A List of Some of the Authors Coming to a Gathering of Northeast Kingdom Authors on August 30, 2008

The hills and valleys of the Northeast Kingdom are filled with men and women who have written books. Some of them have won state and national acclaim, while others are known only in their own communities. The one thing they all have in common, though, is their love of writing.

Come to the Goodrich Memorial Library in Newport on Saturday, August 30 from 12 until 3 p.m. and meet some of the authors of the Northeast Kingdom and the Eastern Townships of Quebec. The event is hosted by Scott and Penny Wheeler of Derby, the publishers of Vermont's Northland Journal, along with the Goodrich Memorial Library in Newport. It is free and open to the public.

Authors interested in attending the event are asked to contact the Wheelers. As for the public, they are encouraged to visit the library at their leisure between the hours of the event and meet the authors and browse, and even buy, the works of the authors of the Northeast Kingdom. The Wheelers can be reached at (802) 334-5920 or by email at northlandjournal@gmail.com

The following are some of the authors who plan to attend the event.

J. Francis Angier
J. Francis Angier was raised on a farm in New Haven, Vermont and had an early interest in Aviation that led to his flying B-17 bombers out of England during W W II. He flew jet interceptors and helicopters during the cold war. He farmed in Addison County for many years while continuing his military and civilian flying career.

His many interests included natural and innovative farming techniques, archeology, history, geography, world affairs and travel. His best selling book READY OR NOT Into the Wild Blue is a true-life story of his upbringing, air combat over Europe, POW experience under the Nazis and his long aviation career. Several reviews of this book have recommended it as mandatory reading for all Vermont school children. His newest book Tales of Woe shares many humorous events along with factual stories and embellished happenings over the past 85 years of his life. He is presently working on a book about rural life in the Champlain Valley during Prohibition and Depression years. A story about tragedy, love and enterprising families. Francis and his wife, Madeleine, have five sons, John, Michael, Phillip, Pierre and Thomas.

Richard Colburn
Richard Colburn is considered Charleston's unofficial historian. A lifelong resident of Charleston, Colburn played an instrumental role in making the Charleston Historical Society become reality and keeping it vibrant. He has also dug graves for more than 65 years, and worked hundreds of hours documenting the wording on many of the grave stones around Orleans Country and beyond. His documentation has been bound into booklet form. In addition, he recently published a book titled, The History of a Country Church

Cindy Dague
Cindy L. Dague was born in San Pedro, California, and grew up in the beautiful state of Vermont, where she makes her home today. Cindy graduated from North Country Union High School in Newport, Vermont. She then went on to receive her FCC license in Two Way Communications in Hammond, Louisiana. While working abroad on the research vessel Shell America, Cindy experienced firsthand the power of the sea and the raw elements that combine to sustain our beautiful planet. This is Cindy’s first novel. She has completed work on her second novel, which is the sequel to The Ancient Treils, and hopes to write a third. Native American and Celtic pride fuel Cindy’s creativity, while physics and history set her imagination in motion.

Paul Daniels
Farmer, logger, fielder, writer, and master storyteller, Paul Daniels is all of them and more. The life-long resident of Albany is all of them and more. He is the author of The Bell tolls No More to Call The Faithful From their Chore: A History of St. John of the Cross Catholic Church and Its Parishioners

Virginia Downs
Virginia Downs was born in Lyndonville, Vermont, graduating from the University of Vermont in 1946 where she was an editor of The Cynic, the college newspaper. She was a writer and photographer for the Burlington Daily News, then was editor for inhouse magazines in New York City: Avisco News for American Viscose Company and Kellogg World M. W. Kellogg Company. she returned to Vermont in 1953where her interest in history developed. She was a free lance writer for Yankee Magazine, Burlington Free Press, Caledonian Record, Northland Journal and was co-editor for 20 years with Harriet Fisher of the Lyndon Historical Society's quarterly, Lyndon Legacy. She has written five books: Northeast Kingdom Cookbook - recipes & Remedies from Vermont, produced by Caledonia Home Health Care Agency; Mansions & Meadows - Lyndon the Way it Was, published by Lyndon Historical Society; Voices from the Kingdom, published by Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium; and Luther B. Harris: A Prison Story - A Vermont Soldier's Memoir of Andersonville and Other Rebel Camps, published by Vermont Civil War Enterprises and Lyndon Historical Society.

Matthew Farfan
Matthew Farfan is a writer, editor, translator and heritage consultant. He has written several books, including The Making of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House (1999), The Eastern Townships: In Town and Village (2006), The Eastern Townships: On Lake and River (2008) and Cemetery Heritage in Quebec (2008). In 2008, Matthew was a guest editor of the magazine, Quebec Heritage News, and wrote the brochure Stanstead Heritage Tour. He is also editor of the popular Internet magazine, Townships Heritage, on-line since 2001. He is currently writing a book on the Quebec-Vermont border, due out in 2009. Educated at McGill University in Montreal, with degrees in history and political science, Matthew resides in the border community of Stanstead, in Quebec's Eastern Townships, where he is a city councilor and very active in local affairs."

Ernie Farrar and Alan Rubel
Ernie Farrar and Alan Rubel are the authors of Gloves: The Stories of Vermont's Greatest Boxers, Trainers, and personalities. The book was published in 2008. Farrar, who lives in St. Albans, was born and raised in Newport. Rubel lives in Barre.

Jacob Grant
Jacob L. Grant is the author of two medieval fantasy novels, including book one in the Legends of Turmak trilogy. He is a journalist and editor at The Caledonian-Record and a part time photographer. He lives in Lyndon, Vt. His co-author, Mark Russell, is a man of much imagination and lives in Littleton, N.H.

Michael T. Hahn
Michael T. Hahn is the author of five books: Ethan Allen: A Life of Adventure (which won a Special Merit Award from the Vermont Book Publisher’s Association); Ann Story: Vermont’s Heroine of Independence (which made the Vermont Top 10 Great Books List by Ginger Lee, program manager for Vermont Council on the Humanities); Alexander Twilight: Vermont's African-American Pioneer; Dad's Deer Tactics; and his new novel, Butte. Michael has written for many magazines and newspapers, including Outdoors Magazine; Livin’ The Vermont Way; Northland Journal; Vermont Life; The Bridge Weekly; The Burlington Free Press; The Green Mountain Trading Post; The Chronicle; Behind the Times; Vermont Sportsman; www.greatlodge.com; and Best Of Burlington.

Michael Hahn grew up in the house where his father was born in Bradford, Vermont. Michael majored in Arranging and Composition at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and he has traveled to 49 of the 50 states, but he always returns home to Vermont. Michael has performed for decades with popular dance bands, and he is a five-time winner of the internet songwriting contest at www.tuneflow.com. Michael wrote and produced a movie, Green Mountain Shuffle, featuring his original music, that played at several theaters in 2006. He lives with his wife Robin in the home he built in Barton, Vermont.

Edward Hoagland
Edward Hoagland (born December 21, 1932 in New York, New York, United States) is an author best known for his nature and travel writing. His non-fiction has been widely praised by writers such as John Updike, who called him “the best essayist of my generation.” Hoagland joined the Ringling Broothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the summers of 1951 and 1952, selling his novel about the experience, Cat Man (1955), before graduating from Harvard in 1954. After serving two years in the Army, he published The Circle Home (1960), a novel about boxing and then began the first of nine trips to Alaska and British Columbia. During the 1970s, he made the first two of five trips to Africa. After receiving two Guggenheim Fellowships, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1982. He has taught at The New School, Rutgers, Sarah Lawrence, Cuny, the University of Iowa, U.C. Davis, Columbia University, Beloit College, and Brown. In 2005, Hoagland retired from a teaching postilion at Bennington College in Vermont.

Beth Kanell
Beth Kanell is a poet and author of several adventure travel and local history books. For The Darkness Under the Water, her first novel, she drew on her family background of New England farm and forest, a neighbor's tales of his Abenaki heritage, and the discovery that part of her own town, in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, had vanished underwater. Mother of two grown sons, she has always told stories, especially to teens, and the story of 15-year-old Molly Ballou became the one that mattered the most (see www.BethKanell.com). She lives in Waterford, Vermont, with her husband Dave.

David Martin
David Martin began writing picture books in 1980 after spending a lot of time reading to his own children. But when he was a child, he never thought he’d be an author. Taking apart radios and televisions to see how they worked and playing in the little woods behind his house in in Queens, NY was much more interesting. Now that he lives in the Northeast Kingdom he has much bigger woods to play in, and writing for children still remains a pleasant surprise. Also beginning in 1980 David became a teacher in St Johnsbury, and for 18 years worked with elementary and middle school students. His last teaching position was as a Reading Recovery teacher with first graders, and it was then that he learned about early literacy. This encouraged him to work with his publisher, Candlewick Press, to start the Brand New Reader series which are collections of short books for children just ready to begin reading on their own.

His picture books include FIVE LITTLE PIGGIES, a Parent’s Choice award winner, and more recently WE’VE ALL GOT BELLYBUTTONS, which was originally a song, ALL FOR PIE, PIE FOR ALL, a book about what happens to that last piece of pie left in the pie plate, and PIGGY AND DAD GO FISHING, a worm and fish friendly tale. His Brand New Readers include: MONKEY TROUBLE, MONKEY BUSINESS, PIGGY AND DAD, the same two who go fishing, THREE LITTLE BEARS, and one series that David illustrated himself starring two frogs, LUCY AND BOB. LITTLE BUNNY’S CHRISTMAS EVE and several other books will be available in the future.

Bea Nelson
Bea (Aldrich) Nelson is a native Vermonter brought up on a Derby farm. She graduated from college with a BEd Secondary, and taught English and Art in both Secondary and Elementary schools. Since retirement Bea has been active in the Holland Historical Society, Memphremagog Historical Society, and the Alnobak Heritage Preservation Center. An Abenaki descendant; much of her written work has dealt with Abenaki history and culture in the Nebesak News, an Abenaki newsletter, she edited and published for 10 years, and articles she’s written for Northland Journal.

Also an artist, Bea has written and illustrated Country Nostalgia, a booklet of haikus; authored and illustrated Mamlabagwok -Crossroads, Before and Beyond, the permanent Abenaki exhibit on the second floor of the Emory Hebard State Office Building; written and illustrated Prehistory of the Northeast Kingdom and Tracing Your Native Ancestry - Wabanaki; coauthored and illustrated Around Lake Memphremagog; coauthored Holland and Its Neighbors; and co-edited the reprint of Ella Farrow’s Holland Highlights.

Bea is currently serving as President of the Up-East Vermont Chamber of Commerce, Secretary of the Holland Historical Society, and is the co-founder of the artists group Derby Dabblers.

Tony and Gigi O'Connor
Tony and Gigi O'Connor founded Vermont Civil War Enterprises in 1993. It has the goal of producing and making available to the general public every book about the role Vermont played in American Civil War. This includes Regimental Histories, Diaries, the Revised Roster etc.

To date we offer 42 different titles on Vt. in the Civil War. We believe in our slogan:
VERMONT 1861 / 1865 THE STATE THAT SAVED THE UNION

We also print poetry books, family histories, cookbooks. We will print as few as 100 copies of a book for only 4 ½ cents a page, 250 copies of a book at 3 1/2 cents a page. Our main value is the personal interest we show our customers. Our deals are straight forward with no fine print. We offer a number of different binding methods from inexpensive spiral to hard cover leather.
Call us at 802 766 4747 or email us at vtcwe@hotmail.com

Ron Smith
Although War of the Redhorsemen is the author's first effort in writing a novel, he has had several articles printed in the Northland Journal entitled Flatlander Fables. He has also had articles appear in The Saturday Evening Post (1951) and The Reader's Digest 1962) and is currently working on his second novel; Inefficient Force, a sequel to Sergeant Sandy Coker’s appearance in his first novel.
The author retired after twenty years in the United States Air Force and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for action against the enemy while assigned to the 820th RED HORSE squadron at DaNang Air Base, Republic of Vietnam.
Mr. Smith currently resides with his wife Andrea in Irasburg, in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

Tanya Sousa
Tanya Sousa specializes in non-fiction and creative nonfiction that deals with animals and environmental issues. Her articles appear regularly in Vermont Magazine and The Canine Chronicle. She has also written for Dog and Kennel Magazine and Country Woman among others. Her creative nonfiction has been published in well-known anthologies such as A Cup of Comfort and Chicken Soup for the Soul as well as in regional publications such as The Green Mountain Trading Post. Her how-to book, Can Dogs Read? Starting and Implementing a Literacy Program (Cairn Terrier Publishing) has been distributed around the country (and to some degree internationally!) and is on sale in NEK bookstores and some businesses that deal with animal foods and products.

Penny Tice
Penny (Rumery) Tice was raised in Holland on a 5th generation farm where she still resides. She attended Holland Elementary School and graduated from Derby Academy. She was married in 1963 and is active in the United Methodist Church in Holland. Penny has served the Town of Holland for many years as Auditor and Cemetery Commissioner and currently is the President of the Holland Historical Society. She is an avid genealogist, and has a strong interest in her family heritage. She coauthored Holland and Its Neighbors and co-edited the reprint of Ella Farrow’s history Holland Highlights.

Scott Wheeler
Scott Wheeler of Derby is the author of Rumrunners and Revenuers: Prohibition in Vermont, and When Salmon Was King: Voices from the Clyde River. A third book will go on sale this fall – Don McNally: From Vauderville to Drive-In Pioneer. Mr. Wheeler and his wife, Penny, who both grew up in the Northeast Kingdom, are the publishers of Vermont's Northland Journal, and are co-hosting the authors' event along with the Goodrich Memorial Library. The couple and their family spend hundreds of hours each year honoring our country's veterans and hosting history and culture events.

Jeannine A. Young
Jeannine A. Young published Reflections: Learning Life’s Lessons in 2003. Her book of big sister advice and wisdom is intended to help teens and young adults learn life’s lessons now, instead of waiting years to learn them as adults. The success principles in Reflections have no age boundaries. A mother, sister, aunt, friend and community volunteer, Young offers a lifetime of experience and knowledge in Reflections, which she wrote to inspire readers to achieve all that they can as they meet life’s many challenges. Happily married to her husband Joseph for 37 years, Young resides in Craftsbury, Vermont and has three sons and four grandsons. She is a devoted community volunteer and has studied legal, educational and social issues. She is currently finalizing the publication of her story The Lonesome Tree and expects to have copies available at the author’s event.