By Laura Cenge
Patty Huston-Holm, a semi-retired American story teller, told some of her own stories as a writer for the first time as part of a “soft launch” of Uganda Christian University’s (UCU) writing center – the first such center for undergraduates at any university in the country.
“I had my first piece of writing published at age 12, but this is the first time I’ve talked about my lifelong career as a writer,” Huston-Holm said to a group of 12 gathered on a rainy Aug. 8 afternoon in the second-floor, writing center area of the Ham Mukasa Library. “I’m much more comfortable getting stories about other people.”
Her writing career started with fiction focused on dogs, cats, and horses. She moved to journalism with a fascination about how Washington Post reporters uncovered a break-in during the President Richard Nixon Watergate scandal in the 1970s. With a true passion for news media, her skills moved to technical, speech, and curriculum writing as well as authorship of three books – two creative non-fiction accounts of teenagers living in her native state of Ohio, USA, and one a children’s story focused on giraffes.
According to Huston-Holm, life experiences make us who we are and what we do. She came from a family without a formal education and from poverty. A conservative church and teachers were her influencers. The church brought her to Christ, who was there in rough times. Teachers helped her to be a better teacher and mentor – something she did at six different universities in Ohio as well as at UCU.
“Curiosity” is the major driving force for her and any good writer, she said, adding that her love of animals might have steered her to a career in veterinary medicine except for the educational cost and her less-than-stellar grades in science.
Huston-Holm showed a PowerPoint with photos of herself being tough in politician interviews and volunteering for first-person stories as a circus clown.A magazine piece she wrote as a master’s degree assignment became her first book. The three-year project, titled “Shattered: True Story of an American Teenager,” follows the life of a once-popular girl who becomes paralyzed in a car accident.
“Writing that book took a bit of a toll on my family life as I did it while working two other jobs,” she said. “But I know that story saved at least two lives, as two different high school girls told me the story kept them from committing suicide. Perhaps, it was for those two girls that I wrote that book.”
In addition to curiosity, journalism required fact-checking, speed to meet deadlines, and proficiency in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. All these were valuable traits when she moved into government communications.
Being tough and a woman had its challenges in the journalism/communication field. For Huston-Holm, she changed her name from “Patty” to a more gender-neutral “Pat” to cover difficult stories. One such story involved a dare from fellow journalists to challenge a governor on his education background claims. To prove her confidence and zeal to ask tough questions, she asked former Ohio Governor James Rhodes about his educational credentials that were falsified.
Coming to Uganda has further increased Huston-Holm’s way of looking at things surrounding her. Pieces written and published about Uganda include the subjects of rats, cockroaches, and, during her most recent trip, women eating clay to stave off morning sickness. The habit of eating “dirt” shows that one is actually lacking some nutrients in the body, namely zinc, magnesium, and iron.
Among her writing motivators are the quiet of night, new locations and experiences, visuals, and deadlines given with positive reinforcement and positive comments. Negativity is the main distractor.
Huston-Holm is currently working on her fourth book, which will be 50 slice-of-life pieces of roughly 1,000 words each. Among the stories planned for the book are four generated on her Aug. 6-Sept. 9 visit to UCU – interviews with Timothy Wangusa and Maxine Ankrah; observations of a local artist named Joshua; and dummies in local shops.
Among those attending her Sept. 8 talk were leadership from the School of Education, a pastor and students in various disciplines. At the conclusion of her talk, she gave away one each of her three books, “Shattered,” “Kid in the House,” and “Inviting a Giraffe to Tea,” and a coloring book related to the giraffe book.
BACKGROUND
Patty Huston-Holm, who recently turned 70, has been a reporter, editor, and photographer for four daily newspapers and two weekly newspapers. When she left the news business, she served as the public information officer and then the state arts and communication supervisor for the Ohio Department of Education. She also served as the communications director for a career center.
She currently serves as the volunteer communications director for Uganda Partners, a Pennsylvania-based non-profit supporting UCU for two decades, and has volunteered as a consultant and lecturer in UCU PR, journalism, and post-graduate arenas since 2012. Her lectures include real-life experiences that she feels are essential to learning.
Quick look at her books:
- “Shattered” – story of a teen girl who loses the use of her legs and much of her arms and hands;
- “Kid in the House” – story of a teen boy who is elected as the youngest representative of the Ohio legislature;
- “Inviting a giraffe to tea” – story of how six misfit Ugandan wildlife animals learn to get along. This book is in English, Spanish and Luganda.
