Living: the ultimate team sport

Introducing: Lainey Piland, environmental writer/advocate and photographer

Posted on December 2, 2015 Updated on December 2, 2015

In the past, I’ve written posts spotlighting an artist who uses paints, brushes and charcoal for her creations: Mary Riesche: artist and sister extraordinaire, and Art worth viewing: spotlight on Mary Riesche.

Today’s focus is on an artist who uses words, sentences, and photographs as the canvas for her creations.

Lainey Piland happens to be one of my stepdaughters, so with that matter disclosed, I can now continue to rave about her talents without any masked conflict of interest. When you check out her blog, A Day Without Rain, you’ll rave about her abilities as well.

I don’t think Lainey would mind my saying that as a youngster she was far from enamored with hiking in any shape or form. (This is a fact admitted by the artist herself and her father, my husband.) But in the past several years, hiking has indeed become a passion of hers. Her husband, TJ, benefits from her hiking passion and gifts her with acceptance and total lack of complaining when called upon to accompany her on her many jaunts throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Even before she was gifted with a 35mm digital camera, Lainey took astounding photos using her cell phone, and posted them for all of us fortunate enough to be followers of her Blog. But with the additional artist’s tool of a 35mm camera, her photos are, quite frankly, publication worthy.

But her writing, oh my goodness, it is without question superb.

I’m a writer and I’m the first to admit that Lainey’s writing surpasses mine, leaves it in the dust, is ready for representation by an agent or publisher at their earliest convenience. Check this opening passage from one of Lainey’s most recent Blog posts:

The frigid, damp air reddened my nose and stung my cheeks, and the weak sunshine spilling through the tree trunks did little to offer any warmth. Frosty dirt crunched beneath my boots, releasing an earthy scent of humus and decaying leaves. Birdsong trilled overhead, and the eardrum-piercing high-pitched call of a varied thrush resounded through the forest, followed by the persistent tap-tap-tap of a pileated woodpecker determinedly searching a dead maple trunk for insects. This was how I spent the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday. It was glorious.

But don’t take my word for it, and don’t stop at reading my Blog post about Lainey’s talents. Instead please actively follow her Blog so you too can be treated to her ongoing musings.

And if you’re an editor or publisher, contact Lainey Piland and represent this woman post haste! Her combination of environmental advocacy and writing talent would serve your publications well.

(Ms. Piland did not solicit this article from me; it is being provided without her advance knowledge.)