Meet Brian Miga

     We are pleased to introduce  Brian Miga, who joined our local writing group last fall. He lightens the mood each and every time. This is an example of his humor,  a bio written in his own words:

    I started writing stories, primarily about Indians and football players, when I was 7 or 8.  No one was remotely interested in reading these stories so I wasn’t bloodied by any early critical reviews.  My confidence is still soaring!

            Due to the Russians and Sputnik, I was pushed into the math - science course of study at Whitesboro where I learned I would never be an engineer.  It wasn’t until I could choose my courses at University of Rochester that I developed a fondness for literature and writing.  I had some great teachers like Poet Anthony Hecht; it was fun trying to hide in the back of the room.

            After college, I studied law and embarrassed my family by becoming an attorney and, worse yet, a politician.  (My mother always wanted me to be in shoe sales.)

            There are some very talented people at Whitesboro Writers Group and, occasionally, they let me sit at the same table with them.  It is a wonderful group for all who enjoy shaping and sharing stories.  The Whitesboro Writers Group share their knowledge and I learn things every monthly session.
-----

Here's a link to to some of Brian's stories:  http://dplmondaywriters.blogspot.com/search/label/Brian%20Miga

Meet Ginny Webb-Enea

Not every aspiring writer would be willing to commute from Ilion to attend both the Monday Night Writers and Plotters Ink meetings each month, but Ginny Enea has been doing so since August 2014. She’s been a welcome addition to the groups, not just because she’s a fine writer who thoroughly researches her interesting stories, but also for her bouyant optimism, ready wit, and the valuable suggestions she brings to the table. She’s been a great supporter of our efforts to keep the groups interesting and expanding, and what’s more, she has a thoughtful side to her, adding the human touch – bringing cards, flowers, candy for special occasions, and lending a helping hand wherever she sees a need. She’s a good friend, and good company, whether it’s a day trip to Cooperstown or simply chatting over a latte or lunch before a group meeting.

Ginny’s modesty prevented her from listing all of her considerable accomplishments, but we got her to say this about herself:

• “Our family moved many times during my childhood.  I discovered, amid the chaos of new houses, schools, and friends a constant: books.
• “Happiness was, and still is, dissolving into a good read.  I love to write, my preference is creative non-fiction.  My favorite author is Augusten Burroughs, the literary love of my life.
• “I raised a family, worked for thirty years as a Medical Office Manager and volunteered countless hours for causes that touched my heart.
• “At last, in retirement, my hope is to continue to grow as a writer.”

She’s definitely doing that. 

You can read Ginny’s creative stories in our e-book (Halloween Musings & Amusings, available through Amazon Kindle) and other stories at these links:

http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/Ginny%20Enea

http://dplmondaywriters.blogspot.com/search/label/Ginny%20Enea

Meet Jerry Finkelstein

In May 2013, I (your editor) started looking into writing group opportunities in the area and not only discovered there was one held monthly in my own library, but that many of their stories were posted on the library's website. It was important to learn what I would be up against, so I read them all before showing up in June. Most impressive was a piece called "There's No Place Like Home" - (Click this link to read it:  http://dplmondaywriters.blogspot.com/2014/11/theres-no-place-like-home.html.  Oh me, oh my -  I just HAD to meet the guy who wrote it. Long story short, over the past two plus years we've become friends. From day 1 he supported my ideas, my writing, the formation of Plotters Ink, these blogs and most of the other schemes I've concocted along the way. The only thing I've not been able to convince him to do is to provide me with a photo of him on this feature. A small price to pay....

When the previous facilitator of the Monday Night Writers Group retired, Jerry stepped up and has been leading us - with exuberant panache - ever since.  A while back Jerry suggested we write some six word stories. We crafted some interesting ones ( see them here: http://whitesboronywriters.blogspot.com/2014/06/my-life-in-six-words-our-stories.html ) and  Jerry's is a perfect lead-in for the following verbal self-portrait:

“Learned the steps…then I danced.” 

Some Things You Should Know About Me 

I’m old enough to remember the sounds of a typewriter. Index cards were the files of a library. I grew up at a time when movies just turned to talkies and Clark Gable and Jean Harlow were the cat’s meow. The books of my youth didn’t come from the children’s section, they were tough adult stuff until I found out that all my friends were reading them too. Studs Lonigan, the James T. Farrell trilogy, shook me up and not because of the dirty parts. The Steinbeck books were a big part of my life then, and then I dropped everything for Dickens. Through Dickens I discovered the American writer John Irving. Even now I read his stuff, he never fails me. I skipped Hemingway, his minimalist style bothered me. What teenager wants to be bothered?

The music of my life were the pop tunes of the day. It was the Swing Era, the songs were from the American Songbook. Some of these songs lead me to Bernstein and Blitzstein and somehow I caught on to Copland and the classics. So, I moved on. But I still can’t quit the melodies of Kurt Weill. I found out that musicians, composers, also had stories to tell, they had words put to their music.

I was fascinated, I was slowly catching up with the times. Opera! Not just Mozart. Or Puccini, Or Wagner. Or Strauss. Contemporary books and plays were put on the stage as musical dramas. Of Mice and Men, The Crucible, more, a lot more.

Plays and the musical adaptations made from them became important to me and inspired me to think of stories, of short pieces of this and that, to be sung. Life as opera. Life as a music score.

Our writing groups at the Dunham Library offer us a chance to write some of those short pieces, without the music but stories to tell nevertheless. It also helps keeping the mind active. Some reference points in my stories may be lost on some members of the writing group, they are after all old fart expressions of another time. They are also of a place that may not be familiar to them. If you don’t know the neighborhood some of my stories may come off as strange. The writing group is great with the feedback - you always know how your writing is being received. Thanks to Carol for keeping us all on the writing path.  I am grateful for her leadership and being captain (captain?) of the Blog.

Ha ha ha,  said Captain Blog...aren't you sweet, kind and nice. 

You can read more of Jerry's  original and entertaining stories at these links: Monday Writers Group- Jerry's Stories  and also Plotters Ink - Jerry's Stories.  Enjoy!

Meet Miriam E. Waters

Many of our writers prefer to publish under a pseudonym. Such a one is our colleague Miriam, who many of you know by sight if you have attended any of the writers group meetings this year. She's a regular there, and has become a great help to your blog host/editor in the past several months. We're proud to feature her as September writer of the month. Here is Miriam's story in her own words:

Once again I find that sleep is eluding me. What better time than now to share some thoughts on how I came to be at this point in my writing career?

I fell asleep one night while reading a passage from The Golem and the Jinni (Helene Wecker) through no fault of the book’s author. The story is extremely well written. It is rich with descriptive text and a unique narrative. I’m especially fond of her handling of the dream sequences in the story. Achieving the caliber of her writing in my own works is something I hope to accomplish.

Ms. Wecker’s writing on dreams prompted me to begin the interesting exercise of transcribing my stained, torn, and mildewed journals and printing them onto fresh paper. I completed four journals. These journals contain my earliest attempts at writing. Some of the material holds promise for jumping-off points for new pieces. The most recent example of this recycling of ideas was the naming my eclectic blog, “Gillowbugs & Daisy Tales” http://gillowbugs.blogspot.com .

A sampler from her Gillowbugs & Daisy Tales Blog

The title was taken from a dream noted in the journals. The exercise helped me to slip back in time to bear witness to my life. Even though the material is over an unbelievable 40-years-old, it still evoked memories of the events that sparked the journal entries. Some of the writing exhumed painful memories as I tended to write when I was disturbed by events in my life.

The descriptions are of my emotional intelligence at the time of writing as opposed to a literal description of my surroundings and the events that shaped my early life. The writing is cryptic and disjointed and reflects the manner in which thoughts occur to me and are captured for future reflection. Dreams, colors, fears, joys, and life spent dancing gaily on the edge of the world are examined in those pages.

My current writing style continues to be influenced by those early journal entries. These more recent examples of my rambling style can be found on “Last Darn Rites” http://lastdarnrites.blogspot.com and the constellation of the “Whitesboro Writers’ Group’s” blogs. A recent foray into a collaborative round-robin exercise produced “Underweb Chronicles”, at this link http://plottersink.blogspot.com/p/underweb-chronicles-table-of-contents.html .

Life, “Gillowbugs & Daisy Tales,” and what-have-you remain works in progress.

______________________________

Miriam will also soon be a published author, with stories appearing in several anthologies of fiction from Horrified Press.

Meet Perry McDaid

We've gone international!

A few months ago we had the unexpected pleasure of receiving a 100 word story from Irish author Perry McDaid, who had learned about our writing blog "while trawling the web".  Since then he has been a most welcome and frequent contributor to Plotters Ink. Thank you, Perry, for agreeing to be our featured writer for August. In his own words: 

Derryman, Perry McDaid is currently fiction editor with Liquid Imagination and on the board of silverpen.org. Widely published, besides his five individual poetry anthologies, his poems, stories, reviews and articles have appeared in diverse and international magazines, anthologies and websites. A prize-winner with short stories, poetry and articles, the Irishman’s work can be found both in hardcopy and online. He lives with his family beneath the mostly misty Donegal Hills, walking back roads where he can inhale the mystic inspiration of long dead bards and druids to concoct the weird, wonderful, and downright disturbing.

*** 

Wishing he was born in a log cabin in the midst of a hungry bear convention, Perry McDaid found himself delivered.

Of beginnings so humble it involved the family of the sons and daughters being packed into the rooms of a Granny,  given a pokey property of a doctor to whom she was all but indentured, he was raised in one such room, looking out onto St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry.

Voluntary amnesia and fear of spoilers for upcoming fictionalised biography having erased the intervening material, we jump from his writing relatively unimaginative (but good for a 6 year old) poetry on a class-made Birthday Card for his Mammy, through his popular primary school adventure writing straight to the encompassing passion for all writing and wordsmithery.

This enthralling career was interrupted by the need for money, and so a very long hiatus put a dampener on his honing his skills for, though he still wrote as therapy to offset the drudgery of office work, he never shared.

Then he had himself a nervous breakdown, redoubled the therapy and was finally badgered into submitting his first poem to a company advertising in the local press. It was published and has all been downhill from there: nearly 900 poems published, about twenty or so articles and essays and ninety short stories, achieving prizewinners in each category.

Now he potters about in his home with a panorama of the city and the Derry and Donegal hills, helping writers at  silverpenwriters.org as one of the directors; and reads great fiction every day as the Fiction Editor of Liquid Imagination online, feeling fulfilled and all.
____________________

The link which follows is helpful advice to anyone who would attempt the feat of fictional world-building. 
http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/tag/perry-mcdaid/

Perry has a  poetry and fiction  blog: https://phoenixmartin.wordpress.com/tag/perry-mcdaid/

Read some of his flash fiction on Plotters Ink:
http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/Perry%20McDaid%20%28Ireland%29

http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/Falcon%20%28Ireland%29

Meet H.T. Longale

From the very beginning of this blog project, which we launched 
in April 2014,  it has always been our primary goal to attract and encourage anyone who had the desire to write, no matter what skill or talent they possessed. We have been very fortunate indeed to discover that there is an abundance of talent in our area.  Most of  the writers whose names you see listed in our blogs have been loyal contributors since the beginning. Some of them we only know by name, as virtual colleagues. H.T. Longale is the first of these to be featured in the Meet Our Writers series. We are happy she's part of our extended writing family. 

Here is her story, in her own "write":

H.T. Longale was born in the Mohawk Valley and was raised on a steady diet of reading and writing (among other things.) During teenage years, crafting fiction had been a desire merely dabbled with -- in the production a few short stories -- and not seriously acted upon. The desire to read, thankfully, hung on.

Amid the 1990’s, she attended M.V.C.C. for four years, was graduated from the Utica School of Commerce, garnered a myriad of hobbies, spent a few summers traveling around England and Australia, and worked a variety of jobs. And throughout it all, libraries and books were reliable sources of pleasure and education, refreshing havens in an oft-wearying world.

During the 2000’s, participation in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons ignited a profound, creative urge. Her first “modules” were lengthy interactive adventures written to amuse and impress her fellow gamers. And since then, she has decided on dedicating the rest of her life to the art of storytelling.

Today, her admiration for Ray Bradbury’s stellar works and Anne Perry’s prolificacy of historical fiction furthers the yen to follow in their inksteps. The notable Ukrainian poet, Yevhen Hrebinka -- her great-grandfather’s uncle --  is naturally a heartfelt source of additional inspiration. And closer to home, the Whitesboro Writer’s Group continues to elicit a wellspring of insight and encouragement.

Since 2011, she has been working on The Foundlings’ Eyre series, with the first book scheduled to be released by May of 2016. Other projects include contributions to Plotter’s Ink and the Whitesboro Writers' Group's e-books: Halloween Musings & Amusings, Winter Writes, and The Whitesboro Writers' Present: Our Best Stories 2011-2015.

Meet Judy Jerome

Judith A. Jerome: Personal Reflections on Writing

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”

― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Stephen King’s comment on writing is the truthiest (Stephen Colbert’s word) ever.  At least that is my reality.  Writing begins with reading.  I have always been a voracious reader and over my span of many years, I have dabbled in the writing business itself.  It all really began when I was tapped to be Salutatorian of my high school graduation class and actually had to write a speech which I would need to deliver in front of friends and family.  But with the assistance of Mr. Robinson, my high school English teacher, I did it.  I actually have that address somewhere in one of my scrapbooks.

I loved Mr. Robinson, and believe me, L. R. Robinson was difficult to love.  He was our school principal who, upon retirement, became our English teacher.  In our K-12 building, we had learned early on that Mr. Robinson was strictly no nonsense and his hard nosed tactics were learned, at least according to the prevailing student grapevine, at the front line of battle during the Great War i.e. WWI.  

L. R. required us to write two essays a week and from these essays he would glean sentences notable mostly by the author’s total mutilation of the English language.  He would write these sentences on the blackboard and then with the assistance of the ‘audience’, they (the sentences) were shredded and then gradually re-constructed.  To have sentences from your essay appear on Mr. Robinson’s blackboard was to suffer the ultimate humiliation.  But did we learn!  Brutal honesty but education at its basic best.

I continued to write in college but honed my skills even more pointedly by becoming a technical writer at the BOCES where I worked as Director of library system which provided services for 113 schools.  I was writing policies and procedures and at the nascent edge of the internet, technology instructions and processes.  I had to learn it all myself and then write clearly enough that others would understand as well.

Then my life was changed when I was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship which took me to England for, initially, one year which lengthened into ten.  During that time, I polished my writing skills in various positions the most notable of which, at least in terms of my writing career, was as an IT Analyst with a private research firm.  We wrote and published technology analysis on the web and provided researched white papers on various emerging technology subjects.  Most of my stuff is available to access in the now deep archives of the world wide web.

Returning to the US, I was hired as a Director of Dunham Public Library which was actually a position which I held decades ago at the beginning of my career.  I created the first writing group at Dunham which has now flowered under the care and attention of Carol Alexander.  (Thank you, Carol).

There are many life-spaces to be filled in here which will emerge over time as I continue to write, now during my retirement years.  Needless to say, I feel inadequate but honored to be featured as Writer of the Month for the Whitesboro Writers’ Group.  Thank you again, Carol, and also, thank you, Mr. Robinson.

Meet Kat Morrisey

Another published author joins our growing group. You can meet her in person at a book signing at the library on May 18 from 5-7 PM, and she may turn up at Monday Writers's group too, on April 27th!

Kat Morrisey is the pen name for an author, lawyer, and college teacher in Upstate New York, whose ‘real’ name is Kristine. (She answers to both, so feel free to use either!) She writes across genres, but writing romance (whether it be paranormal, contemporary, dystopian, sci-fi, or any other sub-genre within romance) is where she feels most at home. In 2013 she decided to finally put herself, and her writing, out for readers to find, and did so by signing her first contract. The upside: she didn’t have to pay a lawyer to negotiate her own contract. The downside: negotiating her own contract was a lot more stressful than negotiating for someone else!

In November 2014 she finally told her friends and family she wrote romance novels, and even told them her pen name. And now? Well now she can’t stop writing, learning, and writing some more; nor does she ever want to.

Kat is a Whitesboro High School graduate. After college at St. Bonaventure University she went on to Syracuse University College of Law.

She has explained how she came to be a published author in a charming article, which we have published here: http://whitesborowriterswhatnot.blogspot.com/2015/04/coming-out-of-writing-closet.html

Visit Kat's website here: http://lostandfoundinfiction.com/

and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatMorriseyAuthor

Meet Barbara Epley-Shuck

Barb has been a member of the Library's Writers Group since 2011. Below (in her own words)  Barb tells us  all about her personal writing journey. Enjoy!--cja
_________________________________________________________________


I have always loved stories. I remember riding the trolley car down Colfax Ave in Denver CO to the big library where my mother would check out books for me. I particularly liked the travel stories. In the evening my father would read from Hurlburts Stories of the Bible.

When we moved back to a small town in Nebraska my friend Marj, who loved books, too, and I would walk to the library and sometimes sit under the tree in front of the library to read.
Avid reading taught me writing. When my parents bought a farm , there was quiet, steady physical work and time to exercise my mind with stories. So I started to write small articles and poems which were published in the Nebraska Farmer. Later I became an editor of a column called “Meet the Teens” where I collected information about outstanding teenagers state-wide and wrote about them.
In my classes , I was always the designated writer for class activities and naturally, editor of both the school newspaper and the yearbook.

I wanted to study journalism but my father said, “no”. I took education courses in my senior year or high school, went to summer school and found myself teaching a country school, ten students, ages five to twelve and I was seventeen years old. By staying home, I earned enough money to go back to college graduating two years later with an education degree with minors in music and English.

I was teaching grade school music the next year when I met and married my husband, Jim. I was to teach in Lincoln, NE as he was going to college on his GI Bill but I got pregnant. They wouldn't let me teach then so I got a job at the University of Nebraska as a secretary. There I qualified for a scholarship so I entered the University of Nebraska Journalism school, graduating in 1961 .
I was accepted into two journalism honoraries and named Theta Sigma Phi Woman of the Year much to my surprise during my last year. I worked as a general assignment reporter and photographer for the Lincoln Evening Journal, and as a market research interviewer.

When I moved to Whitesboro, we had a two year old son and my husband's job required many hours. I did not try to find news work, but I did edit the newsletter for League of Women Voters. Then I was elected to the YWCA board during the time we started the domestic violence programs. I was doing Publicity as a volunteer and they decided to give me a small stipend to continue. I wrote news stories, appeared on TV and radio advertising the YWCA programs for ten years. Then I moved on to inner city mission work at First Presbyterian church, Utica.

I put together a book of family stories years ago and want to organize the writing and add to it as a gift to my family and the universe. I do edit a newsletter for Am. Assn of University Women, help with newspaper publicity for League of Women Voters and some recreational writing with the Whitesboro writer's group. Most of my writing is sermons as I have been a substitute preacher since 19990 for the Presbyterian churches in the area .

Mentors are anyone who writes a good story that keeps me interested and engaged.
________________________

You can read some of  Barb's stories by clicking on these links:

http://dplmondaywriters.blogspot.com/search/label/Barbara%20Epley%20Shuck

http://whitesboronywriters.blogspot.com/p/3-stories-by-barbara-epley-shuck.html

Meet Paul T. DeBlois

One of the best parts of belonging to a writing group is meeting people we might otherwise never encounter, who take an interest in each other's creative endeavors, and offer valuable suggestions for improvement.  We meet once or twice a month in person, having spent hours thinking up and carefully wording a story that is meant to entertain, educate, delight, and surprise our colleagues. Sometimes, if we perform our roles well enough, we get to see writers grow by leaps and bounds. We have all benefited in many ways, and that rings true for this month's featured writer: Paul T. DeBlois.

"My father was an amateur writer but I can still remember hearing him pounding the keys on his old Smith Corona, " says Paul. " I think it rubbed off on me to write also. I started writing when I was a teenager. I loved spooky tales. I guess that is why I like Stephen King so well. " We see Paul's face light up whenever Stephen King's name comes up during group sessions, which is quite often.

Paul says of his writing group experience: "I like the people at the Monday Night Writers Group and Plotters Ink. I have gotten a lot of inspiration from them. When we share our stories with one another, it helps to improve my writing." We couldn't agree more!

Paul has written several fiction and non-fiction stories which you may read on our blogs, and we have also published some of his father's poems as well.

To read Paul's stories, click here:  http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/P.T.%20DeBlois

http://whitesborowriterswhatnot.blogspot.com/2015/01/35th-wedding-anniversary.html

http://dplmondaywriters.blogspot.com/search/label/P.T.%20DeBlois

To read Paul's father's poem and stories, click here:

http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/Paul%20J.%20DeBlois

http://whitesboropoetrywriters.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-verdict.html

Thanks for being a part of our group, Paul,  and also for bringing in new members!  Keep writing, friend!

Meet Dennis Kininger

Anyone who frequents our library is sure to recognize this familiar face, which belongs to Dennis Kininger (shown at right, next to the stuffed polar bear he once encountered at a steakhouse in Virginia).

Born in Duluth, Minnesota but raised in Oriskany, NY, where he lives today, Dennis has been an adult services reference librarian at the Dunham Public Library in Whitesboro, NY for the past twenty-one years and counting.

Dennis is one of our blog authors, but he is also the publisher of his own Amateur Press Association, Snicker-Snack, which will be releasing its twenty-eighth issue in March 2015.*

An avid historian, Dennis contributed work, with fellow writer Cheryl Pula, to the 2010 title: "With Courage and Honor" : Oneida County's Role in the Civil War.

As a long time fan of comic books and many related genres, Dennis has published numerous articles and reviews in the following fan magazines: Six-Guns and Saddles, Zine of Bronze, Comic Fan! and Dark Corridor.

If you would like to read some of Dennis's stories on our blogs, please click on these links:

http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/Dennis%20Kininger             and also

http://dplmondaywriters.blogspot.com/search/label/Dennis%20Kininger

 * Anyone interested in further details about Snicker-Snack is welcome to e-mail him at; dkininger@midyork.org

Meet Your Editor - CJ Alexander

You all know me - or of me. I'm your virtual editor, colleague and friend. I've been writing since the age of  5, or so I'm told, little stories, personal letters, journals, email, reports, essays, newsletters, blogs, here and there a poem.... compensated only by joy.


Why do I write? Mainly I just love the constant rearranging of squiggles on paper, from puns to punctuation, alliteration to analogy,  long sentences and paragraphs full of nothing new but worded in a different way-  MY way. I relish breaking all the rules of good writing, just for fun. And writing one-liners, ditto.





I love everything about writing, especially when I do it in my sleep.  How ideas descend on me the moment dawn pries open my eyes, or that they keep me from getting  enough hours of zzzzz's each night. The mad scramble to jot them all down as they float through the ethers, trying to imprint themselves on me before vanishing like invisible ink.



The feeling of  being quietly poised in front of my computer, where blank mind meets blank screen and then, suddenly, I'm panting and lightly perspiring as the Muse arrives and the screen starts to fill up, fingers twitching, flying all over the keyboard, fast furious and focused. Nouns conjunctions verbs periods. Sentences dangling participles phrases paragraphs. They take up a page, then two, then several. The earnest search for the just right synonym, thesaurus heavy on my lap, dictionary at the ready. The quest for the catchy title and the unexpected last line. The love of language expressed in  metaphors, innuendo and nuance, the getting out of my own way and letting something, the nascent writing spirit, do her thing. Tap tap tap.

The printer disgorges a first draft. I sigh, then start analyzing, sussing out funny typos and bad grammar, checking for weak spots and wrong words, better words. Small compliments to self, nice image, there. Red pen blue pen or pencil, cross outs all over the page. Note the growing pile of discarded drafts, 2, 3, 5, 7 of them. I get annoyed with myself and then email what I hope is a pretty good version to my best supporter and critic all the while revising, editing, never satisfied. The excitement and suspense of her forthcoming verdict. The practice sessions of reading the thing aloud, scared to bare my soul as I reveal the fruits of my labor to you, my colleagues, at group meetings. I write and write, have always written, not just because I can but because I must.


Writing is my way of howling at the moon.

Done writing,  I then read what others have written, encourage and promote the writers who let me do it. I will probably keep doing this until the day I die, or until I run out of ideas.

Heaven forbid!

_______________________________________________
Additional Information:

Formal Education:

• Graduated from Whitesboro Central School
• B.A. in English, minor in Speech & Drama and Education, SUNY Albany, cum laude
• Attended Utica College for Accounting 

Informal Education:

• Constantly reading in all genres, fiction and non
• Listening and observing people in the real world

Two careers:

• Teacher, 7th grade English 
• Public Accounting in several CPA firms. I also had my own bookkeeping and tax service on the side for about 20 years.

Miscellaneous:

• Lived in 3 states: New York, Arizona and California. Living far from home gives great perspective!
• My ancestors founded a library in the old country, which still stands and expands, maybe that's why I feel so at home in ours. 

Meet Susan Hansen

December 2014 Featured Writer:

Sue Hansen is one of the Reference Librarians at Whitesboro's Dunham Library. Always kind and cordial, she's there for us to address questions to when we need help. We are puzzling and puzzled patrons!   Okay, maybe sometimes we just want to know where to drop off our used book donations or locate the YA book section, but often as not she can point us in the direction of some very interesting materials to enhance our library experience. If we happen to have read something she's read, she's always glad to hear our opinion of the material. She'll even read books we have enjoyed and recommend, and discuss the book's themes with us afterward.  How rare a person is that!

Sue has been a member of the Whitesboro Writers Group since the beginning of this year.  This group writes fiction selections and shares insights on writing fiction.  Sue Blogs, which means she publishes online journal entries to the website www.blogger.com. Her entries are usually musings about events, technology, or just observations about funny situations.  She loves animals, including her cats, Missy and Anna.    A few entries about these two creatures are on her blog,  http://sueloves2blog.blogspot.com/ as well as on the Whitesboro Writers Group page on Plotters Ink,  http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/DIALOGUE

Sue has been excited to publish short adaptations of children's stories, such as Tove Jansson's "A Comet in Moominland", and "Tales from Moominvalley".  She finds the characters very quirky and insightful. They are called Moomins who live underneath the earth's surface.  They deal with tragic events in ways the reader may empathize with from weather disasters to fears and material loss.  The author's work has inspired Sue to write a few character pieces for the Whitesboro Writers Group.

Sue can be found tapping away at her keyboard, where she searches for books and information for library customers and staff.  Feel free to interrupt her at the library's Information Services Desk. She'll offer a friendly smile and a lot of ambiance to your library experience.

Meet Joan O. Scharf

One of the most important functions of our growing group of writers is to promote each others' creativity.  Joan Scharf's first book,  Hanging on a Twisted Line: A Collection of Shorts, was published in 2009.   It's full of short stories with plot twists and excellent dialogue. Each story is uniquely wrought and demonstrates the author's ability to "commune with her Muse". Her second book, Valentine Tales, is for younger readers. She has had two short stories as featured winners in the anthology Slices of Life, published by Peppertree Press.

Joan's latest production is Dark of the Island, scheduled to be released as an e-book in early September. (So, like, any day now! Congratulations, Joan!)

Well-chosen titles are an art form in themselves. Not only is her first book title itself a good example of that special talent, along with its "cheeky" image, but each story is aptly named. For instance:  DA8-Nite, Shade of the Past, The Ring Around, Photo Finish and so many more. But why not discover the book for yourselves? It's available to borrow from the Mid-York Inter-Library system. You can look it up on the library's website (see "More Links" tab above).

Joan has a perfect storm of a writer's background; it would seem that  a foray through the eclectic zone is a good route to productive creativity. She was born on a farm in the Catskills, majored in science at Utica College, earned her RN at Faxton School of Nursing, studied French at San Francisco State College -  and creative writing at Hodges University. Joan has meandered through various careers (something I personally believe to be of great value for writers) - she has been a waitress, receptionist, registered nurse, camp program director, pressed flower artist, traveler, author, wife and mother.  All this (a direct quote from Joan )… and I still can’t spell.

Perhaps... but she sure can write!   ---------- July 2014

Meet Cheryl Pula

Our featured writer for November 2014 is Cheryl Pula,  a face and presence familiar to many of us in the greater Mohawk Valley community and beyond. Your editor has known Cheryl for almost a decade and I thought I knew her well enough,  but I was still surprised by all of her accomplishments upon reading the information she provided for our "meet out writers" series. In a word: wow. This woman has had a busy, full career!

I encourage you to read Cheryl's professional 'bio" which appears in its entirety at the end of this longer than usual blog post. Meanwhile, here are some items of interest that she did not include and which I am happy to share.

Cheryl has been a contributing member of various local writing clubs, including a group in Bridgeport, * NY and the local Dunham Public Library Writers Group. You can read ten of her short prose pieces on the library's website, by clicking on this link: http://www.whitesborolibrary.org/book-groups/78  - just scroll down to "P" for Pula.

Cheryl has written a series of WWII novels that have become very popular with women as well as men. She has the knack of portraying her characters in believable and compelling ways that make you love 'em or hate 'em. Based on the excerpts I've seen, I know why.  She has a website that you can explore if you wish: http://8thmilitary.com

She has graciously provided us with two excerpts from her first military novel which you can read to get a sense of her style by following this link :http://plottersink.blogspot.com/2014/10/two-excerpts-from-childrens-crusade.html .




AUTHOR BIO as written by Cheryl Pula

A native of New York Mills, New York, Cheryl Pula is a retired Reference Librarian. She is a Regents graduate of New York Mills Jr.-Sr. High School, with a concentrate in science and mathematics. Cheryl attended Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, New York, where she received an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts, then went to SUNY Oswego, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in the Russian Language with a minor in German. She was on the Dean’s List at both schools. After substitute teaching in the New York Mills Union Free School District for five years for both foreign language and special education classes, she went back to school and received a Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she is a lifetime member of the University of Michigan Alumni Association. Her first library position was as the supervisor of the Lending Department at the Mid-York Library System in Utica, where she performed all the reference work for the system’s 43 member libraries. After almost ten years, she became the Head of the Adult Services Department at the Utica Public Library in Utica, then in 1987, the Reference Librarian at the Dunham Public Library in Whitesboro. Though officially retired in August 2011, she now works part-time at the New York Mills Public Library in New York Mills, NY.

In 1988, she was awarded the New York Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award. She served on the Board of Trustees of the New York Mills Public Library. Cheryl also teaches for the Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement at SUNYIT in Marcy, New York, teaching a variety of historical subjects to retirees who are interested continuing their education. She has taught courses on unsolved historical mysteries; the American Civil War; World War II; The Titanic and several other topics.

Cheryl was a founding member of the New York Mills Historical Society, and served as its first president in the late 1970’s. She is currently the village historian of New York Mills and President of The History Club, which she founded in Whitesboro in 1995. She is the club’s newsletter editor. She is also the founder, current secretary and newsletter editor of the General Daniel Butterfield Civil War Round Table in Whitesboro. She is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary of the Arthur Moran Post #66 in Camden, New York, as well as an honorary member of the Memphis Belle Memorial Association of Memphis, Tennessee. She is known around the central New York area for presenting a number of historical lectures (89 to be exact!) on topics from the Titanic to the first moon landing in July 1969. Cheryl was elected “Historian of the Year” by the Oneida County Historian’s Association in 2006. In 2010, she was listed in Who’s Who In America.

She is an author, having written on Irish immigrants to the Utica area in a book entitled Ethnic Utica, published in 1994 by Utica College. With her brother, she is co-author and co-editor of a book on the Civil War regiments from Oneida County, which was published by the Eugene Nassar Ethnic Studies Department of Utica College in November 2010 entitled, With Courage and Honor: Oneida County’s Role in the Civil War. She is a contributing author, co-editor and served as proofreader for The Polish-American Encyclopedia, published by McFarlane Publishers in January 2011. For her work on the Encyclopedia, she has just been awarded the Polish-American Historical Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award. She is author of a novel, the first in a proposed series about Eighth Air Force bomber crews in World War II England, titled The Children’s Crusade, was published in October 2011 by Whitehall Publishing. At this point, six more have been published: The Ragged Irregulars (April 2012); The Rookie (July 2012); A Wing and a Prayer (January 2013); Maximum Effort (July 2013); The Dogs of War (January 2014) and Above and Beyond (July 2014). The eighth in the series, Some Gave All is currently in the writing stage.

She has also written four non-fiction books on unsolved historical mysteries: It’s a Mystery: Getting Away With Murder; It’s A Mystery: Puzzles of World War II; It’s a Mystery: Where Did They Go? and It’s a Mystery: Strange Beasts and Beings.

BOOK:

Title: The Children’s Crusade: The Eighth Air Force Series, Book 1

Book Genre: Historical fiction

Publisher:Whitehall Publishing

Release Date: October 2011

Buy Link(s): www.8thmilitary.com; Amazon.com

Book Description: This is the first in a series of 7 books on the B-17 bomber crews in World War II England. All the “action sequences” are based on the actual experiences of men who flew with the 8th in the war, and were personally interviewed by the author. The story begins:

BOOK SYNPOSIS For “THE CHIDREN’S CRUSADE”:

It was February 1942 when two future B-17 pilots began their training from Primary to Advanced Flight School where they become best friends. Join Captain Jack Harrington (age 22), the pilot, a Nebraska farm boy; Lieutenant Matt Moore (age 21), the copilot who is half Cheyenne Indian; Lieutenant Dale Kennedy (22), the navigator, a high school teacher; Lieutenant Kenny Donnelly (21), the bombardier, the son of a multimillionaire; and gunners that include Sergeant Keith McNeil (24), a career Army man; Sergeant Greg Cerminaro (19), a college student until the war intervened; Sergeant Al Schulze (19), a bottle capper from a Wisconsin brewery; Sergeant Joe Angelino (21), a longshoreman; Sergeant Jim Robinson (20), a truck driver, and Sergeant Tad Furmanski (18), a Polish national who survived the horrors of the Auschwitz death camp, as they move to England and become members of the 324th Squadron of the 91st Bombardment Group (heavy), stationed at United States Army Air Force Station #121. Fly with the rookies through their first mission to bomb German airfields at Romilly-Sur-Seine, France, on December 20, 1942. Listen to their reactions to the shock of combat and relate what it is actually like to fly dangerous daylight precision bombing missions.

Oops, I got the town wrong first time around. it should be Bridgeport, not Brookfield. -ca

Meet Darius Blake

It is difficult to define the style of the inimitable Darius Blake. On the one hand, he is (as a rule)  a quiet and self-deprecating sort of person, and on the other hand, in his writing he is bold, erudite, and rather controversial, where he expounds with acerbic wit,  compared to other writers in Central New York.

He abides in the in-between state where words can either heal or reveal.  He holds up the mirror inscribed 'hypocrisy' to our faces and invites us to challenge what it is we see there. Sometimes, it is not a welcome reflection. Sometimes, though, we catch a glimpse of the mask we habitually wear, and decide it is high time we make our true selves known. Few individuals are called to do this, at whatever cost to themselves. That is the Darius  we introduce to you this month.  He is the writer that will make you think about what is fair and just. Or maybe, just think, period.

Darius is a frequent contributor to the Whitesboro Writers blogs.  Some of his rants, stories and poetry can be viewed  by clicking on these links: 

htttp://whitesborowriterswhatnot.blogspot.com/search/label/Darius%20Blake

http://plottersink.blogspot.com/search/label/Darius%20Blake

http://whitesboropoetrywriters.blogspot.com/search/label/Darius%20Blake

A special NEW BLOG featuring Darius Blake is in the works.  The first of his features can be found here: http://partnersinjest.blogspot.com/2014/09/i-wont-capitalize-brands-they-are.html

Darius, a life-long student, resides in upstate NY, where he spends his time eking out a living, writing and volunteering for various civic organizations. He has a BA in Journalism from Syracuse University and has been writing for both business and pleasure for over 25 years. Always looking for freelance and ghost-writing opportunities, Darius can be reached at dariusblakeNY@yahoo.com.

Mr. Blake also has three shorts available electronically through amazon.com - all available for 99 cents each. Links are below.

http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Farts-Edge-Everything-Book-ebook/dp/B0055MJA54/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411419475&sr=1-1&keywords=mind+farts+1

http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Farts-Tools-What-Should-ebook/ dp/B008AK88OW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411419950&sr=1-1&keywords=mind+farts+2

http://www.amazon.com/Mindfarts-3-bit-about-religion-ebook/dp/B009BV7AYS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411420025&sr=1-1&keywords=mindfarts+3

Reading something written by Mr. Blake is nothing if not illuminating, thought-provoking, and game-changing. Are you game?