When I was the ripe old age of 21, I gave my college’s commencement speech. I peppered it with wisdom gleaned from four years at the University of Tampa. I thought that I was smart, witty and imparting valuable advice onto my peers.

I also thought I’d become a college professor and soon have enough money to buy a house with a spare room for a piano.

So I might not have been on target with the “future plans,” but I think I did say something important during the speech. I encouraged my classmates to look at all the possibilities. I told them that they didn’t need to follow the path they laid on the way to graduation — if another option presented itself, they should think about taking it.

The other option presented itself over a year ago when I signed up for my Renegade Writer makeover. And a I took it.

I was given a RW makeover by the fabulous ladies who run this site based on one thing: I wanted to be a book dork for life. I had just started reviewing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and I wanted to make that my thing. I wanted to be the one who got to interview the new hot shot authors about their six figure advances; I want to tell you whether or not that best seller lived up to its ranking. Heck, I wanted to tell you what the best seller should be.

But the financial realities of book reviewing didn’t hold up to my dream. Book reviewing, while fun and professionally gratifying, does not always pay that well. Plus, you’ve got lots of critics going for fewer and fewer spots, and I was tired of renting. So even while I was toiling away, trying to get my reviews into Big Name Magazines, my bank account told me I might want to keep doing whatever I was doing so I could eventually pay the rent, and then the mortgage.

As I was banging my head against the proverbial wall, that other opportunity didn’t present itself, but became realized. As part of the group Freelance Success, I am privy to a newsletter that gives market tips. Most of the information are pitch guides about magazines, but every once and a while, the editors will sneak in a kernel about a publisher. Exactly two years ago today (I’m not kidding, I looked up the date of the newsletter: April 13, 2006, also my father’s birthday) the Freelance Success Newsletter of the week shared information about Countryman Press, which was looking for new destination guides.

Light bulb moment. I’m probably one of New Jersey’s biggest fans, at least in print. I write about the Great Garden State for USAirways magazine, The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, and I’m a contributing writer to New Jersey monthly. The editors at Countryman were looking for location ideas, not full fledged proposals, at least not to start. So I wrote up a quick email asking if they’d ever considered a book about Atlantic City. The editor got right back to me and said while a book just about AC would be too narrow, a broader focus might work.

Right in the midst of my Renegade Writer makeover, I got the greenlight to write a book about the South Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore, Atlantic City to Cape May was published yesterday — almost two years exactly after the moment I came up with the idea for the book.

Now, if I had been honed in just on becoming a book dork for life, I might have passed on writing the book. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it is the biggest project I’ve ever completed in my professional life, and it’s a project that has had profound effects on my personal life as well.

I spent all of my summers at the Jersey shore — literally. I was born in July and on the beach in August. I started heavily writing and researching the book right after my grandfather died about a year ago (also right when I bought my house and got dumped). Maybe it was because family was so close to my mind, or maybe it was because I was retreading paths I’d crossed so many times before, but this book became a deeply personal experience. I worked with a wonderful team at Countryman Press that allowed me to include some of that Miller/Verzella family history in the book. I think I got it just right, too — I read an email today from Marlene Testa, who has known my family all her life. We stayed at Avalon Campground, which was founded by her father and now run by her. I mailed her a copy of my book, and she wrote me about how wonderful it was and how much it reminded her of her childhood and my grandfather. She is also delighted that I included her favorite Atlantic City restaurant, which not many people know about (Cafe 2825 if you’re curious). It’s the best kind of review.

I am so glad I looked up off my pre-set path. I’m so glad I took the diversion, especially now that it looks like those two paths I could have taken are meeting up after that fork in the road. As part of my RW makeover, I sent introduction packages to a lot of women’s magazines, telling them why they should assign me reviews. I heard back exactly nothing. Discouraging, I know. But one year after that rash of packages, an editor got back to me, and I’m currently steaming through three books that I’ll review for an upcoming issue. “Dream Market” doesn’t even being to describe what this magazine is to me. All because of the RW makeover.

I know this is long, so thank you for staying with me. I just about gave up freelancing a few months ago, but it’s because of other freelancers sharing their experiences that I stayed with it, and it’s paying off.

Do I know what that next path will be? Not sure yet — but I look forward to finding it. [Jen Miller]

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