family history

Author Panel – historical fiction and family history – Barnes and Noble – Scottsdale

October 17, 2011 by Patricia Brooks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SCOTTSDALE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS

Patricia L. Brooks, president/founder

patricia@plbrooks.com 480-250-5556
Scottsdale Society of Women Writers partners with Barnes and Noble Booksellers

WHEN: Nov 1st, 2011 6:30-8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Barnes and Noble Booksellers – 90^th St., Shea Blvd., west of the
101, Scottsdale

WHO: Three award winning authors

Anna Dalhaimer Bartkowski, Sharyl Bales and Marcia Fine

WHAT: Share their writing stories and sign books

Value Meals on the Volga, Stalked and Paper Children

HOW: RSVP Patricia L. Brooks, patricia@plbrooks.com or 480-250-5556

ANNA BARTKOWSKI – Savor the food your grandmother used to make! Join author Anna Dalhaimer Bartkowski as she shares the making of Value Meals on the Volga, the family history cookbook.

Whether you are a gourmet chef or a novice cook, you can make delectable delights in your kitchen. By sharing original recipes dating from the 1700’s, Bartkowski connects with her ancestors, the founding members of the erman-Russian villages of Mariental and Reinwald, Russia. The Value Meals on the Volga cookbook guides you with step-by-step instructions and full color photos so you, too, can create wonderful memories for future generations. Anna Dalhaimer Bartkowski pursues projects which revolve around her passion, genealogy and family history. Her goal is to bring everyone’s ancestry and family stories to life.

She is the author of three books which celebrate family history: Value Meals on the Volga, Maggie Visits Grandpa, and Maggie Visits Argentina. Anna
also edited Thirty Years in the Desert, An Anniversary Celebration of the
Arizona Sun Chapter which was a compilation of member’s unique family
stories.

Anna conducts workshops and presentations to inspire the writer and genealogist within all of us. From travels to Argentina to re-unite families torn apart during World War II, to offering ideas to jump start your own research, Anna has been the catalyst for over ten years.

Anna served as editor of the quarterly magazine publication of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Journal.
She is the Past President of the AHSGR Arizona Sun Chapter and actively
participates in the Serious Scribes Writer’s group and the Scottsdale Society
of Women Writers. As a life member of both the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia and the German Russian Heritage Society, Anna has conducted workshops and presentations at many of their conventions.

Cell phone: 480 229-0873

Website: www.infiniteadventure.weebly.com

Blog: www.valuemeals.blogspot.com

www.writetotheheartofthematter.blogspot.com

Email: amb0457@cox.net

SHARYL BALES – After retiring from an active career as an insurance executive specializing in medical malpractice insurance, Sharyl began to turn her extensive experience in writing technical articles to her first love: novels. She has written one historical novel and completed the first two novels in her Signe series. She is currently working on the third volume of this series.

sharylbales@msn.com

Stalked Smart, sexy, sassy: The Carlson women – mother Signe and daughters Lia, Brittany, Jenna – are the beginning of a dynasty. American royalty of the ‘hard won, pulled up by the bootstraps’ kind. The first novel in the series – Stalked – welcomes the reader to the world of the rich and the famous: Hollywood, 1970 where middle daughter Brittany, who has just been signed to star in what is being haled as the next Oscar winning film, is being stalked presumably by a madman. How do they find the stalker and will they be in time? Knowing he is the only one she trusts to help, Signe brings handsome Mick McKenna into the picture even though she is aware that she will have to tell her daughters about certain events in her early life that she has kept to herself for many years.

Self-published on www.lulu.com, the second book in the series takes place in 1972. Personally involved in a case at the request of an old friend, Mick McKenna goes missing in the mountains of Nicaragua. Although a team of operatives from McKenna International are working on this case as well, including Signe Carlson’s youngest daughter, Jenna, Signe is not one to sit on the sidelines. She goes into action and within three hours of receiving the news. She has a plan and she intends to find Mick.

MARCIA FINE – Spending her formative years in South Florida, the only child of New York expatriates with a penchant for the Bohemian lifestyle, Marcia’s best friend was a good book. Thus the award winning book Paper Children an immigrant’s legacy came to be.

At Florida State University she majored in English and then taught high school for five years while working toward a Masters Degree in English Education and a Certificate of Concentration in Women’s Studies. Marcia also taught freshman composition at Arizona State University.

In 2000 Marcia began to pursue her dream of writing. Having written two satires about the upscale Scottsdale crowd, she then took a different direction and completed two more books.

Marcia’s fifth novel, Stressed in Scottsdale, expands her satirical series about Jean Rubin into the arena of politics and the environment. With her unique eye she pokes fun at the denizens of an upscale community while tackling serious issues of corruption and air quality issues.

Marcia states her motivation quite simply…

“I love the written word. I have stories to tell.”

MARCIA FINE “Every Woman has A Story!”

Marcia is going to share how she has formatted a writing career in two different genres to become a prize-winning author. Eleven years ago she had the desire to write, stories to tell and nothing written down. The journey of lessons learned, her encouragement and suggestions will inspire you!

Marcia Fine: www.marciafine.com blog: http://jeanrubinblog.com

BOOK REVIEW Paper Children – an immigrant’s legacy

September 10, 2011 by Patricia Brooks

Marcia Fine likes to show-off her charming wit and skill at satire in her books about Scottsdale, but her narrative fiction based on her grandmother’s immigration to the United States prior to WWII is in my opinion her life’s work.

Such is this author celebrated for her award winning novel Paper Children: an
immigrant’s legacy claiming the Best Books Finalist Award, USA Book News; the Foreword Finalist Book of the Year award and the Eric Hoffer Independent Publishing competition finalist status.

The book is about a young aristocratic Jewish woman growing up in Poland in the early 20^thcentury in a sheltered and refined environment.
She lives within the walls of Jewish aristocrats in Warsaw oblivious to
the ominous changes going on in Warsaw with the beginnings of the Nazi invasion. The story continues its eventful trek with second and third generations.

Grandmother Paulina’s “matchmaker” marriage is one we all think we know from the little knowledge we gentiles have of Jewry. The story of the grandmother and the man of “her match” intersect through her father’s successful business. Although neatly arranged, the story winds
around years of an organized attempt on Paulina’s part to not go to America
with her new husband.

The bond of the Jewish family is beautifully illustrated, showing us both love and loss throughout the book.

Even when the gypsies predict she will marry an older man and go to America she questions why she would want to make the journey. But the day finally comes when immigration is eminent and the story moves to New York – not through Ellis Island but by cruise ship known only to the European aristocracy.

At 250 pages her novel is broken up into three books. First, is the Grandmother Paulina’s story, the aristocrat who learns the hard facts of Jewish life. Second, is the mother, Rachel, the rebellious
one who takes her own path to learn about her family heritage that she later comes to appreciate. And third is Mimi’s story that gives us the Jewish girl raised by two women caught in the middle of the old and new worlds of Jewry.

Being Jewish in America can be cultural or religious or both. Fine keeps
us fascinated with how old world religion can dissipate as the immigrant becomes more Americanized. It was exciting reading to learn how this happens and why it can happen.

Fine’s research into her culture, as well as her religioin and the Hebrew language, is a gift to the reader. She visited not only New York and Miami, but Warsaw, Poland where it all began.

Letters written on onion skin that belonged to her grandmother are beautifully constructed into the crux of the story. They’re from her great-grandparents
who wrote them in Polish and Yiddish in a loving and naive way as they
witnessed the Nazi takeover. Fine found the perfect person to translate the letters. They add much to the authenticity of the story.

Fine’s book is good enough to inspire a movie or a Lifetime TV show. Her
attention to detail is incredible and her use of dialogue and storytelling hit
the mark for this reader. She could easily weave the three women’s stories together even more and make a documentary about Jewish aristocracy that so many Americans may not know existed prior to WWII.

There are many visuals of the horrors of war and the beauty of wealth in this family’s dynamics portrayed in the book. They could be readily transferred to the big or small screen because of Fine’s quality descriptions of the characters, events and scenery of the time.

The title becomes clear as we learn of her letters and the importance of their communication to the story. Beautifully written by the great-great
grandparents back in the old country of Poland, and later analyzed by Fine, they’re a cornerstone to the story and differentiate it from the others out there today.

There’s no e-book, this book exists as a solid object; the physical turning of the pages reflect the passing of time, the generations living through decades of their lives. The weight of the book and the paper in your hands is a critical part of the understanding of the strength of the story that needed to be told properly and correctly.

Fine has captured her history and the cultural and religious aspects of her heritage and should be commended even further for her efforts.

MEMORABLE MEMOIRS and you

October 31, 2008 by Patricia Brooks

Good Morning!

Memoir writing is personal and intimate. It is for you first. It can be for family, for friends, to heal, to leave a legacy or to tell a story, to educate, to inform, but many times to serve a unique purpose. Here are ideas I use in my workshop – Memorable Memoirs. They should be helpful to you. These bits work for me and were accumulated from various sources that I deem reliable.

My first memoir – Gifts of Sisterhood – was to honor my sister and celebrate her life that impacted me with gifts for a lifetime. Little did we know the book would take on a life of its own and the workshop Journey from Grief to Gratitude. It was first to take us through the grieving process after she passed away from lung cancer, and later to carry our mission: Share her courage and wit through her many gifts.

The ultimate goal was to bring attention to lung cancer and the 70,000 women who die from the disease each year, thus the Stop Smoking Sister campaign was born. Your journey will be different. Mine took me home to Ireland and a chance to write about it in my last chapter, about taking my sister’s spirit with me to County Tipperary. Yours will be the same in many ways, and unique to you.

Best of luck to you as you prepare to launch your Memorable Memoir. Take what works for you and let me know your questions or comments – we will work together. I am at the third revision stage of my second memoir – this one on my two-times experiencing violent crime and now thriving after the journey through PTSD. SEE handout below – HAPPY WRITING!

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n What is a Memoir Story?

n Telling us about your MYSTERY in a new way – who are you?

n What Memoir Writing is all about

n Being courageous, compassionate – enduring personal frustrations

n Sharing wisdom, private truths, INTIMACY – making sense of life

n What is the Memoir’s significance?

n Express experience with FEELINGS – Show us who you are and what you believe

n Who do we Write for and Why?

n Family, friends, ourselves, those lost – To heal ourselves or others

n Because we must – our VOICE must ring – truth and clarity

n How do we Write and about What?

n Inner truths, REJOICING – Adventures, spiritual quest – Injustices or overcoming adversity

n The Journey of Writing for Yourself

n Personal fulfillment – Spiritual experience – Anticipate the journey

n See yourself as the “HERO” of the story – not the victim or angelic

n You as the Protagonist/Hero

n Know something must die, to be REBORN -End with a burst of energy, transform

n The Journey of Writing for Healing

n Guide your own life with empowerment – be profoundly human – explore you

n Know yourself, your uniqueness – REVELATIONS of important moments

n The Passion of Writing for Others

n Share yourself – reap REWARDS and spirit of community – not for revenge or self-service

n Consider the Story to be Told

n Don’t just write down everything – Invent and create your story from natural sound

n Input EMOTIONS and meaning – Do your research – Know characters intimately

n Ending with Happy or Sad Impact

n Always an opportunity for book #2 – Beginning and ending are YOURS inconveniently

n OPTION #1 – The Yellow Brick Road

n Sections of maturing – Life is in cycles – linking KEY events – Interrelated stepping stones

n OPTION #2 – The Critical Piece of the Pie

n PIVOTAL events – Any place in time – Learned – Realized – Desired – What changed?

n OPTION #3 – Weaving the Web

n Use of a THEME – passion and/or purpose – Play with time – Conflicts and/or struggles

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