or the two gay men selling black walnuts at a roadside stand:

“She looks familiar. Doesn’t she look familiar?”
”You’re right. She does.”
”Are you from Roane County?”
”No she’s….”
”Do you work at the DMV"?”
”No, that’s not her.”
At which point, we give up, complete our transaction, and I smile.
”Oh!” Gasp. “You’re the Two-Lane Lady! She’s the Two-Lane Lady!”
(Thus how my online name was chosen.)

I was so relieved to be released from the magazine’s domination over our lives, and I held on likely longer than I should have because I didn’t want to disappoint our readers.

A writer should know their audience. Our audience was freakin’ awesome.

I also didn’t want to forfeit those readers. I mean, an average of 40,000 readers a month? What writer doesn’t feed off of that kind of audience?

I thought it made sense to collect my favorites into a book. At the time, I had just finished getting my MFA in creative writing, and from the academic perspective, kinda felt like my previous work was “less than literary.” Perhaps even corny or cheesy. Hell, the WV Department of Tourism told me, “this isn’t the image of West Virginia we want to promote” and banned our free magazine from the rest areas and tourist centers. (Ouch. That one really hurt. Here I thought they might want to advertise…. )

Anyhoo!!! <sigh>

Here we are, five years after the magazine ended, and I wish I still had that audience, and STILL HAD THAT MINDSET. The ability to be grateful for the sunset, and rain, for clean water, quiet moments. The fortitude to deal with what comes at me, deal with red clay mud, deal with myself and my relationships and my soul. Time to know the critters around me, to be freely creative, to sleep in and take long soaks in the tub.

What happened in those five years?

Duh.

Two major whammies:

I got a “real job,” and Covid.

Post (wishful-thinking) Covid, I look at the book I created, the words I wrote and I think, “these themes and ideas are needed now more than ever.”

I got the job to pay off graduate school and replace the income lost from ending the magazine. I pay off that loan this month. And, I recently quit that job…

I’m scrambling to return to that Two-Lane Livin’ lifestyle and life. I’d like to go back to being a writer, wife, friend, daughter, gardener.

Your presence on my email list helps me get there. I mean really — you just opening and reading this completes me as a writer. If I learned anything from giving up the magazine, it’s the nature of the relationship between writer and reader(s).

Hi.
:-)
I’ve missed you.

But of course, it can’t be all fun, and I’ve got to start making income if I’m going to fully bloom as a creative contributor to our local (dare I say, “currently stale”?) society.

I’d like to make some kind of income from my book. (Hint, hint.)

So, wadda ya think? Would you like to sit down and spend time with a book that makes you feel grateful? One that puts you in a better mind space? One that makes you reminisce and appreciate little things and simpler living?

It’s not a perfect book. There are a few mistakes in styling, and perhaps a few typos. I doubt anyone will notice but me (and my mother).

I promised you no spam in your email. No marketing funnels, no paid subscription demands, no promises to change your life.

Of course, reading a book has changed my life several times.

You can purchase Life in the Slow Lane: Collected Pieces from Ten Years of Two-Lane Livin’ here.

I sure would appreciate it. I think you’ll enjoy it.