Through the long 45-year history of Cape Cod LIFE magazine, there have been many memorable stories as well as notable contributors. Christie Lowrance shares her experience of being one of the earliest freelancers and the beginning of her journey as a writer.

Make no mistake, Cape Cod LIFE changed my life as a writer. When I was a wife and mother of two young boys, being a “stringer,” or on-call reporter, for the Cape Cod Times perfectly suited my needs for flexible hours and control over writing assignments. Then I got a call from publisher Brian Shortsleeve offering me a writing assignment for his new magazine, Cape Cod LIFE. A burly Times editor named Woody had recommended me to him. Did I want to interview the Boston University geology department chairman, Dr. Arthur Brownlow, for an article on his just-published environmental atlas on the Cape? Does the sun rise in the east and the tide turn twice a day? 

I can’t remember the pay, but I would have written it for free. It was a 2,000-word assignment, not the usual 300-to-500-word newspaper pieces I was accustomed to; I had room to stretch my writerly limbs. I interviewed Dr. Arthur Brownlow exhaustively by phone. Point of interest: this was six years before I got my first computer, so cut-and-paste and voice recognition were futuristic concepts, like global warming. Interviews, whether by phone or in-person, were recorded by hand in a notebook; my drafts and the article I turned in were composed on a manual typewriter on a small desk, squeezed between the kitchen counter and the dining room table in our starter home in East Sandwich. 

Finally, my...