Local lunch lady writing growingly popular books
Pam Hall is a lunch lady within the district and making big strides as a children’s book author, as she has 33 books published. “It is a journey to write a book, from initial inspiration to seeing it bound and on shelves. Perseverance, belief, the ability to stretch and revise and maybe even obsess a little are all part of the process. I am actually a self taught writer, so for me, maybe it took a bit longer,” said Hall.
Pamela Hall is a local lunch lady that is working currently at Marine Elementary. She has found a passion in writing children books. Her passion has not gone unnoticed. Her books are becoming a major success.
It takes perseverance to write an entire book, but her passion for writing is unlike any other. One of her books, Miss You Like Crazy, was chosen by Independent Booksellers as one of the best 200 books of 2014. It has been rewritten many times, but that is just one of the many parts of writing a book.
“I wrote Miss You Like Crazy when my daughter Emily was four years old. It sold and cancelled and was rewritten a thousand times and came out last spring. Emily is now a sophomore in college!” said Hall.
Its a very long process to write a book and it took her nearly 16 years to write her most successful book.
It is a journey to write a book, from initial inspiration to seeing it bound and on shelves. Perseverance, belief, the ability to stretch and revise and maybe even obsess a little are all part of the process.
— Pam Hall
“I am actually a self taught writer, so for me, maybe it took a bit longer,” said Hall.
Hall worked with many people to get her books published. She worked with many people in her career as an author such as Jennifer Bell and Marybeth Lorbiecki.
“It was really cool seeing this last book get published. Jennifer Bell, the illustrator and I were able to do a book signing together. We both happened to be from the same area of Minnesota,” said Hall. “I am a self-taught writer but I wouldn’t be where I am today without my amazing editor and friend, Marybeth Lorbiecki, every writer needs a good editor to read their work with a fresh and practiced eye.”
Hall works around kids all day as an elementary school lunch lady and she also has three children of her own which makes it much easier for her to find ideas for children’s books.
Hall said, “Children’s books are a natural for me as I’m kind of a big kid myself and love being a mom to my three, and working around kids all day. Most of my ideas are born from passion; I have some serious stuff that touches on some tough subjects, and silly, squirrelly things that were inspired by how certain words sound together or by something my dog did.”
It does take a lot of passion and perseverance, but that won’t stop her from accomplishing her goals. She has written several books and accomplished very much with writing, but she’s still writing because its her passion.
“I’ve just finished something new that I’ve really enjoyed working
on: a pop-up book about St. Croix Crossing,” said Hall.
Hall has 33 of her books on Goodread and 13 books on Amazon. Her books are becoming popular on a national level. She is doing big things in a small town which is extremely influential for kids giving them confidence to do what they have a passion for.
Hall said, “Now to find someone else just as passionate about it as I am.”
She has accomplished very much for a local lunch lady. Her passion for writing is something that does not happen very often. Stillwater schools are lucky to have an author as skilled as Hall.
Dan is 16 years old and is in his junior year of high school. Dan loves to play basketball and plays for the Stillwater basketball team. He is very involved...
Joe Price • Mar 31, 2015 at 3:59 pm
This is such a cool story. It’s awesome that you got to interview her as well, but a few more sources would have been nice. Also the same quote was used as the photo caption and the pull quote.
Sabrina Storms • Mar 31, 2015 at 11:07 am
This was a great article! I love that you not only told her experience with the book but her overall story and how it has affected her being a lunch lady in the district! good job!
Megan McGuire • Mar 29, 2015 at 2:59 pm
This article really highlighted the success of Pam Hall. It did a good job giving information on the start of her career as an author and I liked how it stated what she was working on today. The links in this article are really good, giving the reader an opportunity to go straight to a website to buy any of her books. It would have been interesting to include other sources in this article, such as the people she worked with who were stated, but overall interesting and fun article to read.
Allie Langness • Feb 27, 2015 at 10:13 am
I really enjoyed your article about Pam Hall. She used to work at Afton-Lakeland and she was my lunch lady! She is a very nice woman and she deserves all of the success she has been given. This was a very well written article. Nicely done.