Blogging, Baxter and bridge jumping

Photo: Sharon Bouchard

Lynne Schmidt

GILEAD – Though her childhood years were less than ideal, Lynne Schmidt has managed to put the bad memories behind her to live a very full life. Only 24, Schmidt has had many adventures and has set goals for many more including writing novels.

Q: Where were you born and where were you brought up?

A: Midland, Michigan and brought up in Shepherd and Auburn. I moved when I was 18 to the wonderful state of Maine.

Q: Do you have many siblings?

A: Two sisters. One still lives in Michigan and the other makes her voyage to Utah next week.

Q: What was it like growing up?

A: Extremely difficult. My father was an abusive alcoholic who lost custody of us the summer of my sixth-grade year. My mother, also an abusive alcoholic, left my sisters and me home alone for weeks on end.

Q: Was there anything you wanted to be when you grew up?

A: A writer. In high school my best friend died in a car accident and the only way I knew how to deal was through writing. I started writing my first novel my sophomore year and have been plugging along ever since.

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: High school was Bay City Western in Auburn, Michigan. College was the University of New England.

Q: Did you get into mischief or play pranks?

A: Oh my goodness, yes. I’m (honestly) amazed I haven’t been arrested yet. In high school my sister and I found a dead bat and put it in a zip lock bag and hung it on the wall of her apartment complex with a comment card. That was only one of many.

Q: What have you had for jobs?

A: Everything from coffee shop, a library, a Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center, cleaning lady, snowboard instructor. The list is long, but currently I work is South Paris while I am trying to become a published author.

Q: Did you do much traveling?

A: I try to travel as frequently as possible. I’ve been to a lot of states and Canada. I generally don’t like to stay in one place very long.

Q: Which place was the most fascinating and why?

A: That’s a hard question. I love big cities so I was drawn to Boston, Seattle and New York. Chicago is cool, but it was only a three hour drive from home. The Outer Banks was breathtaking. In the mornings you could watch the sunrise on the beach and sometimes catch dolphins swimming in the waves.

Q: Did anyone influence you to the point of changing your direction in life?

A: Countless people. My teachers had the most influence. They saw me struggle through school and sanity because of my living situation.

From there I’ve met Holocaust survivors and reformed Neo-Nazi’s who helped me clean up my language and immediately stop using hate words.

I attended writer’s conferences where women like Kerry Cohen talked about the times she’d messed up in life and how it’s okay to be who you are as long as you try not to make the same mistakes.

Q: Do you collect anything or have a hobby?

A: I am a huge book and music junkie.

Q: What was the last book you read?

A: Looking for Alaska by John Green. I cried for a couple of hours reading it.

Q: What subject do you wish you knew more about?

A: I think I’d like to know more about religion. I’m a Christian, but I’m incredibly drawn to Buddhists and Gypsies because they fascinate me, but I’d like to learn more about all of them.

Q: What is the one thing you could not give up?

A: My dog and my writing. Baxter and I have been through the ringer together. We’ve traveled almost everywhere together. He’s my entire world. He even has his own page on my blog.

Q: What is the one thing you would happily do over again?

A: Bridge jumping. When I was living with my sisters in high school, we went to a bridge. We had to wear tennis shoes because there were a lot of rocks at the bottom. It was terrifying and yet freeing.

Q: What is the best memory this interview brought back?

A: I hadn’t thought about bridge jumping in forever. Though my childhood was troubled there were still a lot of good time.

Q: What would you like people to know about you?

A: That I’m an author and will someday have a book singing in Maine.

Q: Last day on earth, what would you do and with whom?

A: I would find all the Ben and Jerry’s, grab my dog and somehow my sisters would be around and my sister’s kiddos. We’d climb to the top of a mountain where you can see the ocean and eat ice cream until the world ended.

Q: If anyone could walk in right now, who would you most like to see?

A: My friend Kellie.

Q: Any Regrets?

A: No, most everything I do or have done becomes a story of some sort.