Pam Grout is a world traveler, a loving mother, a best-selling author, a millionaire and an inspiring witness to everyone she meets.

That line is an affirmation I started using some 20 years ago before I’d ever had a child, become a travel writer or an author–or for that matter, before I even liked myself all that much. Evidently affirmations work, because now I can proudly say all of the above are true.  One of them (I’ll let you guess which one) took a while to manifest but finally in 2013, after writing an affirmation in the sand on Tybee Island, Georgia, I realized just how powerful intentions truly are.

I wrote on that Tybee beach, with a big stick, “E-Squared will become an international bestseller” and then I let the waves take it out into the universe. That book, published by Hay House, not only topped the New York Times bestseller list, but it has been translated into 40 languages.   

I live in Lawrence, Kansas, a fun, funky university town that has lots of artists, liberals and other like-minded folk. I love anything having to do with creativity. Maybe that’s why my second (and now 19th) book was about how to be more creative. I play pickleball, I love to garden (although I refuse chemical help of all kind), I write screenplays (unfortunately nobody buys them…..YET)  and I love to putter. Putter, in case you’re unfamiliar with the term, means doing very little. I like hanging out, talking with friends, getting signs from my celestial daughter.

For a career, I write articles and books. I have published 20 books so far and I’ve sold articles to dozens of publications. To name a few, you can find my work in Travel & Leisure, Outside, Family Circle, CNN Travel, New Age Journal, Scientific American Explorations, Arizona Highways, Travel Holiday, Tennis, Powder, Snow Country, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, First for Women, Amtrak Express and I could go on.

I’m a Midwestern stringer for People magazine. I’ve interviewed everyone from Blake Shelton and Eminem’s mother (who used to live an hour from me) to dinosaur hunters, dancing school principals and an artist who makes Breaking Bad Pez containers.  

I also host a luxury travel blog called George Clooney Slept Here, an obvious take-off on the old George Washington Slept Here slogan. I’ve been to all but one of the continents and I’ve tried practically all the sports. I’ve yet to jump out of an airplane, but I have to save something for my 90th birthday.