John Schoen
Freelance Writer
Where I Come From
Growing up in Shickshinny, I've grown to love the backwoods and sleepy, rural environs of Northeastern Pennsylvania - which I still call "home" today. I attended Kings College in Wilkes-Barre in 1998, and then transferred to the University of Maine at Farmington, graduating with a B.A. in English in 2003.
Since 2003, I've been writing for weekly and daily newspapers in northern New England. I can't tell you how many school board meetings and elections I've covered, how many Memorial Day stories I've recycled, or features I've written about local heroes. Sometimes I take the time to look through my portfolio and read about my experiences following a ghost-hunter in Bangor, Maine, or about an entire community who rebuilt the home of a Lakes Region family who lost everything in a fire. I think to myself, with a little amazement, "I was there. I participated in this."
I've written complete garbage. I've also written articles that have sparked change in local and state government policies. From small papers like the Monument Newspaper, The Lakes Region Suburban Weekly, and the American Journal, to larger publications like Portland Magazine and the Courier Post, I've immersed myself in the local goings-on of Mainers, and I revel in that experience.
But there were only so many articles I could write, and only so many twists and leads I could conjure about small-town events, before I wanted something more. I want to create my own publication that features creative non-fiction and fiction, stories that can shake up the status-quo and create change.
It's All About Timing
I've never been musically inclined - I was forced to play the clarinet when I was nine, and it made a great paperweight when I wasn't slobbering all over it. In college, however, I picked up a pair of hand drums and began to bang away on them. Slowly, I gained more control and realized that drumming was a great outlet for stress and very meditative.
Now, I play every chance I get. I play alone, with other musicians in front of crowds, in the dark, in the rain, on my dashboard... it's great filler for the times when you have nothing to do. It's mathematical and artful at the same time, and when you play long enough, you begin to see rhythm in everything. Life is all about timing.
A few years ago, a good friend turned me on to electronic music. Using a software program that allowed me the freedom to arrange music as I saw fit, and drawing from my developing sense of rhythm, I realized that producing electronic music would become a creative force in my life.
And, believe it or not, drumming has lent itself naturally to my writing. Good writing is, after all, rhythmic. I always try to keep in mind the timing of my prose, the rhythmic quality of each sentence, and the beats that can be heard in each syllable.