September's Author Revealed

If you read yesterday's post, you know that I have the privilege of introducing a brand-new local author.  This author has been a life-long resident of Herkimer and attended Herkimer schools.   After graduating, he helped his father in "the family construction business."  In 2000, he felt a led to go in a totally different direction, by owning and running a local restaurant with his cousin.  When the restaurant closed in 2004, he returned to the construction business, this time establishing his own under his own name. That name is . . .

Rod Riesel!

Rod, who owns R. Riesel Home Improvements, has tried his hand at writing.  His first published book, Sleeping Dogs Lie, is currently in the final stages of printing as you read this.  Rod is very excited about this and Frank J. Basloe Library has arranged to host a book signing as soon as it cools down from the press!

I hope that you will come back again to learn more about Sleeping Dogs Lie, Rod and how he arrived at this place in his life . . .

being a published author!

Until next time . . .

Remember to answer the question/poll of the day in order to win a signed copy of Sleeping Dogs Lie by Rod Riesel.  Drawing to be held on October 1st.

New Month . . . New Rules . . . New Author!

Before I reveal some exciting changes to this blog and the monthly contest, I would like to offer my sincere appreciation for local author Dorothy Stacy!  She was extremely patient this summer, the summer that I am now calling "My Summer of Transition."  Graduating from one college, preparing to move on to another, one child graduating from High School, sending her off to her own first year of college, and preparing another child for his senior year of H.S. and all the busyness of college visits, senior pictures, etc, etc. left me little time to properly blog.  Thank you Mrs. Stacy for understanding.  I hope that you all did get a chance to head to the library to check out her Erie Canal Cousins series and look for a special event at Frank J. Basloe Library with Mrs. Stacy in the near future!

Now to announce some changes.  I will still continue to bring local authors to you via this blog, but winning is now easier!

All you have to do to enter to win is to answer the question or poll of the day!  Answer as few or as many times as you like, but every time you answer, your name will be entered to win!  It's that simple!  

The only other things that I ask is that you read this blog from time to time to check out the wealth of information that come from our local authors, and if you like Frank J. Basloe Library, please encourage all your friends to "like" us too!  

• Recommend our Facebook page to them-we want to be their friends, too!  
• Encourage your friends online and in person to go to the library to check out the exciting things happening and check out some books and other media while they are there.
• Invite your friends to attend any one or all of Frank J. Basloe Library's events!  The more the merrier!
• Follow us on Pinterest, too!  http://pinterest.com/basloelibrary/.  We pin lots of things of interest to everyone that we don't share on Facebook!
• Encourage the children in your life to read and to get their very own library card!

I am very excited to bring to you a brand new local author this month in September.  A life-long resident of Herkimer and local business owner has written his very first novel and has agreed to tell you about it via this blog!  Want to know who it is?  I will reveal his name and book tomorrow!

Until then . . .

Again I am being forced to look at the calendar and realize that the final days of summer are swiftly passing by a lot quicker than I would like!  I also realize that tomorrow is the last day that I will be spending telling you about the library's new friend, Dorothy Stacy and the day that we will draw for her book.  I hope that you have enjoyed reading about Mrs. Stacy and have taken the opportunity to visit her own website to learn more about her business ventures and writing.  I sincerely hope that you have also made a beeline for Frank J. Basloe Library and have checked out one or all of the Erie Canal Cousins Series.

Look for the last word of advice from Mrs. Stacy to all you would be authors later on Wednesday, as well as the announcement of the winner of the first book in the series, signed by Mrs. Stacy.

Until then, remember . . .

"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."  C.S. Lewis (www.goodreads.com).

   

The path to becoming published

     Several months ago, at the start of this blog, I wrote to you about Jason Foster's journey into self publishing and why that was the right choice for him.  A couple of months ago, Cano Davy and Marcus Z. told us the route that they took by co-authoring a book with someone who was an experienced self-publisher. Mrs. Dorothy Stacy chose yet another path for her when she decided to write and publish her Erie Canal Cousins series.

 Mrs. Stacy didn't just self-publish . . . she opened her very own publishing company! This is her story . . .

         "When I wrote the first book in this series, I submitted the first chapter to a local publishing 
          house that published that type of book. I received a response to send in the rest of the book
          for a reading. I did so and waited for a response. I received a letter saying that they loved the 
          book and would probably publish it. They were just waiting for a final okay. I waited about 6
          months and still no response so I e-mailed them about it and they gave me the same story. 
          After another year passed with some more e-mails between us, finally my husband decided
          he would check this out himself by going there. To make a long story short, they sent the 
          manuscript back a few days later and said they were not going to publish it. Of course, I was
          devastated but in the meantime I had been looking into some printing companies that other 
          writers had used and I decided I COULD do this myself. But I would do it the right way. I
          opened my own publishing company, Blackberry Hill Press, learned all there was to know 
          about publishing, performed all the necessary tasks, printed it out and sent it to Morris 
          Publishing (the printing company I went with.) With my instructions and pictures they put the 
          front and back cover together the way I wanted it to go and were very helpful to a first time 
          publishing author."


For more information, go to Mrs. Stacy's webpage at http://dorothystacy.com/?page_id=20 about Blackberry Hill Press.

Until next time, I will leave you with this quote from Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 


"No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books (www.quotegarden.com)."

You can thank my confusion for the extension!

     My, oh my! Where has July gone?  This morning after I had cleared the cobwebs from my brain, I sat down at the computer to check the library's Facebook page and saw that Leslie Paul, the director, had posted a reminder that Nancy Saunders, puppeteer was going to be there this Friday.  In the back of my head, I knew that this special children's visitor was going to be there on August 3rd.  Confused and dazed, after my daughter got out of the shower, preparing for her work day at the library, I asked her to double check with Leslie or Nancy which was correct-THIS Friday, or August 3rd?  She gave me a look that said it all, but she voiced her opinion of my crazy question.  "Mom, THIS Friday IS August 3rd."

     Oh, dear.  In my hesitancy to see this summer pass by quickly, I realized that I was a week behind the calendar!  Which also meant that I am a week behind in this blog, among everything else!  Perhaps it was my subconscious dealing with the impending date when my firstborn will fly the nest and head off to college, or perhaps it was that summer is my favorite season and I hate to see it go.  Even though the calendar says that summer lasts through the third week of September, once August 1st comes, summer seems to fly by in a flurry of activity.

     This August, not only will we be preparing for "our" first year of college, but we are also preparing for our "baby's" Senior year of High School, which means clothes shopping, senior picture taking, getting him set to retake his college entrance exams and driver's test, and finishing up college visits.  Not to mention my transfer to another school to finish my degree.  Yikes!  It's no wonder I am a bit confused!

     In all this confusion, I can't help but wish, just a little bit, for a time that was a bit simpler, like Dorothy Stacy portrays in her Erie Canal Cousins series.  Wishing for time to move at a much slower pace, a time to enjoy the simpler pleasures in life, not wanting to see our daughter leave just quite yet.

     Since I have been under the influence of "brain fog" for a few weeks, I am extending July's contest through August 15th, so there is still time to enter to win one book in the Erie Canal Cousins series, signed by Dorothy Stacy.  You can thank my confusion for the extension!

     Today is National Cousins Day, a day to celebrate the unique relationship between cousins.  Having been an only child, my cousins were especially dear to me.  I was the youngest of the cousins that lived around here and my aunt watched me while my parents worked, so many days of my childhood were spent trailing after my cousins.  My cousin Billy, although I am sure that he balked many times, let me follow him around like a lost puppy. He used to take me out for subs at Big Bill's on Albany Street. He taught me to walk on stilts-really tall ones that he had made himself, and he helped me ride his unicycle.  My cousin Ron, a Casey Kasem Top 40 fan and an amateur musical buff let me listen to all the "cool" music that was too old for me-except he used to put his hands over my ears whenever he played his "A Chorus Line" album during one particular song and whenever Hall and Oates' Rich Girl song came on the radio.  My cousin Donna used to let me play Barbies with her all all the time, even when she got too old for them, and we would get mad together when her sister Sandy, a tomboy all the way, would bring in her G.I. Joe's and disrupt our girly play.
But Sandy was not left out of the fun either-she and I would play board games forever.  I still have the monopoly game that my cousins gave me for my tenth birthday-it's the same one that my own children still play!

    I have so many memories of growing up with my cousins.  I remember as clear as it was yesterday the day that our grandfather died, us kids were out back of our grandmother's house trying to stay clear of the adults.   We were playing whiffle ball with the toys that our grandparent's kept in their garage for us and I was upset about the day's events and wanted to hug Billy.  This would have been fine, except I got too close while he was batting and he smacked me smack dab in the mouth.  I had a fat lip for days.

     I remember sleepovers at our grandmother's house in our sleeping bags that she had got for all us kids.  I remember walking over to the corner store with quarters that she had given us to buy "whatever we wanted."  Back then, you could get a whole bag of actual penny candy, a glass bottle soda, or a twin pop and some candy.  I remember how proud I was that my cousins were older so whenever I was with them, I didn't need a baby sitter.  We used to walk to the public pools in Herkimer and Mohawk together.  Since they were older, they would ditch me once we got there to hang with their friends, but I always knew they loved me because they would come check on me.

    My cousins were with me when my Dad took us sledding behind the elementary school in Mohawk.  My dad loved my cousins, too.  One year, my dad bought me one of those really long wooden toboggans.  It was kind of silly, being an only child, but he really bought it so that all us cousins could fit on at once, with him on the back.  It was this way one particular time-the time my dad flew off the sled and literally broke his back.  Us kids loaded him on the toboggan and pulled him all the way back down Church St to our grandma's.  What a sight we must have been!

   I have hundred's of cousin stories and it saddens me that we have all gone our separate ways as adults.  We no longer share commonalities, but it is these stories that come rushing back into my thoughts when I read Book 2 of Dorothy Stacy's Erie Canal Cousins.  


     Mrs. Stacy has 23 grandchildren and it is my impression that the relationship between cousins was a legacy that she wanted to leave for her grandchildren through her series.  She writes of the intricacies involved between cousins-the same as it would be for siblings-sharing special memories, working and playing together, getting mad at each other and making up with one another.  


If you haven't had the opportunity to read one of Mrs. Stacy's Erie Canal Cousins books, I know for a fact that Frank J. Basloe Library has to borrow, so I highly encourage you to head on over there and check one or all five out!  And don't forget to enter this month's contest, and you may win a signed copy of one of the books.

Please feel free to share special stories of you and your cousins here and don't forget to tell your cousins that you love them.

http://www.sodahead.com

   Yesterday, I finally had a chance to sit and relax a bit. Snuggled up in my recliner chair with the Sunday OD on my lap, I flipped to the section that has all of the human interest stories and on the front page was an article about the Erie Canal (http://www.uticaod.com/living/x42014651/10-things-to-know-about-the-Erie-Canal) and as I read the article, I was reminded how blessed we are in our area to have people who appreciate the beauty that our region offers, as part of God's creation and man-made creation, and who want to share all that they know about our valley with those of us who take the time to listen and read. Dorothy Stacy is one of those people from whom we can learn from about history in our area-and the Erie Canal is her expertise, since she has written five books about life on the Erie Canal!

  All that our Mohawk Valley and state has to offer, is surrounded in such rich history that teaches us about the generations who came before us and how they shaped the region for us today.  Some of it was good, and some of it was not so good, but all of it is alive with colorful stories of men, women and children who shared vision and imagination and put those qualities to task by putting their hearts, souls, strength and sweat into all that they did.  This is what Dorothy Stacy conveys in her life, as well as her books.

    Mrs. Stacy has led a full and interesting life and her passion for history plays a HUGE part of it.  Aside from being the author of the Erie Canal Cousins book series for middle readers, she is a member of the Oneida County Historical Society, Vice President of the Town of Paris Historical Society, and author of the Town of Paris Historical Society's newsletter.  I cannot do justice to Mrs. Stacy's long list of accomplishments and interests, so here are links to her website and blog:

http://dorothystacy.com/ (Check out her "about me" page-you'll be amazed.  A word of caution: after reading all about her, you might feel like you are a slacker-ha, ha!)

http://dorothystacy.wordpress.com/  (a quick check of the blog reveals Mrs. Stacy's new book series!)


Next time . . . Stories about cousins.