Age: 28

Location: Alexandria, Virginia

What are you working on now?
I am continuing to promote my current book, Creative Colleges: A Guide for Student Actors, Artists, Dancers, Musicians, and Writers , over the next couple of months. I'm speaking at bookstores and writing query articles to write magazine articles that are related to my book. For example, my latest article that ties into my book's message was on preparing students for auditions for college dance programs; it appeared in Dance Teacher magazine in December 2005.

In terms of my writing life, I'm trying to finish up a book proposal on a nonfiction book, which will hopefully lead to a second book. After I polish my sample chapter, I hope to be on my way toward a book contract.

What's the most helpful thing you've learned about writing?
A family friend recognized my interest in writing when I was a child and gave me a copy of Writer's Market when I was just 12 years old. Reading this book from a very young age taught me many lessons and it's hard to define what has been the most helpful. In an attempt to be brief, I guess I'd have to say learning that writing takes time-through practice, revision, and dedication-to perfect and it's not something that can be accomplished overnight. I've learned that you have to think of writing as a way of life. It's something you strive to improve constantly. You have to love words and know how to use them correctly to harness their power and create the most compelling message to an audience no matter the genre. Also, learning that rejection is part of the writing life and diligence is one of your most important assets as a writer, has been a valuable lesson as well.

What's been the worst career advice you've ever received?
I'm not sure I can say I've ever received any "worst" career advice. In fact, I think saying I've had no career advice is probably closer to the truth. I haven't had a mentor and no one has really said to me: "you should try this job" or "pursue this writing path" or anything like that. From reading Writer's Market I learned that the secret to writing success was simple: get published. And so I wrote articles for free at 19 and kept doing it until I had enough clips to get paid for freelance articles and start working as an editor during the day. I hope someday I can give people younger than me career advice-I can't say it's something I ever had.

What advice would you have for somebody hoping to get into writing about higher education?
I think having both a passion for learning and good knowledge of how academic institutions are both similar and different from other sorts of entities is useful in preparing to write about higher education. People who love school at all levels are those who can bring life to stories about developments in higher education more so than people who didn't really like school that much. Personally, I've taught college English courses, which I think helps me get into the minds of students, which helps me in writing stories. Working for an alumni magazine is also useful; it gives a writer a sense of how institutions work and what's important to the administration, faculty, students, parents, and the local community. Reading the Chronicle of Higher Education and learning about the issues that numerous academic associations care about can also give a person who wants to write about higher education a good sense about what kind of stories they can pitch to magazines and newspapers that would be most likely to get an assignment.

To learn more about Elaina or Creative Colleges: A Guide for Student Actors, Artists, Dancers, Musicians, and Writers, visit either her site or her book's site.