Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Martin.
Amy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born to be a writer, exceedingly articulate as a young kid. The legend is that as soon as I could talk, I spoke in sentences. The family house was not a happy place, and I spent much of my time outside. That’s where sanity was. My plan was to graduate high school early and become a forest ranger as far from my family as I could. I applied for college entrance exams when I was 13, so young that the school required my dad to fill out my forms. Under future occupation, he did not enter “forest ranger.” He put “writer.”
I never became a ranger. After a short stint as a cucumber farmer for Best Maid Pickles, I returned to Dallas and drifted into journalism, progressing from weekly tabloids to daily newspapers to national magazines to books — a professional arc that no longer exists. But I did venture into the 21st century with two online publications that encapsulate my journalism interests: GreenSourceTexas (environmental) and TheaterJones (comedy/magic/cirque).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Time, always time. There just isn’t enough of it, yet there are endless interesting things to cover and engage in. My editors have been wonderful.
About six years ago, I broke my neck by shattering my second cervical vertebra. Only 2% walk away; over half die and the rest are paralyzed. A miracle-working spinal surgeon bolted the pieces between the C1 and C3 vertebrae and bone-grafted them. Such upper cervical fusion takes away 25% of your balance. After I learned to walk again without aids, and physical therapy proved fruitless, I hit every dirt trail I could. The slippery and uneven surfaces challenged my inner ear to pick up the balance slack. Those trails are a big part of Wild DFW.
My incompetence with numbers is legendary: time, dates, data, money, any kind of math. Dyscalculia, it’s called.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Life is overwhelming. Cynicism is pervasive. I feel compelled to counter that. Community is everything. No need to bowl alone.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
As I say to my wildlife habitat restoration teams, each time before we set out on a workday, “Everything we do is experimental. With nature, there are no guarantees.”
Pricing:
- Wild DFW $28s
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wild-dfw.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wilddfw/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildDFW/
Image Credits
Stalin SM.
