• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Baseball ’19
  • Day Zero 3
  • Earl
  • My list
  • Photo Blogging Challenge

A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

author

Thank you, Zander Hollander

July 28, 2011

In recent months, I’ve wondered where I ever got my love of writing.

It’s not a money-making career choice, that’s for sure.

I could have been anything. Like most kids, I had the normal dreams. A professional baseball player. A firefighter. An astronaut. Who knows what else. That was a while ago, after all.

But somewhere, I started to love writing. And someone probably forgot to mention how unless one is a prize commodity, he or she likely isn’t cashing in the bank on this career.

Still, somewhere I started to love writing. And reporting. And news. Somewhere.

I know I used to write things as a wee youngster and got, of course, encouragement from family members. There were a few people at the local weekly, too, who encouraged it because I wrote my first published article when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Some of my teachers in high school also pushed me and one even gave me a portfolio to use when I graduated. He had been pushing me toward writing for several years.

Heck, I was even given the award for Best Sports Editor in my seventh-grade reading class. (Truth be told, it was an in-class newspaper we did as a project and I’m not sure I was actually an “editor” or how many “sports people” were even on the “paper.” Still I got a cool plaque out of it and as a seventh-grade kid, that was sweet).

Still, even with people pushing and encouraging, something had to really make me love writing.

I’ve finally figured it out.

Zander Hollander.

If you don’t know who Zander Hollander is, he’s an author who wrote sports books with his wife Phyllis. The first one I truly remember reading was “Amazing But True Sports Stories.”

The book really amazed me. I was intrigued. The way he wrote and the way he told a story was awesome. I was hooked.

Every year our school had a book fair that ran a week. During the week, students invited authors to the school to speak and visit the book fair. If your author came, you got out of many classes to escort the author around, introduce them etc.

So, I wrote Zander Hollander and got a letter back saying that he would love to come (he was downstate, so not too bad of a trip), but he was unavailable that week.

Every year, I kept trying.

At some point, the trying stopped. I can’t remember if I was in ninth or 10th grade, but I got a letter back saying that Zander Hollander would be happy to attend that year.

Sweet!

He and his wife came to the school for an afternoon. They spoke to classes. They hung out at the book fair. They talked to me. And Zander Hollander talked to me about writing. What he did, how it works and everything else.

He encouraged me.

Can you imagine, being a young teenager and being encouraged by someone you looked up to — but someone beyond teachers, parents etc.? It was amazing.

In my eyes, Zander Hollander made writing cool. He wrote about sports and made it interesting. He had a great style. He was one of the most influential writers in my early life. Though I can’t remember everything he told me, I have the idea of what items he told me. I know he told me some basics — rules which every writer should know sort of thing. After all, I was still young, so telling me basics was a good thing.

I got thinking about this not too long ago as I uncovered a copy of one of his books. I did a quick Google search and I couldn’t find a lot about him. No website. Nothing. That’s not too surprising as I would imagine he would have to be in his 80s by now. I found the company that he and his wife run/own and the directory seemed to have been updated in March, so I’m wondering if I should blind call there one day. It’s actually a little nerve-racking, but I almost want to thank him for being such an influential person in my writing life.

It’s really something else, in this day and age, that you can’t find information on somebody with a Google search. But there’s not much on Zander. I have to figure out if I should try and call the number listed on their company site or if I should just do a tip of my cap from afar. What do you people think?

Either way, Zander not only helped my love of writing, but my love of sports as well. I read many of his books at a young age and it really gave me a different view and perspective on sports.

For all of that, I thank Zander Hollander. Maybe one day, should I write a book or two, I’ll be able to be that person who helps another youngster along the path of writing. It’s becoming a creative path that many people won’t take anymore. Especially with the Internet growing, the small amount of pay you can make and the amount of work it takes.

I still love to write, however. Zander Hollander is a big part of that. And he always will be.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Filed Under: Books, My world, Writing Tagged With: amazing but true sports stories, author, book fair, hollander, writing, zander, zander hollander

5 Comments

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

Welcome to A 'lil HooHaa!

This is a personal website covering many topics! We host a monthly photo blogging challenge, and then every January hold a fun writing challenge.

Thank you for stopping by and hope this becomes a stop for you!

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Follow

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 874 other subscribers

Instagram

hoohaa29

A great bark in the park day Sunday at the Bingham A great bark in the park day Sunday at the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Harper got her first foul ball (as you can see she enjoyed!) and we also had the chance to grab a couple others and give them to some other dogs. All in all, four dogs walked away with balls! 

@rumbleponiesbb #baseball @milb #dogsofinstagram #barkinthepark #dog #playball
One year ago today, I put a down payment on this g One year ago today, I put a down payment on this goof. Two weeks later, she came home … look at her now! 

#goldenretriever #dogsofinstagram #harperdublin
She’s a goof… but she’s my goof. #goldenre She’s a goof… but she’s my goof. 

#goldenretriever #dogsofinstagram #dog
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Twitter

P.J. Follow

Life is good. My dog. Good beer. Photography. Baseball. Hockey. Blogging. Take care of yourself. You're the only one who can control that. #isles #ringthebell

softball29
Retweet on Twitter P.J. Retweeted
2008philz John Foley @2008philz ·
16 Aug

Through 115 games...

2022 Phillies: 64-51
2008 Phillies: 62-53
1980 Phillies: 62-53

Reply on Twitter 1559355799037689860 Retweet on Twitter 1559355799037689860 156 Like on Twitter 1559355799037689860 2056 Twitter 1559355799037689860
softball29 P.J. @softball29 ·
15 Aug

I rarely sit on a window seat when flying, but both flights today had open spots, so two of us could comfortably be in a three-seat row. Sat next to the window to do some photos/video and got some nice shots. Flying still amazes me. @SouthwestAir #Southwest #Flying #Airplane

4

Reply on Twitter 1558983591035654147 Retweet on Twitter 1558983591035654147 Like on Twitter 1558983591035654147 1 Twitter 1558983591035654147
Retweet on Twitter P.J. Retweeted
jomboymedia Jomboy Media @jomboymedia ·
5 Aug

Absolute rollercoaster of a sequence

Reply on Twitter 1555366804398153730 Retweet on Twitter 1555366804398153730 333 Like on Twitter 1555366804398153730 5593 Twitter 1555366804398153730
Load More

YouTube

P.J. Harmer

P.J. Harmer
When these boxes come, there usually some excitement. But this one ... is the ultimate unboxing! 

#cielovideo52 #52weekchallenge #week5 #weeklychallenge

Music: Happy to be Happy (Dapun)

► My blog: http://www.hoohaa.com
► Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hoohaa29/
► Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/softball29
► Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HooHaaBlog
I hate being in front of the camera, but also realize sometimes it's not the worst thing in the world. So, I'm getting better with it. Week 4's theme was all about us and having us in front of the camera, so I tried to come up with a creative way to do it. 

#cielovideo52 #52weekchallenge #week4 #weeklychallenge

Music: Infinite Wonder (Ben Fox)

► My blog: http://www.hoohaa.com
► Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hoohaa29/
► Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/softball29
► Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HooHaaBlog
The theme for Week 3 of the 52-week video challenge was "Show your process of making something." Alas, I didn't get the time to do what I wanted to do, so I attacked something I filmed over the summer that I kept putting off. 

► My blog: http://www.hoohaa.com
► Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hoohaa29/
► Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/softball29
► Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HooHaaBlog
Load More... Subscribe

Archives

Categories

Calendar

August 2022
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Jul    

Search The Site

Site Information

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

A 'lil HooHaa © 2022 · Created By Coded Creative

Copyright © 2022 · Ava Mae on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in