Just Write Books - Blog

Russian Historian tells His Story

5/24/2019

Robert Williams' autobiography could be the template for your own

Robert Williams describes the world that surrounds him and his family as he travels distance and time through his years. He has included photos of family and places. His story is flavored with interest and good humor.

In From Away: Maine Origins of a Russian Historian, Williams dives into his genealogy and reveals that many of his ancestors lived in or summered in Maine. He ties his and his wife’s blood to the land pointing to his family going to its summer camp on Kezar Lake in Lovell, Maine, generations on. Music is a recurring theme in Williams' life and he has sang with barbershop quartets in most of the communities where he landed. But more than anything else, Williams has always been a writer. His jobs required it and he enjoyed adding to the body of Russian history.

Robert (right) and his step-brother, John Vinton, stand atop Baldface with more mountains in the background. Williams's love of the mountains and hiking began early.

Since his youth, the camp on Kezar Lake has gone through many changes. Attempts from his father at getting electricity installed led to proper equipment being brought in until the lake house was properly wired. Williams learned cutthroat versions of bridge, hearts, and canasta from his grandmother between going hiking, boating, and fishing. Neighbors through the years made their summers different all the time. Some allowed Williams and his family to walk on their docks, sharing the lake. One neighbor in particular decided to shoot at people trying to walk on her dock, scaring off local fishermen.

Williams relocated from one place to another in his time as a professor, working in North Carolina, DC, Munich, and many other places, teaching Russian History. He went to that camp on the lake every year as an adult until he finally retired from his job as a professor. Then, Williams moved to Lovell, Maine, and subsequently to Topsham, Maine.

Kezar Lake, the view from the family summer camp and the location of many of Williams fond memories.

Williams's book, The Historian's Toolbox is being released in its fourth edition. His autobiography brings to fourteen the number of books he has penned.

Just Write Books LLC, an independent publishing company based in Topsham, Maine, publishes Maine books by Maine authors telling Maine stories. JWB uses its trademarked High Point Publishing System with state-of-the-art technology mixed with old-fashioned writing, editing, publishing, and marketing skills to help writers become authors and authors reach their publishing goals.

Bob Beringer's Guide to Living Unafraid

3/11/2019

Cover of the book Living Unafraid A the End of Life

Robert (Bob) and Peggy Beringer shared a 59-year marriage, including the final two years in which Peggy weakened and died. Bob then wrote the story of their life together and how they managed its concluding months.

“Living Unafraid at the End of Life” is utterly factual and explicit about what happened and how they felt about it. Somehow it does so in a very comforting and reassuring way.

It is a quietly inspiring little book.

About the Author: Robert (Bob) Beringer of Topsham, an unretired former Presbyterian minister who is volunteer chaplain at the Thorton Hall rehab/nursing facility and leader of Community Bible Studies at The Highlands, where he also co-chairs Vesper Services, and he is chair of the welcome committee at The Highlands.

Born in Basking Ridge, N.J., Bob holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell and two master’s from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Peggy Beringer

Robert Beringer

He began his ministry as associate minister in Bound Brook, N.J., in 1959, then was minister at Hopewell (N.J.) Presbyterian Church for 20 years. Later, he served as minister at the Metuchen Presbyterian Church for 18 years, concurrently lecturing at Princeton and serving as visiting minister at six other churches.

During this time, he started his summer service at Culver Lake Christian Chapel in Bashville, N.J., and continued for 23 years. He returned to Basking Ridge as Associate Pastor, then Pastor. While there, he began his connection with the Presbyterian Nursing Homes of New Jersey, which includes 3,500 nursing homes.

He moved to Maine in 2013 to “retire” at The Highlands.

Bob is widowed from his beloved wife of 59 years. The couple raised four children and loved eight grandchildren.

Just Write Books, an independent publishing company based in Topsham, Maine, publishes Maine books by Maine authors telling Maine stories. JWB uses its trademarked High Point Publishing System with state-of-the-art technology mixed with old-fashioned writing, editing, publishing, and marketing skills to help writers become authors and authors reach their publishing goals. This year, JWB added the High Point Books imprint to expand its reach beyond the borders of Maine.

The People & the Idiots

3/8/2019

Daniel Hawes's Dedication of The People & the Idiots
To all children
(young and old)
who were raised in abusive cults
and now seek freedom.

The People and the Idiots by Daniel Hawes is a true account of a man who grew up in a cult. His parents had joined a group of people who called themselves synergists, led by a man named John Polk Allen. Hawes had experienced torment and abuse at the hands of the synergists he grew up with, split from his mother, his father, and his two siblings. The book details his life from when he, at a very young age, remembered his parents joining this group to when he got his life going his way as a young man.

From being forced to work hour after hour and day after day, to mandatory drama practices, to being ordered around and battered by the adults, Hawes’s tale is one of child abuse and neglect in this cult environment. He made friends only with the other children, who were called people, and collectively hated the adults, called idiots in the Synergias they called home. While names have been changed and faces blurred, the experiences themselves are very real. The recollections are sure to bring a chill to the spine of any reader. “... Everyone had been abused in some way, some much worse than I.”

In 1994, between his time fighting fires in Montana and moving to Maine, he and others who had grown up in and left the Synergias came forward and spoke of their experiences for an article published in the Arizona Daily Star. Later on, he was urged by the late Herb Rosedale, Esq. to write The People and the Idiots, in order to expose the truth of the Synergias to the world in a wider scope than one article.

“Ultimately, Hawes’s narrative is one of triumph, as he manages to escape the cult, adjust to life in the larger world, and forge an independent identity, Hawes has a remarkable, often shocking story to tell, with wide resonance for the world today. In The People & the Idiots, he tells that story in precise and often heartbreaking detail. Readers will not soon forget this vivid memoir.” ~ Professor Shawn Rosenheim, Williams College.

“Nothing is more telling about an intentional community than how it treats and teaches children. Daniel Hawes describes in visceral detail his horrifying experience growing up among the Synergists led by Johnny Dolphin Allen. I first started tracking Allen’s cult in 1975. The People & the Idiots gave me deeper insight into how pathologically elitist and inhumane Allen’s teachings were.” ~ Joe Szimhart, Cult Study Expert

Just Write Books, an independent publishing company based in Topsham, Maine, publishes Maine books by Maine authors telling Maine stories. JWB uses its trademarked High Point Publishing System with state-of-the-art technology mixed with old-fashioned writing, editing, publishing, and marketing skills to help writers become authors and authors reach their publishing goals. This year, JWB added the High Point Books imprint to expand its reach beyond the borders of Maine.

Woodshed on the Moon: Chute Responds to Thoreau in Poetry

3/6/2019

Robert M. Chute lives in Poland, Maine

Robert M. Chute returns with the republication of his book filled with poetry centered on Henry David Thoreau, Woodshed on the Moon. He has read Thoreau’s work throughout his life, then wrote his first response poem to Thoreau’s first journal entry. The book itself is filled with his musings in relation to Thoreau, hence the dedication to the philosopher. Its introduction reveals the meaning of the title, in that it stems directly from a quote of Thoreau, in which he says, “The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.” Thus, the title, Woodshed on the Moon.

With a gentle voice, Chute talks about simple goings-on among philosophical pieces, as with the poems In the Maine Woods and Sugaring Off. Other poems have both real-world wanderings and philosophical wonderings, direct addresses to Thoreau, musings alongside his spirit, and so much more. Each poem is beautifully crafted, sparking a little bit of the feeling Chute must have felt as he was writing and refining them. Each one elevates Thoreau with reverence.

The cover of the book Woodshed on the Moon

A drawing of Walden's Cabin

Succession
My years have seen the overgrowth
of stony pasture and the brush-bordered
trout-tumble of Clark’s Brook. We accept
casual acceptance of grass, goldenrod,
thistle, gray birch and pine. But suddenly
surveyor’s flags appear. Scarlet bunting
marks pinned corners and blazed line.
chainsaw, tractor, builder, and the people
follow: crabs creeping from borrowed
shell to borrowed shell. Long ago
in Concord Thoreau knew, in dreams
saw the Devil hold the rod. Henry sighted,
signaled, and a line was drawn.

Just Write Books, an independent publishing company based in Topsham, Maine, publishes Maine books by Maine authors telling Maine stories. JWB uses its trademarked High Point Publishing System with state-of-the-art technology mixed with old-fashioned writing, editing, publishing, and marketing skills to help writers become authors and authors reach their publishing goals. This year, JWB added the High Point Books imprint to expand its reach beyond the borders of Maine.

Maine Guide Shares Allagash stories in New Book

2/15/2019

The cover of the book

“Through experiences of my own, I have discovered how to camp comfortably using old techniques mixed with a small collection of modern equipment. People who know me wonder how I stay alive, and why so many odd things occur around me. I don’t have a logical answer to these questions, but I do claim to enjoy the outdoors more than most, and I’m willing to try almost anything in the seclusion of my second home, the forests of Maine,” so says Jeffrey Howatt, Master Maine Guide.

With a witty voice and an upbeat attitude, Jeffrey Howatt relates many adventures on the Allagash Waterway, St. Croix, and Sandy Rivers spent among leading groups to enjoy the outdoors, taking people out camping, and handling his math students. Among the stories are tips and tricks that can aid anyone going camping in the Maine wilderness, especially, as Howatt relates that help can be a day or two away.

“Maine’s abundance of nature offers thousands of ecosystems, each performing in their own private theater, which captures our interests and provides enjoyment free to those who seek it,” Howatt enthused.

Photo of the Author, Jeffrey Howatt

A moose swimming through the river

The tales are told in short form, with a new story every couple of pages, making this a good read on tired nights on the riverbanks. From telling about landing a trophy bass (or perhaps the bass landed itself) to reminiscing about a wallet lost down an outhouse hole, to near-death experiences and beautiful sunrises, Howatt brings the realities and beauties of Maine’s most remote locations to life. Each story is captivating, so it may be a good idea to set a timer to keep yourself from reading well after bedtime and missing the fiery sunrises the rivers of Maine have to offer.

There are frightful experiences, both real and imagined. A man thought there were venomous snakes, no species of which lives in Maine, on a Maine riverbank. Another nearly got lost in the woods at night. A young lady had an asthma attack going up a mountain. Howatt himself ended up with a fishing lure in his nose. These stories and more remind us to be careful of what we try and know as much of the possible hazards of an area where we plan to travel.

Group canoes chilling on the shoreline

Jeff Howatt with a big fish he caught

As far as humor, many of Howatt’s stories are chock-full of it. The lure story has a happy ending, and two men are sure to be laughing about their experiences now. There is also one about a coyote skull getting cleaned and a visitor wanting some of the “beef stew” cooking. One young man thought that deer and moose were the same species, even asking at what age does a deer turns into a moose. Yet another tells of a rather unfortunate bicycle incident, but details won’t be given here, as it would spoil the fun.

Howatt says, “I have met many challenges and observed great beauty traveling these areas. These lift my spirit: watching the mist come off a beaver bog on a cool summer morning only to be disturbed by a native brook trout leaping at a flying insect for breakfast, hiking to the top of a mountain in the moonlight to watch the sunrise and being visited by a peregrine falcon.”
A ninth generation Mainer, Jeffrey Howatt teaches math in the same school district that he attended and where his grandmother taught. Like his grandmother before him he was graduated from University of Maine in Farmington. Howatt has paddled most of Central and Northern Maine rivers and hiked most of Maine’s mountains including the Maine section of the Appalachian Trail from inside the New Hampshire border to Mt. Katahdin.

Shauna Holland provides writing, editing and social media assistance to Just Write Books. She lives in Durham, Maine (the youngest of three children). A published author-in-training, she sews role-playing costumes for a hobby and enjoys unpacking various strands of societal systems.

Thirteen Moons Hits the Shelves Again

1/11/2019

Passamaquoddy, French, and English open the door to this story of Father Rales living with the Abenaki in the early 1700s.

Thirteen Moons
Every other year this way of counting months
as moons produces one moon too many
so this mid-summer, this thirteenth moon is termed
Abonamicikizoos – that is
“let this moon pass by.”
In this way we count the first of seventy-two
years of Sebastian Rale, Jesuit, a Priest of
Norridgewock, the province of Maine.
We celebrate the scholar come to spend
half the lifetime and his life: Priest of Hunger,
Ice and Snow, Sickness, War, Dark Woods
and brotherhood.

Thirteen Moons, in its tri-lingual publication, is being reprinted in soft cover. The book, written by Robert Chute, uses poetry to tell the story of Sebastian Rale, a man who lived with the Abenaki Indians for thirty years and compiled an Abenaki-French dictionary. It follows his life with them, as English settlers attack the Abenaki at Norridgewock, fearing Rale and thinking he was a French spy and “instigator of French rebellion.”

Sebastian Rale was a Jesuit missionary from France, who came to spread Catholicism to Native Americans. He was stationed with the Abenaki who lived near the Norridgewock settlement. He lived among them for thirty-five years as a part of their society, until finally being killed in the final attack that destroyed the Native Americans’ village along with up to a hundred villagers.

This book, as Rale did in his life, honors the Abenaki by providing the story in their language, Passamaquoddy.

Robert M. Chute wrote the first version of Thirteen Moons in the late 1970s. He submitted the work to Penumbra Press after his self-printed copies became popular among the people he handed them to and hoped for translations into French and a Native language. While the French translation was added to the book, the Native translation didn’t come through. Years later, WWII veteran David Francis asked to translate it into Passamaquoddy, his native language. This edition is a reprinted version of the three-language version, with a new cover made to look like white birch bark.

Nancy E. Randolph operates Just Write Books, publishing Maine books by Maine authors telling Maine stories. Randolph quickly developed a reputation as a publisher of quality Maine books. An active community member along with two others she founded and serves as a member of the board of Save Our Swinging Bridge.Org to ensure the maintenance of the historic Roebling-designed and -built bridge connecting Topsham and Brunswick.

Tom Seymour is busy writing a new Book About Trolling

8/15/2018

Getting Your Big Fish: Trolling Tactics and Techniques for Trout, Salmon and Togue will be published by Just Write Books early 2019. Seymour details how to catch fish that are measured in pounds, not inches

People who troll for trout, salmon and togue represent a small minority of Maine’s anglers. And yet, these select few routinely catch the largest fish of all.

Fly fishing, a hugely popular sport, does not necessarily target large fish. In fact, most fly-fishers content themselves with catching and releasing mostly stocked trout. And for that, people congregate in huge numbers around places where freshly stocked trout are available.

Trollers, however, never need to contend with crowds. Rather than carrying the small nets used for stream fishing, trollers always have a huge, long-handled net available for that 4-, 5- and even 10-pound salmonid.

Even those who cast spinning lures for salmonids mostly fish to smaller trout, usually recently stocked ones. The reason most fly and spin-fishers rarely take big fish is because their tackle does not permit them to put their offerings down deep where the biggest fish await. Trolling solves that problem.

Fully versed trollers use a combination of techniques both old and new. Tackle, though, falls in the category of new and improved, at least when compared to the trolling gear of yesteryear. Lines, rods and reels are thinner, lighter and stronger than ever before. Whereas most people associate trolling as a sedentary sport using heavy and often unwieldy tackle, today’s trollers are constantly working the water in ways our ancestors could not have imagined.

Fish locators help to not only locate fish, but also give an idea of what the bottom looks like, a big help any time. And downriggers, devices that allow anglers to use light tackle while trolling deep for the biggest fish, have turned the trolling world upside down.

And yet, the traditional lead-core line has its place too. New, ultra-thin lines make catching even medium-sized fish a joy, especially when coupled with light and powerful modern rods and reels.

Lure manufacturers cater to those who troll and like auto manufacturers, these companies strive to introduce hot, new offerings each year. These often brilliantly-colored lures lie side-by-side with old tried-and-true fish slayers in angler’s tackle boxes.

Given all this, the age-old practice of lake trolling has now become the wave of the future. Getting Your Big Fish by Tom Seymour will help anglers to catch that wave.

10 things to know about foraging according to tom seymour

7/25/2018

Foraging is a popular pastime among rural residents of Maine, including Tom Seymour, author of Wild Plants of Maine. We talked with Tom recently and asked for some pointers about foraging in Maine. According to Seymour, a law was introduced to Maine’s local government which would ban foraging altogether, due to issues caused by malicious or unlearned individuals. Thankfully, that law was overruled, which means foraging is still allowed

Here are ten things to know so you don’t hurt the environment or make anyone angry.

1. Prepare to harvest by knowing the right time. Each plant has a perfect time of availability, the “window of opportunity.” Since plants come ripe in a regular succession, knowing when to expect your favorite wild edible puts you in the driver’s seat.
2. Collect and transport your harvest in baskets (my favorite method), brown paper bags or canvas bags. Never collect in plastic because it causes the harvest to sweat and wilt. They lose flavor and can mold in the wet plastic bag.
3. Be aware of plants that cause irritation to the skin when foraging. Poison ivy, virgin’s bower (wild clematis, a vining plant of edges and woodland trails), often mistakenly called “poison oak” and several other plants can cause mild to severe reactions in people. Know how to identify these plants. There are many great photos on the internet so as to allow you to identify these the first time. Watch out, since some people are affected just by being in the same vicinity. They don't even have to touch the plant to have an extreme allergic reaction.

4. Become familiar with botanical names in addition to the common names to prevent mix-ups in communications. Scientific names for plants are called “binominal nomenclature.” The first name is the genus, or general family and the second name tells something specific about the plant. Don’t be afraid to use these names and don’t worry about proper pronunciation. Others will know what you mean. The danger in only using common names is that some plants often share the same common name. For instance, “pigweed” is the common name for several totally different plants.
5. Cook or prepare the plant according to suggestions from a trustworthy source. Wild Plants of Maine offers dozens of recipes in the back of the book. Within the section for each plant, I offer suggested preparations for each edible. You might find a few other recipes in other cookbooks. I particularly like fiddleheads with butter and salt and pepper.
6. When a wild edible plant is harvested, harvest extra then freeze, dry or can according to suggestions in Wild Plants of Maine. One example: I love goosetongue, or seaside plantain, Plantago juncoides. When home-canned, these have the same flavor and a similar texture as when fresh. Nothing says “summer in winter” like a jar of seaside plantain.

7. Here in Maine, plants have a short growing season. This means they change size and appearance in a short time. Get to know your favorite wild edible plants in all seasons. That way, you can locate groups of colonies of great, edible plants in the off-season and harvest them later, when they are ready for picking.I
8. When learning a new plant, note carefully every detail of the plant’s description in the book. If a plant matches everything else except for one detail, it is not the plant in the book. Each plant must match every, single thing in the plant description section. Take no chances, since there are some toxic wild plants out there. Don’t let this keep you from trying wild edible plants, though. Instead, know that you are safe when the plant in hand perfectly matches every item in the description.
9. When harvesting wild plants, never pull a plant up by the roots. Most wild plants are perennial, some are biennial and only a few are annual. Uprooting a plant kills it and takes it out of production. On the other hand, don’t worry about taking a good haul by snipping with clippers or cutting with a knife, since these plants come back year after year.

Dame's Rocket

Queen Anne's Lace

10. Have fun foraging and eating your wilds.

10 Festivals to attend in maine

7/18/2018

Maine summer is filled with fun things to do, both on weekends and weekdays. First among many are festivals. It is time to go out and have a good time with friends and family while eating food and enjoying events unique to each festival. Here's our list of ten festivals to visit, and check out the links in the titles for more information.

1. Maine Potato Blossom Festival - Fort Fairfield - July 14-22
Enjoy the 71st year of this family-friendly celebration that lasts for nine days. The main events are happening from the 19th to the 22nd. Magic, music, a parade and fireworks are a few of the spectacular things going on at this festival.
2. Central Maine Egg Festival - Pittsfield - July 9-14
Enjoy an egg-cellent weekend full of food, crafts and fireworks, and don’t miss the Famous Big Parade.
3. Yarmouth Clam Festival - Yarmouth - July 20-22
“Always the third Friday in July”, the clam festival hosts a parade, fireworks, music across three stages, races, crafts, and delicious food.

4. Maine Brewers' Guild Beer Festival: Summer Edition - Portland - July 28
(21+ event) This is the best chance of the summer to try Maine's best craft brews and listen to great music. Enjoy the sun and relax while munching on tasty food from area food trucks.
5. Redneck [Blank], Pig Roast and Music Festival - Hebron – August 2-5
Enjoy a great, lighthearted festival with mud runs, beer, camping and great food in its eighth year.
6. Maine Lobster Festival - Rockland - August 1-5
Held every year in the first weekend of August, there’s lots of lobster to enjoy at this festival--a seafood cooking contest, arts and crafts, a parade and lots of great music.

7. Maine Highland Games and Scottish Festival - Topsham - August 18
Celebrate all things Scottish with music, dancing, games and savoury food from 8:00am to 5:00pm.
8. Great Falls Balloon Festival - Lewiston/Auburn - August 17-19
Take flight and see the vistas surrounding the Lewiston/Auburn area from the sky, either at dawn or dusk.
9. Camden Windjammer Fest - Camden – August 31 and September 1
Celebrate Camden's maritime heritage at this weekend full of schooners, races, history and plenty of other maritime activities.

10. Common Ground Country Fair - Unity - September 21-23
It's not your typical fair. It is a world of sustainability, environmentally-sound living products with organic agricultural demonstrations, arts & crafts, nonprofit that better our world and lots of livestock enjoy and experience.

Is your favorite festival not listed here? Tell us what it is.

Nancy E. Randolph operates Just Write Books, publishing Maine books by Maine authors telling Maine stories. Randolph quickly developed a reputation as a publisher of quality Maine books. An active community member along with two others she founded and serves as a member of the board of Save Our Swinging Bridge.Org to ensure the maintenance of the historic Roebling-designed and -built bridge connecting Topsham and Brunswick.

Author Talk: Vance Bessey, author of awk the awkward penguin

7/12/2018

Vance Bessey brings penguins to Maine

I’ve known Vance Bessey for years. He has provided illustration in a few books over the last several years. We’ve talked about his writing. In addition to his children’s books, he writes young adult fantasy. I was very happy to consult and cheerlead his publishing efforts for his Orphans of the Storm soon to be published by Dreaming Big Publishing. Vance is a fine illustrator, an enthusiastic teacher of script writing, illustration, cartoons and more. We have become friends. We talked about Awk the Awkward Penguin for a couple of years before I said, “Oh, Vance, let’s do this book through Just Write Books.” Now Awk the Awkward Penguin is published and Vance and I are marketing it while Vance is on the road with little Awk.

Author Q&A

JWB: Tell us a little about Awk?

Vance: Okay. Awk the Awkward Penguin is a story about being different — that is something I think nearly every kid feels at some point. Little Awk is born with flippers that are too darn long and they hamper his swimming (very important for a penguin) as well as causing him to trip as he waddles along in his penguin world. His community notes his clumsy nature and dubs him: Awk the Awkward Penguin. Awk tries to deal with his awkwardness despite some criticism and bullying. He has a good friend and that helps but eventually he begins to wonder just how he is supposed to fit in.

His adventures begin as he gets separated from his penguin colony and meets some friends along his journey. They help him to see that different isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes different can be wonderful. Awk discovers great benefits to his extra-long flippers and returns home to save the day, finding his place in the world at last.

JWB: What are some of the themes that you return to regularly in your writing?

Vance: I love the Redemption theme, but many of my stories are about honor, sacrifice and doing the right thing. Classic heroism. I believe these themes, although a bit out of vogue, still echo as good and true in most of us.

JWB: What is one event that has shaped your children’s book writing?

Vance: Becoming a dad. I have always loved storytelling but when I became a father it really took off. I used to read a lot to my kids but what they liked best was when I would weave a story for them directly from imagination. I did that a lot with them. And parenting opened up a whole new world of experiences to draw from, no pun intended. Having children helps you to remember how it actually was being a kid. How the world appears to fresh eyes. This is a gold mine of ideas and inspiration both for children’s books and young adult novels.

JWB: What are three of your favorite children’s books to read to children?

Vance: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak and The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg.

JWB: Any advice for young authors?

Vance: Yes. Go out there and live a lot. Have experiences, take risks. Learn first-hand about all the things you are interested in. Pay attention to your inner growth. Hold on to your awe and amazement as you get older and really think about the people in your life. Try to understand them and know them as you do yourself. Write about what you know but dig deep into your experiences and feelings and write about what matters to you. Make interesting well-constructed stories with amazing characters and plot twists but put in themes underlying all that that will create pathos in your readers. To do that, the themes have to move you as you write them. That’s all there is to it.

JWB: What is the most difficult part of putting together a children’s book?

Vance: Like with any story, the ending. Character development, story construction, pacing - It’s all relatively easy in a children’s book. Bringing all the storylines together at the end so that you have a neat tidy package with a solid moral, that’s a trick.

JWB: Why penguins?

Vance: I like penguins, they’re funny. People like them. They stand up on two feet, like us. They congregate together, like us. They are easy for kids to relate to, I think. Plus, they are fun to draw.

JWB: What do you hope that children take away from the story?

Vance: That’s easy. This was my whole reason for writing “Awk”. Different isn’t a bad thing. Different is good. In fact, different can be a marvelous and beautiful thing. There’s a lot of intolerance in our world – about skin color, religion, cultural differences, sexual affinity and gender, appearance, and even physical and mental challenges. I hope to reach children at a young age with the idea that differences of all kinds are not scary or somehow ‘wrong’. Everyone is different, in some way, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It can be a source of curiosity and wonder if not looked at with distrust or preconceived ideas. That is my message and when I read my book to grade schoolers, they all get it easily.

JWB: Does “Awk” address the way we should treat others who may appear to be “different or odd”? Do you think that kids can see that we could each be like Flo?

Vance: I hope so. There are two separate issues here. I think most young children are naturally accepting of differences. Think about it: at their age many things in their world are new and different, they haven’t had many experiences yet. Kids have to learn to be distrustful of differences, and that’s where parents can have the most success, but children are still very subject to social pressure within their peer groups, and it only takes one scared or angry young person to start mocking or bullying. Its sometimes risky to ‘not join in’ when someone is being made fun of, and even riskier to stand up to those poking the fun. It takes a sense of honor. The need to do the right thing even if it is harder than doing nothing. That’s a difficult theme to put in a children’s book without sounding preachy but I’m working on it.

JWB: What are you currently working on?

Vance: I am putting together an Anthology of short stories written by the students in my Advanced Storytelling Class. These are all written within the genres of: fantasy, science fiction and mild horror and all have their roots in Maine. I am very impressed with the caliber of work done in this class for this project and look forward to getting this book published. I am also submitting a short story of my own within this collection and all stories will be fully illustrated.

Vance Bessey is a published author, illustrator and cartoonist as well as an inventor with registered patents. A graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Narrative Art, he learned much of what he knows about storytelling from industry greats like Joe Kubert and Greg Hildebrandt. Bessey is the author of the young adult novel, Orphans of the Storm, soon to be released by Dreaming Big Publications. He authored Only in Maine and the comic strips The Edge and Only in Maine as well as comic books that he illustrated. In addition, Bessey, an award winning graphic designer, teaches courses in script writing, narrative art and storytelling. For more information about the author and his works go to Vance Bessey's website.

Author

Nancy E. Randolph operates Just Write Books. With the tagline Maine books, Maine authors, Maine stories, Randolph quickly developed a reputation as a publisher of quality Maine books.

An active community member she cochaired the rehabilitation effort of the Androscoggin Swinging Bridge and guided the planning and creation of two riverside parks at each end. Along with two others she founded and serves as a member of the board of Save Our Swinging Bridge.Org to ensure the maintenance of the historic Roebling designed and built bridge connecting Topsham and Brunswick.

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What our Customers say

Nancy E. Randolph, JWB owner, markets my titles on a wide scale. She also sets up book signings. I find it infinitely more enjoyable and rewarding to work with this Maine-based publisher than to deal with national publishers from out-of-state.
Finally, JWB does not publish just any aspiring author. Randolph is very selective, accepting only material that she is convinced will sell. I highly recommend JWB to any author.

Tom Seymour, author of Wild Plants of Maine and many other titles.

I just had these decals made [with my logo]. Every day I look at the logo you created from my drawn ideas, I smile. It is strong and me. Thank you.

Alice Andrenyak, Alice's Awesome Adventurs

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