A Note from Mark Scheel, D2:

Well, it's just been released--the newest issue of the international online magazine Inner Circle Writers' Magazine published by Clarendon House Publications in the UK.  I'm overwhelmed to be the featured subject (an extensive interview with numerous photos from my life) and pictured on the cover yet!  Done to promote my new novel The Potter's Wheel, it refers to the book as "a masterpiece."  Ha.  IMHO, that's stretching it a bit, but I'll take it nonetheless!  Can be purchased as an individual issue or yearly subscription.  It's truly an impressive writers' resource publication.  And I'm flattered beyond words to be a part.  Now, let's hope it sells some books!  Here's the promo and publisher link:

 https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/magazine


Be well all,

Mark


https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/mark_scheel
author of The Potter's Wheel

author of Star Chaser

author of And Eve Said Yes: Seven Stories and a Novella
author of A Backward View: Stories and Poems

former prose editor Kansas City Voices magazine
recipient of the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award
recipient of the Nostalgia Poetry Award​

Award-Winning Author, James Kenyon, Publishes 23 True Cat Stories for the Cat Lover
 
Emporia, KS –James Kenyon, graduate of the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine and a Kansas State Veterinary Distinguished Alumni recipient, has published A Cat Named Fatima: Tales of 23 Cats & The People Who Loved Them, with Meadowlark Press of Emporia, Kansas.
 
This is a book for people who love cats, 23 stories dedicated to those who adore their feline friends. From a three-legged barn cat to a Siamese that loved showers, from the best cat a fisherman could ever have to a veterinary clinic’s greeter, these cat stories will warm the heart, bring laughter, and perhaps a tear or two. Each story is illustrated by a delightful kitty sketch by the artist, Thomas Marple.
 
“Dr. Jim’s ability to tell a story about his patients and their people is unrivaled. All veterinarians have clients and patients whose stories brought us joy in our veterinary profession. I admire Jim’s ability to share those stories in a fascinating way. His gift is to make those clients and patients come to life and that makes this book so much fun to read. I can picture the patients and clients in their settings and fondly remember my patients too. Any animal lover or kind-hearted person will enjoy these stories. It’s not just about animals and their health, it’s about caring, kindness, and connections between individuals and the human-animal bond. The relationships make our lives so much more enjoyable,” writes Tom Johnson DVM Retired, Small Animal Practitioner 25 years, Director of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association, and Director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Iowa State University.
 
Kenyon was a veterinarian for 35 years in a mixed animal practice in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He served in the US Army Veterinary Corps and is an eight-time veterinary volunteer for the Iditarod Alaskan dog sled race. He is a past president of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association as well as chairman of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Examining Board. Kenyon is the author of, A Cow for College and Other Stories of 1950s Farm Life and Golden Rule Days: History and Recollections of 109 Closed Kansas High Schools. Both books received commendation as Martin Kansas History Book Award winners.
 
A Cat Named Fatima is available in paperback (ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-956578-05-8) and hardcover (ISBN: 978-1-956578-06-5). The book can be ordered direct from the publisher (https://meadowlark-books.square.site/), the author (https://www.jamesrkenyon.com/), or through any bookstore. Bookstores, retailers, and libraries are invited to order through Ingram Distribution services or contact Meadowlark Books at info@meadowlark-books.com for bulk ordering instructions.
 
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Dr. James Kenyon is a member of District 7 of the Kansas Authors Club. He was born and raised in Graham County. He currently resides in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he managed a mixed animal veterinary practice for 35 years.

The book launch for Brenda Leigh White’s collection of poetry, Blue Collar Saint, will be held at Twin Rivers Winery, 627 Commercial, Emporia, Saturday, December 4, 4:00-6:00pm. The author, along with friends and supporters, will share work from Brenda’s collection followed by a short open mic opportunity for attendees.
 
White is a native of Emporia, Kansas, but her heart resides on the family farm in Morris County. Her most favorite place in Kansas is the woods and creek on the farm. There she has seen snakes fishing in a puddle and found a baby western box turtle at the natural spring feeding into the creek. She has had poetry published in Quivira and The Flint Hills Review. What she loves most about living in Kansas is the beauty of the flint hills and the state motto, ad astra per aspera, “to the stars through difficulties.” 

Cheryl Unruh, Kansas Notable author, says, “With unapologetic honesty and a masterful use of language, Brenda Leigh White, in Blue Collar Saint, cycles through whimsy, curiosity, and harsh reality. Always questioning the world around her, White writes with sharpness, clarity, and wit, leaving the reader alternately gutted and longing for more.” 

Emporia poet Kerry Moyer says, “The verses in Blue Collar Saint were born on the assembly line, in the working-class spaces and places of this poetic traveler’s journey. White shares her scars and lays bare a resilience rooted in wit, intelligence, and strength. This is a fine collection, from an authentic new voice in Kansas poetry.”


Blue Collar Saint is available for order through meadowlark-books.square.site and may be ordered through any bookseller. Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.

​Emporia, KS--Flyover People essayist Cheryl Unruh, takes the stage for a literary celebration, complete with reading and book signing as Meadowlark Press releases Unruh’s new memoir, Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town, at Lyon County History Center on Saturday, November 13 at 1:00pm.
 
An array of regional books will be available for purchase, including other titles by Unruh, as well as books published by Meadowlark Press.
 
Unruh’s memoir details a small-town childhood as the daughter of a carpenter-father, who also happens to be the town cemetery caretaker. As Cheryl grows, so does her comprehension of her father’s particular maladies, a skin-condition that is not discussed by the family, as well as his struggles with depression. Presented in short vignettes, Gravedigger’s Daughter introduces Unruh’s father from a child’s eye view, and then via observations and interactions that take us through Unruh’s adolescence to adulthood. Divided into three parts, the book covers Unruh’s childhood in Pawnee Rock, her father’s middle-age years when she lived away, and his later years.
 
Unruh grew up in the town of Pawnee Rock in central Kansas, population 400, in the 1960s and 70s. “The stories, or vignettes, are poem-shaped, but each captures a moment in time. I see each one as a snapshot,” Unruh says. “While I will never be able to relate the entirety and complexity of a life, I hope that some of my dad’s weird and wonderful personality shines through.”
 
From Laura Moriarty, author of The Chaperone: “With Gravedigger’s Daughter, Cheryl Unruh has created something so fresh and inviting—a memoir in lean vignettes. Each is moving on its own, and also part of a compelling portrait of a childhood in an isolated town with a dwindling population. Unruh’s details are too specific for sentimentalism, but places and people are observed with a loving gaze that also feels wise and honest. Her father, especially, emerges as both haunted and quietly heroic. What a beautiful book.” 
 
Fans of Cheryl’s two previous collections of vivid Kansas essays, Flyover People (2011 KS Notable Book) and Waiting on the Sky (2015 KS Notable Book), and Walking on Water, her collection of poetry, will delight in this memoir. Unruh hopes that the book will inspire readers to write their own stories “whether they write for their own pleasure or choose to share their stories with family and friends or perhaps even go on to publish their writing.” Unruh will be scheduling a series of memoir writing workshops starting in the spring of 2022.
 
Gravedigger’s Daughter is available for order through meadowlark-books.square.site and may be ordered through any bookseller. Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.
 
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Words is a Powerful Thing | Book Launch with Brian Daldorph (this is an eventbright meeting - attend virtually)​
Brian Daldorph's launch of "Words is a Powerful Thing: Twenty Years of Teaching Creative Writing at Douglas County Jail"
​

**this book launch is offered as a free event with donations encouraged**

"Words is a Powerful Thing" is Daldorph’s record of teaching at the Douglas County Jail for the two decades between 2001-2020, showing how the lives of everyone involved in the class—but especially the inmates who came to class week after week—benefitted from what happened every Thursday afternoon in that classroom, where for two hours inmates and instructors became a “circle of ink and blood,” writing together, reciting their poems, telling stories, and having a few good laughs.

The book brings into the light the works of more than fifty gifted inmate writers whose works deserve attention. Their poetry speaks of “what really matters” to all of us and gives the reader sustained insight into the role that creativity plays in aiding survival and bringing positive change for inmates, and, in turn, for all of us.

Daldorph’s account of his teaching experience not only takes the reader inside the daily life in a county jail but also sets the work done in the writing class within the larger context of inmate education in the US corrections system, where education is one of the few lifelines available to inmates. "Words Is a Powerful Thing" provides a teacher’s guide for instructors working with incarcerated writers, offering an extensive examination of both the challenges and benefits of education inside the walls.

This book launch will involve Daldorph, Sherry Gill (Programs Director at Douglas County Jail since 2015), and writing class instructors Mike Hartnett and Ayah Wakkad. The event will also feature the words of former inmate Antonio Sanchez-Day, who later became a co-instructor of Daldorph's class.

Congratulations to Kerry Moyer on the publication of Turnpike Prairie (Kellogg Press).

In his third book of poetry, Moyer revisits familiar themes in a new way. The Flint Hills of Kansas remain a focus along with the people and places that have and continue to populate Moyer's life.

Purchase at Kellogg.

Are you looking for some hope for the future? A little dose of good to restore your faith in humanity?

Each year, Kansas Authors Club hosts a writing contest for youth. These entries, representing young writers third through twelfth grade, are a delightful look into the hearts and minds of today's youth.

"I am always struck by these essays. Kids tend to write a little bolder than adults. They have fun with the fantastical, and they make some seriously profound observations about the serious. Putting together this collection of essays, poems, and stories is a highlight of my year."
                                         Tracy Million Simmons
                                         2021 VP, & Youth Contest
                                         Book Project Volunteer
                                         (many years running)

Each child published in the book gets a free copy courtesy of Mennonite Press, our contest sponsor. Donations for the extra copies go to support Kansas Authors Club Youth Programs.

Yvonne "Evie" Green, of D1, also has an essay in this anthology.

Congratulations to Nancy and Evie! 

Congratulations to D2 member, Mark Scheel, on the UK publication of his novel, The Potter's Wheel. 

The year is 1967. Mel Steadman, a Midwestern farm youth recovering from a severe head injury, becomes dissatisfied living at home and hops a bus to California. He finds work in a low-rent hotel chain and mingles with the young drifters along Hollywood Boulevard.  Soon he bonds with an estranged night wanderer named Burch who clerks in a shop called The Potter’s Wheel and encounters a free-spirited femme fatale named Maureen. Adventure follows adventure, culminating, however, in abandonment and violence. Young Mel accrues many hard lessons of the street coming of age, echoes of a Holden Caulfield wrapped into a Day of the Locust during the sixties’ Summer of Love. 

 “The sixties may now be history, but that history lives again through Scheel's faithful rendering of the street scene in the Hollywood of 1967. The war protests, frenetic youth, and a lonely Midwesterner’s search for life's purpose are deftly depicted here by an exceptionally talented writer.”
—Ronda Miller, former State President, Kansas Authors Club, and author of MoonStain, WaterSigns, and I Love the Child.

“Mark Scheel is one of the best writers I know, bar none.  And The Potter’s Wheel is a testament to that fact!”
—Edna Bell-Pearson, author of Headwinds and Fragile Hopes, Transient Dreams.

“Having experienced the turbulent California sixties myself, I can vouch that Scheel’s portrayal of the people and the times is spot on.  Once again, turn on, tune in, drop out!”
—Paul Goldman, ecstatic poet, author of Silence Speaks and Upon Your Canvas.

D7 member, Mark Wentling, has written a three-volume memoir. Enjoy these video clips on the introduction and each of the 54 countries in Africa covered in the book. 

Congratulations to Hazel Hart, District 2, on the publication of Hiram's Girls: For Want of a Home, the 5th book in the Pierce Family Saga series, historical fiction set in Kansas Territory. 

The series has climbed to the top of the charts on Amazon. Check out the 339 reviews (as of 8/30/2021) for the first book in the series, Cordelia's Journey.

Don't miss this series!

The new Coal City Review (#44) features the work of Antonio Sanchez-Day, who spent 13 years in what he called "The System," before turning his life around through his writing.  He published his first book of poetry in 2019, Taking on Life (Coal City Review Press).
 
Antonio, an inspiration to all of us who knew and loved him, died in March 2021 at the age of 44.
 
Antonio Sanchez-Day (#63803) 
 
Life 
 
Life means various things to different people.  Life means 
something different to me now than it did 5, 10, 15 years ago . . . 
Today, life to me is first and foremost a gift.  This very 
day, this very moment as I write these words is a gift, a blessing 
given to me by my creator.  A gift that is to be cherished and treated 
with love, and kindness. 
 
I view life today as something new, so the wonder of life is always present. 
I create in my life with joy and abandon, without concern for what 
others think about my creation.  Today I know I have 
the choice of creating hell in my life, or creating beauty and 
peace.  I wake up and am stunned by the beauty of the day be it 
rain, snow, or sunshine.  I drink the morning water, life itself and 
give thanks.  I view the given day as a challenge and an opportunity. 
A challenge to face whatever situations present themselves to me. 
Challenges are neither good nor bad, neither a curse nor 
blessing.  They are only what we make of them, depending on what 
meaning we assign them.  The assigned meaning does not alter 
the content of the situation.  Our perception gives the assigned meaning. 
 
Today I choose to view all challenges as an opportunity.  An opportunity 
to be impeccable.  To act to the very best of my ability upon 
whatever knowledge happens to be available to me at any given 
moment.  To live this life with the knowledge that every 
moment, every act matters.  To understand that to believe I have 
all the time in the world is not only foolish, but also takes 
away from the appreciation of life.  Today I savor life to 
the fullest, and enjoy every moment of this precious time 
on this red road.  Today I don’t need anything or want 
for nothing but to be happy and to live an impeccable life. 
Needing and wanting to have something is just an expression 
of the egotistical desires of my mind’s programming and has 
nothing to do with my spiritual path. 
 
Today my life is the expression of the beauty of my 
spirit and the Great Spirit.  I was once told that life is nothing but a 
dream, and if I create my life with love, my dream will 
become a masterpiece of art.  This is the power of life. 
 
The power of life is inside all of us. 
 

Antonio was a member of District 2. View his memorial page here. 

​Don’t miss the Zoom virtual launch for Everlasting, Arlice Davenport’s second collection of poems. It can be found at Meadowlark. Scroll down to the first feature article, and you will find everything you need to know to be included in the audience at 7 p.m. September 10.
 
You must register on the website to be able to join the launch party. The date is approaching quickly, like a scorpion sidewinding toward your sleeping bag. As a "camper," you can extend the metaphor to its potentially dark consequences. Please sign up as soon as you can to ensure that our readers will already be "in the house" and ready to sing the poems they've chosen. Everyone else can pick out the cushioned seat of their choice.
 
Arlice is looking forward to seeing all of you in your Brady Bunch cubicles. And if you can think of anyone else who might be interested in the launch, please pass along the information. Again, you must register your attendance to receive the Zoom instructions for the Big Show.

​Janice Northerns of Liberal (District 7) has been named a 2021 WILLA Literary Award Finalist in Poetry for her book Some Electric Hum (Lamar University Literary Press, 2020). The award, named after Pulitzer Prize winning author Willa Cather, recognizes the best literature featuring women’s or girls’ stories set in the North American West. Women Writing the West (WWW), a nonprofit association, underwrites and presents the nationally recognized award annually at the WWW Fall Conference. A winner and two finalists in eight categories were selected by a panel of professional librarians, historians, and university-affiliated educators.
 
“I am thrilled and grateful to be honored by such a prestigious organization,” Northerns said. “Publishing my first poetry collection last year was a long-held dream, and for Some Electric Hum to win an award makes it even more meaningful.”
 
Some Electric Hum is available for purchase from all major online retailers. Signed copies are available through her website at www.janicenortherns.com or by emailing Northerns directly.