© Features Barbara K. fidamski the other presse e opfeatures@netscape.net September 17, 2003 Erin Culhane, a Decent Proposal Theresa Brodie OP Contributor “Anal retentive, obsessive-compulsive, and Type A: that’s me,” says on-again, off-again Print Futures program partic- ipant and immensely talented writer, Erin Culhane, who somehow trans- forms these quirky traits into function- al talent. She admits, though, this has caused a few sleepless nights before deadlines, fussing with final details that suddenly seem significant at 2a.m. Oh, and don’t let her hear about that “immensely talented” part; she can’t take the praise. Culhane is a young, funny, vibrant woman who makes an art of balancing her home and work life. Culhane and I live in the same small town of Maple Ridge, and when J ask for the interview, she not only accepts, she invites me over for coffee (brewed in her 35-year- old percolator) and suggests we conduct the interview in her downstairs home- based office. I arrive and am greeted by her large, three-year-old black lab, Charlie, and shortly after by her five- year-old daughter, Haleigh. Culhane’s son, Tarin, is already at school. Culhane has recently gone MIA from the Print Futures program (with apolo- gies to program co-ordinator Maureen Nicholson) but says she'll be back. Culhane indicates some recent life changes and a generally hectic schedule, and admits that something had to give; for now, that something is school. She assures me that she will be finishing the program, “because,” she says, “nobody likes a quitter.” So, what is she up to these days? Culhane, who admits she always thought she'd be a lawyer, now writes a biweekly column for the Maple Ridge- Pitt Meadows Times, a monthly column for Raven’ Eye, a BC/Yukon aboriginal newspaper, and has her own business, In Writing, Communication Solutions. Interestingly, Culhane’s biweekly col- umn in the 7imes is a result of the inter- view assignment she did for the Print Futures program. Subsequently, she did her practicum at the Times. I asked what it was that turned her practicum into ongoing employment and she indi- cates that it really generated from the great rapport she had with the staff. I suspect they were impressed by her writing abilities. Editor Chris Campbell entitled Culhane’s column “Taking Issue,” so whenever she sits down to write the column she thinks to herself, “Okay, what am I taking issue with here?” Culhane has the freedom to choose the topics for her column, and she enjoys that. Culhane’s work for Ravens Eye stemmed from a column she wrote for the Times concerning the Alberni Indian Residential School. It seemed an appropriate article for Windspeaker, a national Aboriginal news magazine. She queried Windspeaker and, it turned Raven’ Eye and it made the cover. She continued to write articles for them, based on her own ideas, and now receives monthly assignments. While she enjoys freelance work, Culhane seems to appreciate the assign- ments. She tells me that, having self- discipline issues, the assigned work helps because she has to do it. “The event happens, and I have to go to a powwow in Chehalis; I’ve got to go because it’s not going to wait for me. I like the assigned work and yet I don’t want to be a nine-to-fiver.” When I ask whether she tends to write articles first and then query to see out, they who’s wee: “Tf you write something i" says, “I'd like ° ow he other ay thal aNd just submit it to wy just turned it around. over and ee wherever, they ve not She vs it in an me she made four : : does times the §OINg LO take you SEr1- both and beane 1 OUSly and it’s going to on did; I made 5 down to four times hinder your chances of knowing the amount.” : ; your Bushes Setting published there *