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The recording of the January program is now available for viewing by members at this link. (Member sign-on required.) This video will also remain publicly available on our YouTube channel. Our next program will be on Saturday, February 15, starting at 1:30 p.m. The presenter will be Mary-Lane Kamberg talking about Grand Openings.
January 18, 2025 - 1:30 p.m. Program Location: Zoom  Current members receive an link to the monthly program on Zoom via the monthly e-newsletter. The link is also available using the button above which takes you to our members-only pages. Sign-on is required. Join us in conversation with Kansas Authors Club 2024 book award winners Jim Gilkeson (Coffin Nonfiction), Marilyn Hope Lake (Coffin Fiction), Jerilynn Henrikson (Martin KS History), Lisa Hase-Jackson (Nelson Poetry), and Ann Vigola Anderson (Design). We will discuss writing, entering contests, and best practices for producing an award winning book. Panel moderated by Anne Spry (Design Award Winner & State President).  From the opening poem of Lisa Hase-Jackson's impactful collection, Insomnia in Another Town, we learn that "There is no small grief...all are interconnected." These poems, cloaked in memory and the unmaking and re-making of family, travel us through the harvest of a poet's life. Like the farms she made grow, this book tills the soil of a human soul and all the many experiences that make it. In pantoums, free verse, and prose poems, Hase-Jackson demonstrates the way that every lived experience weaves into a root system that bears unique fruit, singular as our heartbeats, our winding fingerprints. -Ashley M. Jones, poet laureate of Alabama Winner of the 2024 Nelson Poetry Book Award  Jim Gilkeson takes you on a storyteller's journey into three tiny, experimental subcultures in the U.S. and Europe. Told in a series of short interlocking vignettes spanning the years from 1949 to 2015, Gilkeson traces his unlikely path from his conventional upbringing in the Midwest, down the psychedelic rabbit hole of the late 1960s, to his years as a brother in an order of modern mystics and a practitioner and teacher of energy healing at a clothing-optional retreat center. Three Lost Worlds: A Memoir of a life Among Mystics, Healers, and Life-Artists is an insider's account of life in the Holy Order of MANS, an esoteric spiritual order founded in San Francisco in the 1960s; an apprenticeship in energy healing with an Irish clairvoyant, the late Bob Moore; and a fourteen-year stint as a healer at Harbin Hot Springs in Northern California, which comes to an abrupt and devastating end in the wildfires of 2015. Three Lost Worlds is set in part against the backdrop of cults and the paranoia surrounding them in the wake of the Jonestown mass suicides in the late 1970s, but it tells a different kind of story, one of spiritual and personal growth through the eyes of an insider. In the process, Three Lost Worlds offers the reader a reflection on an era in American spiritual history, the heartfelt journey of a modern spiritual seeker. Winner of the 2024 J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award for Nonfiction.  Our Mothers' Ghosts, by Marilyn Hope Lake: Forced to extremes in order to escape women’s accepted societal roles, the protagonists in this short story collection—the women of one midwestern river town family—overcome hardship and heartbreak, pain and pressure, in order to burst the bonds that hold them and bring forth a better future for their daughters and sons. Their struggles comprise a panorama of women’s issues that span the twentieth century: social injustice, sexism, discrimination, and racism. These ordinary women experienced it all, and the unique ways in which they dealt with these issues illustrate a past we should all hope to leave behind. Winner of the 2024 J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award for Fiction.  Remembering Martha turns family history and lore into story. Martha grew up in the small town of Neosho Rapids, Kansas, at the turn of the 20th century. This book is an invitation to explore prairie life, its glories and its tragedies, through one woman whose indomitable spirit lives on through generations of grandchildren, including and especially, the author, Jerilynn Henrikson. This novella is a work of fiction inspired by an interview with the author's grandmother. Winner of the 2024 Martin Kansas History Book Award.  When the world shut down in March 2020, Author Anne Spry shut down emotionally ... until she had the time to really notice and appreciate her surroundings. She began taking photos of sunsets, sunrises, clouds and flowers. Poetry flowed out of her soul when she saw what the camera had captured. Now she is sharing her inspirations in hopes that this perspective on a largely negative era in our history will result in more universal gratitude. Winner of the 2024 "It Looks Like a Million" Design Award.  In the Adventures of Bottle Calf, author Ann Vigola Anderson takes us back in time to her grandparents’ farm where Bottle Calf was born during an early spring blizzard. With illustrations by the talented Sara Long, this gorgeous book will be your go-to for holiday gift giving and beyond. Grab a copy to reminisce or to share the stories and gorgeous art with your kids and grandkids. You are going to love Bottle Calf! Reconized - 2024 "It Looks Like a Million" Design Award We are working on an amazing lineup of state programs in 2025! Click here to check on our progress and SAVE THE DATES on your calendar!
Our Mothers' Ghostsby Marilyn Hope Lake  "This is a novella of linked stories about the complex, but loving, nature of women’s relationships with their mothers, daughters, aunts, and nieces. The protagonists (Boots, Helen, Sis, and Megan) are flawed, but compelling, doing their best to survive in the 20th century male dominated society. Days later I found myself still thinking about these women and their lives and triggering my own memories of the complicated but important relationships with other women in my own life. The writing is accessible and thought-provoking." -Judge Michelle Zumbrum
The J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award was established by Mrs. Bertha Coffin to honor the memory of her husband, a long-time member and officer of KAC, after his death on September 6, 1978. The J. Donald Coffin Award is intended to honor the best published book written by a member of Kansas Authors Club, excluding Kansas history, Kansas memoir, poetry, and children’s books, which have their own contests. Beginning in 2022, this contest provides two awards, one in fiction and one in nonfiction.
 Our Mothers' Ghosts and Other Stories by Marilyn Hope Lake Meadowlark Press, October 2023 Retail: Paperback $19.99, hardcover $29.99 FICTION / Women FICTION / Feminist FICTION / Short Stories (single author) FICTION / Historical / General Forced to extremes in order to escape women’s accepted societal roles, the protagonists in this short story collection—the women of one midwestern river town family—overcome hardship and heartbreak, pain and pressure, in order to burst the bonds that hold them and bring forth a better future for their daughters and sons. Their struggles comprise a panorama of women’s issues that span the twentieth century: social injustice, sexism, discrimination, and racism. These ordinary women experienced it all, and the unique ways in which they dealt with these issues illustrate a past we should all hope to leave behind. What Reviewers are Saying: Set in Illinois and Missouri river towns and cities from the early to late twentieth century, these plainspoken stories resurrect the past in all its glorious particulars, without sanctifying or sentimentalizing a mixed heritage of familial love and abuse. It’s all here: romance, rape, domestic violence, segregation, integration, the sexual revolution, political upheaval, and each generation’s backlash against the excesses of the last. Our Mothers’ Ghosts revolves around two archetypal sisters, and Lake takes great relish in revealing the dark impulses of the golden girl Helen and the disruptive innocence of the black sheep Boots. Amid the palpable pleasures of the book’s rich historical detail, there is always the shock of something blunt and honest and new. —Trudy Lewis, author of The Empire Rolls Marilyn Hope Lake’s work is very impressive. Lake’s tender prose transports the reader to an earlier, yet not-so-simple time, that reminds us of our past and guides us to a more hopeful future. Her stories have an effect you may have seen in a classic film, beginning with an evocative black and white photograph that suddenly blooms in full, technicolor glory as the narrative springs to life. —Daren Dean, author of Far Beyond the Pale and Black Harvest Our Mothers’ Ghosts is a wonderful collection of interconnected short stories that gains in complexity with each story, creating a rich portrait of work and women in twentieth-century America. --Steve Wiegenstein, Author, Scattered Lights, Slant of Light, This Old World, and The Language of Trees  Marilyn Hope Lake writes short fiction, poetry, plays, and children’s picture books. She has many awards, including Kansas Authors Club contest wins. Dr. Lake’s first place story, “Harry’s Stone,” was published in Words Out of the Flatlands; Kansas Writers Association. Lake is published in Rock Springs Review, STIR, Well-Versed: Literary Works, the Gasconade Review, the Mizzou Alumni Magazine, and 105 Meadowlark Reader. Marilyn lived in Hutchinson, Kansas, from 2002-2017, is a long time active member of the Kansas Authors Club. She helped facilitate the 2014 annual conference. She misses her Kansas friends, but is happy to live with her canine companion, Hugo, near family in Columbia, Missouri.   On September 23, 2003, Marilyn Hope Lake received two awards at the Missouri Writers Guild (MWG) Annual Conference held in Columbia MO. The MWG Presidents Contests awards are only open to MWG members and are statewide. Marilyn received a 3rd Place award in Best Nonfiction Book Category for her memoir Stories From My Life, 2022. Lake received Honorable Mention in the Best Poem Category for The Right Thank You, also published in 2022. Marilyn is a Kansas Authors Club member now residing in Missouri. Marilyn lived in Hutchinson, Kansas, from 2002-2017, was a facilitator of the 2014 Annual Conference, and remains an active member.  If you have news of writing events that would be of interest to all Kansas Authors Club members, or if you are a member (dues current) who would like to announce an achievement, please submit your news via this form.
 The next issue of 105 Meadowlark Reader includes essays by the following Kansas Authors Club Members.
The theme of this issue is Landmarks, and expected ship date for this publication is early November, 2023. Congratulations writers! Lindsey Bartlett, Emporia Boyd Bauman, Overland Park Linda Cook, Manhattan Ann Christine Fell, Winfield Monica Graves, Emporia Carolyn Hall, Lenexa Cheryl Heide, Baldwin City Thomas Holmquist, Smolan Nancy Julien Kopp, Manhattan Marilyn Hope Lake, Columbia, MO Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Lawrence Julie A. Sellers, Atchison Julie Stielstra, Ellinwood Sandee Lee, El Dorado Barbara Waterman-Peters, Topeka Jon Kelly Yenser, Albuquerque, NM  The spring 2023 issue of 105 Meadowlark Reader features the following essays by Kansas Authors Club members: A Cryptid Sighting in Kansas by Denise Low (D2) Love Bears All Things by Amy D. Kliewer (D5) Nocturnal Nuisance by Elizabeth R. Schmidt (D5) The Right Man for the Job by Brenda L. White (D2) Little Owl by Lindsey Bartlett (D2) My Heron by Michael D. Graves (D2) You Dirty Bird by Jerilynn Jones Henrikson (D2) Blessed is the Peacemaker by Cheryl Suzanne Heide (D2) Introducing the Black Tornado by Cynthia Schaker (D5) Buddy the Bookstore Beagle by Linda Crowder (D6) Princess With an Attitude by Thomas N. Holmquist (D4) Skiing in Kansas by Boyd Bauman (D2) Not a Playmate by Carolyn Hall (D2) Broken Heart by Ann Vigola Anderson (D2) I Did. I Saw a Camel! by Marilyn Hope Lake (D2) Invaders Via My Pre-vet Roommate by Annabelle Corrick (D2) Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Pamela Yenser (D7) This Is Not About Dogs by Julie Ann Baker Brin (D5) Congratulations to our members! 105 Meadowlark Reader is currently (through June 30, 2023) taking submissions on the theme of Landmarks.
The following Members were recognized for
Length of Membership at the 2022 Convention 40 Years Doris Schroeder 20 Years Barbara A. Brady Tom Mach 15 Years Judy Keller Hatteberg Joan Breit Hazel I. Hart Sally Jadlow 10 Years Raj Bajaj Jerilynn Jones Henrikson H. John Sanders Octogenarians Marilyn Hope Lake, Ph. D. Connie Rae White  Lindsey Bartlett teaches composition and literature at Emporia State University. An Emporian by choice, she lives in the Flint Hills region of Kansas where she spends her days writing in various coffee shops, holed up at home with a good book, or driving the countryside for good photo opportunities. You can find her wherever there is a sunset. Bartlett has published one poetry collection, Vacant Childhood. Her writing and photography have appeared in The Write Bridge, Flint Hills Review, 105 Meadowlark Reader, and The Wyandotte Window. Boyd Bauman grew up on a small ranch south of Bern, Kansas, with his dad the storyteller and his mom the family scribe. He has published two books of poetry: Cleave and Scheherazade Plays the Chestnut Tree Café. After stints in New York, Colorado, Alaska, Japan, and Vietnam, Boyd now is a librarian and writer in Kansas City, inspired by his three lovely muses. Visit him at boydbauman.weebly.com. Cathy Callen was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Since then, though, she has lived mostly in Kansas. Her father worked for Southwestern Bell, and every time he was promoted, the family got to see more of Kansas. They lived in Sunflower, Manhattan, Hays, Salina, Topeka, and Wichita. Her career as a teacher and special education coordinator with Topeka Public Schools kept her in the state for more than thirty years. After retiring, she moved to Lawrence with her soon-to-be husband, Barry, and it is her current favorite Kansas location. She likes the Lawrence Busker Festival, the Art Tougeau parade, the library, The Raven Bookstore, the political environment, the summer pooch swim, Liberty Hall, Wheatfield’s Bakery, and walking on the KU campus and in her friendly neighborhood. Annabelle Corrick was born and raised in Topeka, lived in five other Kansas towns and three other states, returned to Topeka the last decade, and currently resides in Columbia, Missouri. She earned advanced degrees from Emporia State University and Kansas State University and was the Kansas Authors Club 2015 Prose Writer of the Year. Her writings have appeared in The Poet’s Art, 2016 Kansas Voices Writing Contest, Well Versed, and other publications. Her most awesome Kansas experience has been standing against the wind and viewing the vast vista of western Kansas where her paternal grandparents pioneered. Michael Durall grew up in the thriving metropolis of Pawnee Rock, Kansas, population 250. He was the champion sentence diagrammer in his sixth grade English class, which eventually led to his writing nine books about his work as a consultant to nonprofit organizations. He lives in Salina and writes a weekly column for the Salina 311 newspaper and has recently published a book of essays from local residents for the Salina Arts and Humanities Commission on the theme of The Day That Changed My Life Forever. Mark O. J. Esping first lived in a Swede-Town in Pottawatomie County. He graduated from Bethany, a Swedish-Lutheran College. He reprinted NEQUA, a feminist sci-fi novel first published in Topeka, Kansas, in 1900. Mark directed www.folklifeinstitute.com, a nonprofit, and two N.E.A. Folk Art grants. His work has appeared in The Clarion Folk Art, Country Living, Scandinavian Review, Victorian Homes, and Hemslöjden. He is an Eagle Scout and a veteran. He and his wife share a home in Merriam, Kansas, with three near-feral cats. Twin deer occasionally graze in their backyard. Mark tells stories, true stories, with a humorous nature and a hint of morality. In collection they are packets of maps that are Near Invisible, Like Footprints in Ever Shifting Sand. Beth Gulley first moved to Newton, Kansas, when she was two. Her family moved to Latin America, but Beth returned to the Olathe area for college where she met her husband. They moved to Paola, Kansas, to raise their family. Beth has advanced degrees from UMKC and the University of Kansas. She teaches writing at Johnson County Community College. Her recent writing is included in Kansas City Voices, Dragonfly Magazine, Kansas Speaks Out, and The Write Bridge. She has published three full-length poetry collections: The Sticky Note Alphabet, Dragon Eggs, and The Love of Ornamental Fish. She currently resides in Spring Hill, Kansas, which gives her easy access to Hillsdale Lake where she enjoys trail running and fishing. Carolyn Hall is an award-winning author who grew up on a farm outside Olmitz, Kansas. Her childhood on the farm provided wonderful memories which she shared in her book, Prairie Meals and Memories: Living the Golden Rural. It was named to the Kansas Sesquicentennial’s Best 150 Books list. Her stories and poems have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Christian Science Monitor, The Kansas City Star, and various anthologies. She lives in Lenexa, Kansas. Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, a retired English teacher, has always loved teaching, telling, reading, watching, and writing stories. To date, Jerilynn has published nine children’s picture books, an adult memoir, and a young adult historical fiction novel. Her work reflects her sense of humor, love of words, and talent for detail. Jerilynn finds her inspiration in the rolling hills of east central Kansas. No matter the subject of a current work, she is motivated by the people, history, and changing seasons of this place. As a student of history and language, she enjoys traveling to beautiful places. But ultimately, she finds the greatest joy in travel is coming home. www.prairiepatchwork.com Thomas N. Holmquist is a fifth-generation farmer and rancher near Smolan, Kansas. He also is a retired teacher in the Smoky Valley School District having taught music, American History, and agriculture for forty-four years. He has also published three books, including Pioneer Cross, Swedish Settlements Along the Smoky Hill Bluffs, Bluestem, a novel, and Salemsborg, A History of the Salemsborg Church and Community, Volume 1, 1869-1939, for which he won the Award of Commendation for Lutheran Church History from the Augustana Historical Association. Tom has several writing projects in the works in between feeding cows, putting up hay, and planting and harvesting crops. Deb Irsik was the owner of Makin’ Waves Salon in Emporia, Kansas, and retired from the beauty industry after twenty-five years. She is a Kansas girl and shares her life with her husband Mike, and children John and Emily. Deb is a member of the Kansas Authors Club and Emporia Writers Group. Deb’s favorite thing about Kansas is the people. “Most people in Kansas have a strong work ethic and family values. The beautiful Flint Hills and Kansas sunsets are second to none. What’s not to like?” Poetry and lyrics have always been part of her life, but she felt a call to write middle-grade Christian fiction after her daughter found it difficult to be “that God girl” in eighth grade. “It is my hope that my books will encourage young people to hold onto values and faith as they navigate their teen years.” Deb’s “Heroes by Design” series was completed in 2020, and she hopes to dedicate her time to creating a book of poetry and continuing to write essays, prose, and fiction. Deb can be found online: facebook.com/D.A.Irsikauthor, Twitter:@Writerwannabe1, www.dairsik.com, amazon.com/author/dairsik, https://instagram.com/debirsik/ Miriam Iwashige lives on a three-acre property outside of Partridge, Kansas, near where her preacher-farmer dad and mom raised twelve children. She aims to live large from this small place, just as the land and sky around the property suggest. Reading, earning a bachelor’s degree, teaching, conversing, and traveling have often fostered large living, as did homeschooling her children and investing deeply in many aspects of homemaking, gardening, animal husbandry, nature study, and church and community life. She and her Japanese-immigrant husband parented three sons who all live nearby right now. Those who have joined their sons’ families through marriage or birth (nine grandchildren!) spent childhood years in such diverse places as Bangladesh, Kenya, El Salvador, and Washington state. Sally Jadlow grew up in Ft. Scott, Kansas. After marriage, she and her husband moved to Overland Park. Teaching creative writing for the Kansas City Writers Group is one of her joys. She writes historical fiction, inspirational stories, devotionals, and poetry. Sally has published thirteen books. Her work has appeared in many compilations including Chicken Soup for the Soul and many other publications. Her books are available on Amazon.com. Sally also loves to bake, cinnamon rolls, her specialty. Family Favorites from the Heartland contain her favorite recipes. The eastern Kansas countryside with its gently rolling hills claims Sally’s most favorite area of the state. She believes what Dorothy says, “There’s no place like home,” is true—if you live in Kansas. Amy Deckert Kliewer has lived her entire life in Kansas. She grew up in Pawnee Rock, Kansas, and went to high school in Larned. After attending Bethel College and graduating from the University of Kansas, Amy lived and worked in the Kansas City metro area as a civil engineer. Recently retired, Amy and her husband moved to North Newton to enjoy the smalltown feeling and be close to family. She is enjoying exploring her Next Chapter. Nancy Julien Kopp grew up in the Chicago area and moved to Kansas, her adopted state and home, in 1975. She started writing in her mid-fifties, realizing a long-held dream. She has been published in many anthologies, including twenty-three times in Chicken Soup for the Soul books, in addition to publication on websites, in magazines, and in newspapers. She writes creative nonfiction, including personal essays and short memoir pieces, and also poetry, short fiction for children, and articles on the craft of writing. Nancy and her retired husband live in Manhattan, Kansas, and are strong supporters of all things K-State. She is mother to two and grandmother to four. She is a voracious reader and enjoys playing bridge. www.writergrannysworld.blogspot.com Marilyn Hope Lake, PhD, writes short fiction, poetry, plays and children’s picture books. She has many awards for writing, including through the Kansas Authors Club contests. Dr. Lake’s first-place story, “Harry’s Stone,” was published in Words Out of the Flatlands; Kansas Writers Association. Lake has been published in Rock Springs Review, STIR, Well-Versed: Literary Works, the Gasconade Review, and the Mizzou Alumni Magazine. Marilyn lived in Hutchinson, Kansas, from 2002-2017, is a Kansas Authors Club ten-year member, and was a facilitator of the 2014 Annual Conference. Her Kansas favorites are the Wichita Art Museum, State Fair, Underground Salt Mine, Delos V. Smith Senior Center, Hutchinson, and others. Although she misses her Kansas friends, she is happy to live with her dog, Hugo, and near family in Columbia, Missouri. A Kansan through and through, Sandee Lee celebrates being published in every edition of 105 Meadowlark Reader. Her favorite writing topic for nonfiction and fiction is Kansas. The turmoil of the mid-1800s in the Lawrence area is the topic of her current fiction project. Relaxing on her porch with her two border collies lying by her feet and watching cattle graze on the hillside is where you’ll find Sandee most evenings except in the winter months. From that porch she can observe the homestead where her family has lived since 1925. Errin D. Moore, an emigrant from Montana, has called Kansas home for eight years. She lives in the Flint Hills near Leon with her husband, infant son, and eighteen-year-old stepson—along with their menagerie of chickens, turkeys, geese, pigs, and an overabundance of cats. She fell in love with the unique beauty Kansas offers, most especially the magnificent sunsets. Errin and her husband own Able and Ready Appliance Repair. She runs the office from home while raising Oliver. She was a teacher and administrator for nineteen years, and she owned and operated a bookstore in El Dorado. Her humorous, touching, and unique sense of voice is especially effective when she writes about the joys and challenges of being a first-time mother at the age of forty-four. Audrey Phillips is a Kansan through and through. She grew up in Overland Park, attended the University of Kansas, and is now living in Kansas City, Missouri. Audrey loves to represent her favorite parts of being a Kansan by cheering on her Jayhawks or Chiefs or Sporting Kansas City. Audrey loves Kansas because of the way everyone feels like family here. She is a proud midwesterner and strives to promote the kindness that midwesterners possess. She has always loved to write, even from a young age. She was and continues to be inspired by her famous Aunt Mary-Lane Kamberg who has published many books in her time as an author. Even though now she lives right across the state line, Kansas will always be her home. Cynthia Schaker (Cindy), a retired Kansas educator of thirty-seven years, grew up on a farm outside of Hamilton, Kansas, in Greenwood County. Cindy taught grades six through eight at Towanda Grade School and served as school counselor at Circle Middle School in Butler County. One of her favorite places in Kansas is the Flint Hills because they remind her of going home. She currently resides in El Dorado, Kansas, with her rescue dog Moxie. Cindy does volunteer work in the Gift Shop at Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital in El Dorado. She serves as President of the SBAMH Auxiliary. She loves humorous writing and penning stories from her childhood. She recently had her humorous murder mystery play performed at Cardinal Creek Farm in Butler County. Julie A. Sellers was raised in the Flint Hills near the small town of Florence, Kansas. She currently resides in Atchison, Kansas, where she is an Associate Professor (Spanish) and Chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Benedictine College. Julie’s creative work has appeared in publications such as Cagibi, Wanderlust, Unlost, The Write Launch, and Kansas Time + Place. Julie was the 2020 Kansas Authors Club Prose Writer of the Year, and the Overall Poetry Winner (2022) and Overall Prose Winner (2017, 2019) of the Kansas Voices Contest. She is the author of Kindred Verse: Poems Inspired by Anne of Green Gables (Blue Cedar Press, 2021) and the novel, Ann of Sunflower Lane (Meadowlark, 2022). Perry Shepard is a Vietnam veteran who has written two novels: The Hero versus Me and Monkey Jo, and Hard Love. He co-wrote two plays in the anthology titled Annabelle. He won a second-place award in Eber and Wein’s Best American Poetry of 2013, and an honorable mention in Writer’s Digest 84th annual Poetry Competition. Perry is a member and former District 2 president of Kansas Authors Club. He makes his home in Eudora, Kansas. A month after the sudden death of her second husband, Anne L. Spry had a mystical dream that detailed a new business based on capturing personal history for writing memoir. She had already begun publishing books through Createspace for herself and others following a twenty-seven-year career as a newspaper publisher and editor. Since the fortuitous dream, Spry and partner Cheri Battrick have developed a DIY Memoir Kit and Spry has expanded her book publishing to some two dozen titles under the Personal Chapters LLC banner. They include children’s books, memoir and fiction, and a few titles authored by Spry. Anne serves as President of District 1 of Kansas Authors Club and produces a newsletter for that group and another for a local Sweet Adelines group. She is married to a retired military pilot, and they live on a family acreage south of Topeka where Anne spent her first five years. Chuck Warner is a lifelong Kansan. After growing up in Wichita, he has lived in Lawrence since first attending the University of Kansas in the 1960s. With business and law degrees, he embarked on a nearly forty-year career in business and banking. After he retired in 2008, he began writing about his maternal grandfather and in 2019 Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker was published by the University Press of Kansas. In 2020 his book was recognized as a Kansas Notable book, and also won awards for the best Kansas history and best book layout from the Kansas Authors Club, and was a finalist in the High Plains Book Awards. Barbara Waterman-Peters is an artist by training and a writer by chance. Both pursuits have come together over the years in her articles about art and artists for such publications as Topeka, Kansas, and New Art Examiner magazines, in her book cover paintings for authors such as Marcia Cebulska’s Watching Men Dance, and in her collaborations with poets, most recently, Two Ponders: A Collaboration with Dennis Etzel, Jr. Co-owner of Pen & Brush Press with author Glendyn Buckley, Waterman-Peters illustrated their first two children’s books, The Fish’s Wishes and Bird which won awards from Kansas Authors Club. She co-wrote and illustrated their third book, TING & the Caterbury Tales, which came out this spring. Recently her fiction piece, “The Critique,” appeared in The Pen Woman and her creative non-fiction and poetry have been included in several anthologies. She lives in Topeka and her studio is in the NOTO Arts & Entertainment District. She spent five years living in rural Jackson County and Holton. Cat Webling is an actress and author based in Kansas. She loves everything mad and macabre, philosophical and silly, so that’s exactly what she writes! Scifi, fantasy, and poetry are her mainstays when she’s not writing about literature, theater, gaming, or fan culture. She currently has a novel, a couple of short story collections, and several poetry collections under her belt. She works as an editor for SUPERJUMP Magazine, is an active member of the Kansas Authors Club, and daylights as a copywriter for hire. Cat writes from her home in Russell, which she shares with her loving partner, adorable son, and several very cute cats. You can find her work at www.catwebling.com.  Theme for Issue #5 (Nov 1 - Dec 31, 2022 Submission Period):
Animal Stories
On June 5th, Marilyn Hope Lake, District 2 KAC member, attended the launch party for Well Versed 2022, the literary journal of the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers Guild. Lake's poem, "The Right Thank You," was selected for publication in the journal. Walter Bargen, the first Poet Laureate of Missouri, served as the poetry judge. Lake also had her watercolor painting, "Spanish Riviera" published in this edition.  Spanish Riviera, watercolor painting by Marilyn Hope Lake Each year at the convention, Kansas Authors Club recognizes active members who have reached markers of longevity with the club.  Dan Close (D5) and Jolene Haas (D3) are recognized for 10 years of membership at the 2019 Convention in Wichita. 10 Year Members Sylvia S. Colombo Marilyn Hope Lake, Ph.D. Louise Click Jolene Haas Dan Close Victoria Hermes-Bond Kenneth Neel Holler Paula K. Nixon  Anne Shiever (D4) and William J. Karnowski (D4) are recognized for 15 years of membership at the 2019 Convention in Wichita. 15 Year Members Dr. Kenneth Ohm Barbara Waterman-Peters Diane Palka William J. Karnowski Anne Shiever Ted Farmer 20 Year Members Nancy Julien Kopp Luanne Joy French  Nancy Julien Kopp (D4) is recognized for 20 years of membership at the 2019 Convention in Wichita. 25 Year Members
Delbert E. Bryant Joe H. Vaughan Carolyn R. Smith Lorena Joyce Herrmann 40 Year Members Barbara Booth |
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