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TO EDITORS: IF YOU USE THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE CONSIDER RUNNING IT UNDER THE FOLLOWING BYLINE. THE WRITER IS A JOURNALISM STUDENT/INTERN AT HOUSATONIC COMMUNITY COLLEGE. NO COMPENSATION IS EXPECTED.

HCC PROF PUBLISHES NINTH CHILDREN'S BOOK, SPEAKS IN RIDEGFIELD APRIL 19

BY JENNIFER JONES

BRIDGEPORT- "If you want to be a writer, get a boring job."

That's the advice Housatonic Community College professor and children's book author Bill Grossman offers aspiring writers.

He knows.

A one time computer software engineer/systems analyst, Grossman, a Windsor resident, began writing while working in the computer field in the early 1980's. He took breaks to unwind by creating rhymes about little sisters eating hares and hugging apes, and little pigs being mistaken for items in a grocery store. This past fall, his ninth book, My Little Sister Hugged an Ape, was published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Grossman began writing while working in the computer field in the early 1980's. He took breaks to unwind by creating rhymes about little sisters eating hares and hugging apes, and little pigs being mistaken for items in a grocery store.

"I did my best writing while working in the computer field because the work was so boring," says Grossman, who will speak and conduct a writing workshop Tuesday, April 19 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ridgefield Public Library. "I had a program that would convert the stories into jumble so if anyone walked by they would not know what I was doing."

Eventually Grossman, who now teaches computer science at HCC, got the Writers Market Handbook and followed their guidelines on submitting manuscripts to publishers. "I sent out 10 books to 10 to 12 different publishers," says Grossman, "and all of them were rejected."

Then he received a letter from an editor at Harper & Row encouraging him to keep sending manuscripts.

"They took the next one I sent," says Grossman. So his first book, Donna O'Neeshuck Was Chased by Some Cows, was published in 1988 by Harper & Row.

Harper & Row went on to publish several more of Grossman's books, and also bought some that have not been published, but they rejected the one that turned out to be Grossman's biggest seller and an award winner.

"It's a story about a little sister who likes to eat gross things," says Grossman, "my editor thought it was too gross, so I sent it to Random House."

My Little Sister Ate One Hare was published by Crown (of Random House) in 1996.

The book has won several awards including the Young Hoosier Award and the International Reading Association Children's Choice Award.

Grossman's books have been reviewed by the New York Times and several publications in Connecticut. He has traveled across the country giving writing workshops and has visited many schools as a guest author.

Grossman doesn't give his boring jobs all the credit for his writing inspiration. When asked how he gets his ideas he mentions a method that started in his childhood.

"My mom would make up stories all the time," says Grossman, "she made a character with her hand named Freddy and would ask us things like ‘what can happen to Freddy in a tree'."

"I start with a character and think of a situation for the character to be in and what can happen to it," says Grossman, "then I come up with an ending and it's a story."

Now that Grossman is teaching, he finds it difficult to write as much as he did.

"Teaching takes the same brain muscles as writing," says Grossman, "teaching is a creative activity that I enjoy doing." So when it comes to using creative energy he applies it to teaching first.

"But," he said, "I really should try to spend more time on writing."

Jennifer Jones of Shelton is a journalism student/intern at Housatonic Community College.