Community of Writers Reading, September 13

This reading by Elizabeth Gordon, Julie Lomoe & James Schlett was one of a continuing series by local authors, the series sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild. [Full disclosure: I am President of HVWG & organized this reading.] It was held at the East Greenbush (NY) Community Library.

Julie Lomoe talked about the history of the writing, publication & marketing of her 3 mystery novels, Mood Swing: The Bipolar Murders (2006), Eldercide (2008), & the just-published Hope Dawns Eternal (Norse Crone Press, 2015), a vampire/soap opera/murder mystery. She said her new book has the potential of being the first in a series, using many of the same characters. To give us a taste, she read the Prologue which sets up what takes place in the novel 10 years later.

James Schlett started out in the Albany poetry scene a number of years ago, but his work as a journalist let him to the story of Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Russell Lowell, Louis Agassiz, William James Stillman & others, & their stay at “the Philosophers’ Camps” in 1858, that he tells in A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden: The Story of the Philosophers’ Camp in the Adirondacks (Cornell University Press, 2015). He began with reciting from Emerson’s poem “The Adirondacs,” & read fascinating excerpts from the book, as well as anecdotes from his research. His book has been selling well enough to warrant a second printing.

Elizabeth Gordon began by talking about & reading from her memoir Walk With Us, Triplet Boy, Their Teen Parents, & Two White Women Who Tagged Along (Crandall, Dostie & Douglass Books, 2007), then read a poem based on the experiences in the book. Her book of poems Love Cohoes (Crandall, Dostie & Douglass Books, 2014) is a collection of poems that describe, evoke, & celebrate that city by the Falls. She read the rhapsodic “The Clotheslines of Cohoes,” & “Adult Low-Dose” a “black-out poem” which let to a discussion of the technique & more examples using dictionary definitions.

3 writers representing only a sample of the of the great variety of writing personalities, styles & genres in this rich & arts-vibrant region. For more information about the Hudson Valley Writers Guild check out the website.