Meet the Staff: Rhonda Havig, Newsletter Editor and Digital Analyst

Popcorn led me to Literary Mama.

The story begins in an elementary school cafeteria. My husband and I volunteered to pop popcorn for the annual sock hop at my son’s school. While wearing plastic gloves and stuffing popcorn into red and white paper bags, I met another mom there volunteering — Christina Consolino, a former Literary Mama Senior Editor.

Each year, Christina and I volunteered for sock hop popcorn duty and chatted while trying to not spill popcorn everywhere. One year, she shared that she was writing a book. I already thought Christina was pretty cool, and this just made her even cooler.

In 2015, my own desire to write burst onto the scene. Hot on the heels of this burning need to put words on paper, I heard about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Mind you, up to this point, my only writing experience was a few terrible poems in high school. So at the tender age of 45, I decided to write an entire novel in 30 days. Go big or go home, right? In just over 50,000 words in just under 30 days, I wrote a complete story. It was crap, but I was hooked.

Around this time, I mentioned to Christina that I was participating in NaNoWriMo and we talked a bit more about writing. She mentioned Literary Mama, and that conversation led to me writing an author profile for the publication in 2016.

I remember being terrified about working with an editor, fearing my writing was not good enough because I was so new to the craft. But it was a wonderful experience. They had constructive feedback and helped strengthen my work. I went on to write more profiles and some book reviews and had a positive experience every time.

In January 2022, I joined the Literary Mama staff as the Newsletter Editor and Digital Analyst, drawing on my web development experience over the past two decades. My desire to promote the publication and give opportunities to other mama writers — new or established — is why I joined this amazing team of volunteers. 

And my journey here started with popcorn.

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Rhonda Havig is a writer and reader with a background in web development. She has contributed to the University of Dayton Magazine and is currently working on a novel, as well as short stories and poems. When not reading or writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband, son, and dog.