Hi! I’m Katherine Stanford; you may see me occasionally show up as India Stanford (the joys of going by one’s middle name). I completed my MSI degree in December 2022 and am working on towards my Specialist degree, along with two graduate certificates: one in User Services and one in Information Architecture. I hope to finish up with this degree in Fall 2025. I’m hoping to focus on digital libraries or digital strategy. I have been job shopping, mainly with the latter as my focus, so I’ve had an online resume going for the last while.
I’m originally from Georgia, but I live in Tallahassee right now. I work at FSU, in the Public Administration department, as an Academic Program Specialist and Communications Manager. I was at Georgia State University for a few years prior to this, and prior to that, I worked at Strozier Library in various departments, including (the long-defunct) User Services, Undergraduate Programs, Systems, Administration, and Special Collections. So I lived in Southwest Georgia, Tallahassee, Atlanta, and now Tallahassee again.
Something interesting about me is, as implied by the subject line, I’ve written a few books. Two were published under my maiden name, while the third was under a pseudonym. I had hoped to use the break between my master and specialist degrees to work on the next one, but work did not exactly permit for that. That might have to come at some lull at another point, should one ever present itself.
I’m working a lot with digital media in my current position, and I have used it quite a bit in my admittedly long past online. I’ve been playing around building websites and learning what can be done with computers and online for years, from the old Geocities days to learning the WYSIWYG sites to when WordPress became the new hotness. However, because everything I know is self-taught, it will be nice to have that Information Architecture certificate to put on my resume.
In the meantime, I read nonfiction (Philippa Langley’s The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case has my attention right now), science fiction (I started Peter Cline’s Ex-Heroes on Audible on a long car trip in December, and I’m almost through the last book now), and fantasy (while I’ve actually read all The Sandman comics and a fair number of his books, the audio dramas of Sandman as Neil Gaiman narrates them are wonderful. I could ramble about true crime, mythology, and folklore until the day ends as well, but that’s also a story for another time. You’ll probably see any one of my three cats come across the screen any time my camera is on: the two black cats are Luci and Samara, while the orange cat is Copperfield.
And that’s a bit about this struggling author. I’m looking forward to this class!
Greetings, Katherine, I “saw” you in one of my classes last semester, but cannot remember which one it was, as I don’t think we were ever teamed up, but my memory may be faulty. Anyhow, your status as a struggling writer caught my attention, for I have penned one book and one play, and, of course, I understand the “struggle” part. Our plight is a very old one, I think. I found a depressing article that opined there are way too many authors and too few book readers. Alas, there are also statistics pointed to about the amount of time folks spend reading: on average 20-minutes a day. Both of these numbers have declined of course. I tend to draw conclusions about how these are reflect in our current world and it saddens me. Everything that is fast and shiny, but possibly without substance, seems to be the fare of the day.
Here is the article, if you have any interest or time for reading:
https://writingcooperative.com/why-no-one-will-read-your-book-caa0e77ed5aa
I love the first line of your blog. I had to search for you by name because I was looking for “India” and was confused when I could not locate you. I am glad I did. I have the utmost respect for creatives and writers are at the top of my list of admiration. Reading that you’re a published author is so cool! I can see a bridge between the work you described and writing, but how did you get into that? I hope you can get into working on something new during the break as well. In my mind, I envision the process to be almost cathartic. Do you see the coursework and degrees helping in any way with writing?
It sounds like you have a lot going on! I love that you’re also doing Information Architecture, I’m doing the cert in this discipline and I love every class I have to take to complete it. I love meeting fellow authors (i’m not published, too shy to!) and I’d be interested in reading your work. I’m the same where I juggle school, work, passion projects and hobbies all in one go! I wonder, out of all of the places you have lived in thus far, do you have a favorite? Good luck with your degree!
Hi Katherine! Handling both work, school, and extracurriculars isn’t easy. I am in the same boat as well, going into my second semester I’m not doing too bad. Could be worse, to say the least. Being a published author must feel surreal, that is awesome. I would love to read your work one day! I am also pursuing a certificate in information architecture, which class or classes are you looking forward to for that certificate? Anyway, good luck this semester! Nice to meet you!