April, 2010

Biblio File Poets, students stage lively The Society of Midland Authors’ annu- al dinner is coming up May 11, so here’s a story from a few years ago. At that din- ner, Bill Barnhart first met Alex finale to program season Schwartz, director of the Northern arty McConnell, a Chicago poet work titled ‘Undecided’ – not just for the Illinois University Press, who was seated who has appeared on HBO’s usual assemblage of writers and at the same table. Alex agreed to take on M“Def Poetry Jam,” was the fea- lovers but also for an enthusiastic crowd Barnhart’s John Paul Stevens biography, tured speaker at the Society of Midland of other Joliet West students who made and Bill later said, “I couldn’t be happier Authors’ annual program April 13 at the the trek to the Loop for a poetry with his skill and enthusiasm and the skill Cliff Dweller Club in Chicago. and the Cliff Dwellers’ famous view over and enthusiasm of his entire staff.” The McConnell’s poems comment on 21st Grant Park. (For one student, it was her book came out this month (See New , century America, mashing together first trip to Chicago.) Page 5), and the unofficial launch is at 6 Catholic saints, pop-culture icons and “The student poets were recreating their p.m., Thursday, May 20, at the Original tarot cards. performance as a youth slam team in the Billy Goat Tavern, 430 N. Michigan Ave. Society of Midland Authors Board 10-year-old ‘Louder than a Bomb’ com- Bill suggests bringing your friends. Books Member Rosina Neginsky also read, petition. Just as Chicago is home to the will be available for from her book of poems, Juggler, which poetry slam, which has become a world- sale. ... Jane S. Smith, contains seven cycles of poems. wide phenomenon, the city also a biography finalist is Accompanying music was pro- is home to Louder than a Bomb, this years book awards, vided by John Condron, singing now the world’s largest youth is spending the aca- and on guitar, and Barrett slam. ... demic year in Cali- Harvey, who knocked out an “ ‘What I want is who I am fornia, working at the engaging beat on an empty water and who I am is undecided,’ the Huntington . ... cooler jug. students read, with decided con- Beryl Satter’s Family A contingent of Joliet West viction. ‘ ... Will my aspirations Jane S. Smith Properties was one of High School students also sink to the size of a Post-It note two finalists for the showed up, and three of them Marty on my cubicle?’ ” 2010 J. Anthony Lukas Prize given by took over at the microphone to McConnell After watching their perform- Columbia University’s School of Journal- give an idea of what a new gen- ance, somehow that doesn't seem ism for an exceptional nonfiction book. eration of poets is doing. likely.” The book also was a Lukas finalist in Here’s how the student portion of the Although thrown off stride momentarily 2004 in the work-in-progress category. ... event was described on the Chicago Sun- by a maintenance crew that showed up in Among the authors who will appear at the Times Commentary blog: mid-performance to adjust the lighting at Niles Public Library’s “Big Read” pro- “Poetry, like Carl Sandburg's fog, has the podium, McConnell was lively and gram in May are Thomas Frisbie, Bryan been coming on little cat feet into engaged, bringing the 2009-2010 program Gruley, Libby Fischer Hellmann and Chicago – but to stay, not to move on. season to a successful end. Sam Reaves. ... Dick Simpson is involved “Just one example: On Tuesday night at in a new government accountability Web the Cliff Dwellers Club on South Note: The Society of Midland Authors’ site designed to educate voters in advance Michigan Avenue across from the Art 2009-2010 programs may be heard in of next year’s Chicago elections. ... Institute of Chicago, three students from their entirety at www.chicagopublicra- Richard Lindberg’s book The Gambler Joliet West High School performed a dio.org/amplified. King of Clark Street: Michael C. McDonald and the Rise of Chicago's Democratic Machine and Dominic Pacyga’s book Chicago: A Biography Q&A New Literary Loudspeaker: won Illinois State Historical Society with Jonathan Eig Books Tom Ciesielka Awards for Excellence April 25 at the PAGE 2PAGES 4-5 PAGE 6 Turn to Page 2 Biblio File Writer finds app-ropriate way Continued from Page 1 Governor’s Mansion. ... Richard Cahan to market new Capone book and Thomas Frisbie were winners April onathan Eig's new book, Get 23 at the Chicago Headline Club’s Peter Capone: The Secret Plot that Technology is Lisagor Awards. Cahan won for a year- JCaptured America's Most Wanted hurting the book later audio snapshot of people living at Gangster – first reported in Literary “ the public housing development where License in February, 2009 – comes out business in many president Obama got his start as a com- this month (See New Books, Page 5). And munity organizer (see Literary License, Eig has done something that to our ways, but maybe November/ December, 2009) and Frisbie knowledge no other Midland Author has won for editorial writing. Also, Cahan attempted: He created an iPhone app to there are some small was described in Chicago magazine as help promote his book. one of “two men who probably know as The app is called “Chicago Gangland ways to fight back much as anyone about photography over Tour” and is available through the iPhone, . the ages in this city.” ... The Weight of iPad and iTouch for $2.99 (Sutro Media). Heaven by Thrity Umrigar was picked Here’s what Eig told Literary License not on the cutting edge of technology” by as a 2009 Editor’s Choice. ... about the new app: hope to create apps for their books? Nami Mun’s Miles From Nowhere was among the books listed in the Grinnell Literary License: How does the phone Jonathan Eig: I am not exactly Bill College tournament of books. app work? Gates. I don't even own an iPhone. Later this month, Mun will appear at Building this app was Calabash, the only international literary Jonathan Eig: It's like as easy as filling out festival in the English-speaking a travel , Q&A index cards. Caribbean. ... Good news on the Cliff except gussied up with with Dwellers, site of the SMA monthly pro- technology. It knows Literary License: grams: A two-year lease renewal in the where you're standing What was the hardest works. ... Jim Merriner was on “Beyond and shows you pictures Jonathan part of the phone app? the Beltway” April 18 on WLS-AM 890. of all the nearest Eig It’s syndicated to talk radio around the Chicago gangland his- Jonathan Eig: The country, also on XM channel 130. It was toric sites. You can hardest part was gather- televised at 10:30 p.m. April 18 on search by category, too – murder scenes, ing all the photos and uploading them to WYCC-TV. ... “Turkey's true faith isn't gangster houses, speakeasies and so on. the computer. Boring, boring, boring. Islam or secularism,” wrote Stephen Each entry includes a short essay and a Kinzer in The Week magazine, “It is the slide show with five or six photos. And Literary License: As book-selling cult of Ataturk,” who is “a virtual deity.” while you're using the app you can also enters a new era, is this something ... RHINO, “the little magazine with a big click to buy my book. It's pretty cool, if I authors should consider? horn,” is establishing what it says will be do so say so. Turn to Page 3 Jonathan Eig: An iPhone app is not Literary License: What gave you the going to be useful for every author. idea to do an app in conjunction with You've got to have the right kind of book. your new book? My book is all Chicago. It's full of street names. It's full of bars and restaurants and Jonathan Eig: I'm trying to do any- funeral parlors. It makes sense to offer 2010 thing I can to reach potential readers. And readers a look at those places, and plenty Society of Midland Authors a lot of readers today don't read book of people who don't read my book can P.O. Box 10419, Chicago IL 60610 reviews, or even newspapers, but they do enjoy a tour of Capone's Chicago, too. goof around with the iPhones when But even if an iPhone app isn't right for Editor: Thomas Frisbie they're not picking up a book. So I decid- other authors, I think we all need to think [email protected] ed to take this encyclopedic knowledge of creatively about how to market our books. Copy editor: Stephen Huntley gangland Chicago that I've developed We can't count on bookstores and book from writing my book and do something reviews to do the job anymore. Page 1 image of Marty McConnell with it that might reach readers in a new Technology is hurting the book business from photo by Gerry Souter and different way. in many ways, but maybe there are some www.midlandauthors.com small ways to fight back. I think it's worth Literary License: Can authors who are trying.

2 LITERARY LICENSE, APRIL 2010 Annual dinner: A place to be Biblio File Continued from Page 2 ‘diverted by pleasing wit’ an “annual award to be given to a person ere’s what Hobart C. Chatfield- who has made a significant, long term Taylor, the first president of the May 11, 2010, Awards Dinner contribution to poetry in Illinois.” On HSociety of Midland Authors and InterContinental Hotel April 11, that person was the SMA’s own later its historian, wrote 80 years about 505 N. Michigan Avenue Ron Offen, who, as Biblio File reported the organization’s annual gathering of Camelot Room last month, has been forced due to health authors: problems to stop Free Lunch: “We Midlanders do assemble 6 p.m. - Social Hour A Poetry Miscellany. ... On April 12, once a year, it is true, to listen to papers 7 p.m. - Program Carol Felsenthal started posting on poli- read by fellow members; but even these tics at chicagomag.com, hoping to post Tickets: $75 solemn occasions have proved far from two or three times a week about Chicago depressing; for instead of being bored by and Illinois politics. Stop in and leave a ‘high-brow’ sapience we have been comment. ... Ed Gordon now has a blog diverted by the pleasing wit of Alice the tune of ‘Old Dan Tucker,’ till the per- at Encyclopedia Brittanica French, Meredith Nicholson, Randall spiring fiddler will bow no more. (www.eb.com/blogs/author/egordon). ... Parrish, George Ade, Emerson Hough, “No, there is but little wisdom and false Jim and Lynda O’Connor were sched- Zona Gale, and Margaret Hill McCarter. philosophy in the Society of Midland uled to speak at the University of “Even at the last annual meeting, when Authors, and much that is human and Wisconsin’s Writers’ Institute on April 23 the death of our beloved Honorary edifying, even our annual meetings being on “Publicity that is Fun and Effective.” President made personal reminiscences of far from staid events. In the winter time, They were also to meet one-on-one with him the order of the day, we did not wear however, we gather at such Bohemian the writers. On April 29, they’ll be off to long faces or pass stilted resolutions. On places as Mme. Galli's, the Bismarck gorgeous Seeley Lake, Mont., to present the contrary, we just sat Garden, or De Jonghe's the same topic to the Northwest Outdoor together in a friendly French restaurant; while Writers Association. ... At the annual group while Clara Literary in summer we hie either meeting of the Authors Guild in New Laughlin, Edith Wyatt, Lore: to Lake Forest for a syl- York April 27, members elected Scott and Harriet Monroe told van outing or to the Turow as their president. It’s his second us human stories of James Hobart C. Chicago lawn of time in the job; in 1997-1998 he complet- Whitcomb Riley's lov- our charming Secretary, ed the term of the late J. Anthony Lukas. ableness and quaintness. Chatfield- whenever wandering Turow’s new book Innocent is due out “But the annual meet- Taylor Thespians raise their tres- May 4. Publishers Weekly said, ing is the only formal tles there. “Mesmerizing prose and intricate plotting conclave of the year, and even that is fol- “Indeed, if the Society of Midland lift Turow's superlative legal thriller, his lowed by sufficient cheer and welcome to Authors has a just reason for being, it lies, best since his bestselling debut, make what Shakespeare calls a ‘merry I repeat, in its avowed purpose of bring- Presumed Innocent, to which this is a feast.’ ing the writers of the Middle West togeth- sequel.” ... After 27 years in Evanston, “Decked in paper motley, we then er in closer association. Though a society Ill., Paul McComas has relocated to devour the roast beef of old England and of authors, it is nevertheless free from Madison, Wis., where he writes, free- quaff October ale; or, in more homely cant and prejudice, the creation of both lance-edits manuscripts, and teaches fic- guise, eat pork and beans and pumpkin friendship and goodfellowship among the tion writing in UW-Madison’s Mini pie until the hard cider which has washed men and women of the Middle West who Course Program. In March, Paul present- them down begins to tingle in our write for a living being the object for ed his program, “The Lying Game: toes. Then we must needs dance a reel to which it was founded.” Confessions of A Fiction Writer,” at the public library in Ladysmith, Wis. He'll The annual meeting is the only formal con- perform “Poetry in (E)motion: The Many Moods of Verse” at Third Avenue “clave of the year, and even that is followed by suf- Playhouse, Sturgeon Bay, Wis., on April 25, and two other programs – “Stories in ficient cheer and welcome to make what the Spotlight: Coming of Age” and “First-

Shakespeare calls a ‘merry feast.’ Turn to Page 4 “Beyond the prairie road could be seen a double furrow of jet-black” glistening sod, framing the green grass and its spangling flowers, first browsing of the plow on virgin soil.” – The Covered Wayon, Emerson Hough, 1922

LITERARY LICENSE, APRIL 2010 3 Biblio File New Books Continued from Page 3 JOHN PAUL STEVENS: AN INDEPENDENT LIFE Person Fiction: Stories in the Key of 'I'” – THE MAN WITH TWO ARMS through the Passages adult-ed program at Oakton College's Skokie, Ill., campus on Billy Lombardo, who read from his For this biography, Bill Barnhart and April 27 and June 22. On June 14, he'll poetry at the Society of Midland Authors Gene Schlickman interviewed Supreme debut “Two Tales Terrifically Told” at St. April, 2008 program, has written his first Court Justice John Paul Stevens and an John’s by the Lake in Milwaukee. On novel. It’s about a father who helps his extraordinary number of Stevens’ friends June 18 and 19, he'll be serving on panels son grow into a baseball phenomenon and family members, former clerks, cur- at the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of who can throw with both hands, but is rent colleagues, politicians, and court Books in Waukesha (www.sewibookfest. accused of pushing his son too hard. watchers. They spoke with such public com). Paul reports that the option on his Publishers Weekly wrote “Lombardo’s figures as former President Ford, former book Planet of the Dates has been prose is poetic and poignant. Readers Ford chief of staff Donald Rumsfeld, and renewed and that the two producers have who can suspend their disbelief will find Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Interviews adapted the novel into a surprisingly the book haunting and beautiful. It is a with Stevens’ children and one of his faithful screenplay they're now shopping lovely, timely debut novel.” brothers provide personal insights into the around to directors. ... The contemporary man behind the robe. baseball poetry Web site James Finn Tales of his childhood, of growing up Garner runs, Bardball.com, has begun its in an affluent family in Chicago’s Hyde fourth season. Its goal is to revive the THE GREAT AND ONLY Park neighborhood, and of the family daily baseball doggerel that used to grace BARNUM: THE business, including the Stevens Hotel the daily sports columns of Grantland (now the Chicago Hilton and Towers), Rice and others. It is driven by fan sub- TREMENDOUS, STUPENDOUS create a rich portrait of the independent missions, and has published original work LIKE OF HOWMAN S man and judge. Intimate anecdotes from by Jonathan Eig, Stuart Shea and P.T. B ARNUM Stevens’ former law clerks reveal the Thomas Dyja, among others. ... The lighter side of some of the most serious American Planning Association will be work in the country. releasing in May a new Planning Barnhart and Schlickman also trace Advisory Service Report, titled “Hazard Stevens’ early years as a Chicago lawyer, Mitigation: Integrating Best Practices into IMOGENE’S LAST STAND his appointment to the federal appeals Planning.” The report is the result of a bench in Chicago, and his nomination to 30-month project underwritten by the the Supreme Court by Republican Federal Emergency Management Agency, Candace Fleming, winner of the 2009 President Ford. for which Jim Schwab, manager of Society of Midland Authors Children’s The book was was due in stores on APA’s Hazards Planning Research Center, Nonfiction Award, had two new books April 21. served as project manager and principal come out last fall. author. The book examines how planners Of The Great and Only P.T. Barnum, can integrate planning for natural hazards Publishers Weekly said, “Audiences will mitigation into all aspects of the planning step right up to this illuminating and thor- FOOLPROOF ough portrait of an entertainment legend.” Turn to Page 5 Fleming traces Barnum’s roller-coaster life from his boyhood in Connecticut to Barbara D’Amato, Jeanne M. Dams his early career as the creator of and Mark Richard Zubro are authors of Printers Row sideshows and his later role as the master Foolproof, a thriller about a couple who of enormously successful circuses. meet for coffee before going to their soft- As in past years, the Society of Midland Of Imogene’s Last Stand, Booklist said, ware firm in the World Trade Center. Authors plans to participate in the “Fleming’s sense of small-town space is That saves them from the Twin Towers' Printers Row Literary Lit Fest June 12- impeccable ... and the historical facts and collapse, even as their friends and a 13. The event’s organizer, the Chicago quotes that bookend the story are just the fiancé were killed and their company Tribune, plans to confirm tent and table thing to get new Imogenes fired up.” obliterated. They create a clandestine locations for the SMA and other organi- The book tells the story of a feisty child division inside their company to track zations on May 7. Check the SMA’s Web who discovers an abandoned historical down global terrorists, leading them on a page, www.midlandauthors.com, after society building in her New Hampshire search involving Washington D.C., Egypt, May 7 for information on how to sign up town, cleans it up and opens it as a muse- Italy and Turkey. for a $30 two-hour time slot when you um, and rescues it from developers who can sell your books at the festival. want to replace it with a factory. Turn to Page 5 4 LITERARY LICENSE, APRIL 2010 New Books Biblio File Continued from Page 4 THE ROAD TO WAR: Continued from Page 4 DUTY & DRILL, process, from local comprehensive plans, COURAGE & CAPTURE FIRST RAIN to land-use codes, development work and site plan reviews, and capital improve- ments programming. Jim is also speaking Charlotte Herman’s new book, First on a panel at a May 12 conference of the Rain, was published in March by Albert Stephen Burgaur’s new book is the National Building Museum in Washington, Whitman. It tells the story of a young girl story of Captain William C. Frodsham Jr., D.C., that looks forward to a 2011 exhib- who moves to Israel with her parents, who — shortly after the Japanese attack it, “Designing for Disasters,” in which while her grandmother stays behind in the on Pearl Harbor — enlisted in the U.S. Jim is participating as an adviser. The fol- U.S. Army Infantry, where he excelled in basic lowing week Jim will also attend his first School Library Journal wrote, “Besides training, became a junior officer, and meeting as a member of a newly created being a realistic look at another culture, eventually led a combat boat team ashore Wildland Fire Operations Advisory Com- this well-written book is heartwarming on Omaha Beach. mittee for the National Fire Protection and reassuring.” Six days later, in French hedgerow Association, in Quincy, Mass., outside And from Booklist, “Herman’s simple country and under withering German fire, Boston.Schwab also wants to make it story offers a good look at contemporary Frodsham was wounded and taken pris- clear that he is not dropping names when secular life in Israel as well as the reali- oner. He spent the next year as a German he tells us he won’t be at the annual din- ties of moving far away from family.” POW, where he suffered great deprivation ner because he will be in Washington that First Rain was also selected for The PJ before finally being liberated by advanc- evening hanging out at the National Library, which sends Jewish-themed chil- ing Russian forces. Building Museum with Wynton Marsalis dren’s books to Jewish families around His training, his courage, his capture. and Harry Connick Jr. ... The the country. The reader is taken for a first-person tour of Jeff Zaslow’s The Girls from of the times at home and then tunneled Ames is out. ... Lori Andrews appeared into a vastly different world on the battle- April 4 on CBS on a panel discussing the field and in a German prisoner-of-war GET CAPONE merits of gene patenting. ... The Jackson- camp. ville, Fla., library’s Mother-Daughter Book Club met April 9 to discuss Jonathan Eig’s new book is Get Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett. ... On Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured ORANGE CRUSH April 8 at the University of Iowa College America’s Most Wanted Gangster (Simon of Law, Scott Turow discussed his work & Schuster, $28). leading legal reform efforts in Illinois, One April 25, the Chicago Sun-Times Here’s what Dara Wier wrote about visited with law students at the Boyd Law wrote: “Journalist Jonathan Eig has Simone Muench’s new book, Orange Building and then delivered the Levitt carved out quite a career taking on fig- Crush. Lecture in the Iowa Memorial Union later ures like Capone – familiar faces from “It is difficult to say in a few words all in the afternoon. He’ll also is part of an history that everyone knows about or at that should be, could be said of this pow- all-author band tour, the Rock Bottom least thinks they do – and breathing fresh erful book. Its language is lush, exacting Remainders, that started April 20 in life into them. He’s written well-reviewed and active; its sounds alert, nervy and Washington to benefit World Vision, a histories of baseball legends Jackie quick. All this may be seductive, lulling, nonprofit providing relief in Haiti and the Robinson and Lou Gehrig. entrancing but then there are the facts of Washington-based America´s Promise “But with all the myths, half-truths and violence and grief one encounters, often Alliance. ... The script of Barack Obama’s Hollywood gloss dripping from Chicago’s wrenching combinations of the two. first political ad, “Blackout,” written and most glorified gangster, it’s remarkable When a poem says: ‘my skin is soft/the produced by Craig Sautter and his brother what Eig has been able to do in his latest safety's off’ I quake, shudder and brace Chris during Obama’s 2000 congressional book. ... He’s wiped away the garbage myself.” run, is reproduced in full in The Bridge: and given us a man. A brutal, ruthless The New York Times The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by schemer, to be sure, one who loved to bet said, “Muench’s lush figures give great David Remnick, (Alfred A. Knopf). on the horses and spend lavishly – and pleasure to both ear and eye, and her Sautter is back in Chicago after evading one didn’t hesitate to kill to keep the cash imaginative leaps can feel both mysteri- the winter weather by teaching “Ethics rolling in. But a man who also loved his ous and inevitable, in a way that recalls and Critical Thinking” classes at Miami family and was loved by them.” not only Desnos, but also Neruda.” Dade College.

“I was about to be snookered into getting him brownie points with his independently wealthy wife who was the biggest charitable giver in the city. ... She probably busted his balls every night about the [Art] Institute’s inadequate coverage in the Tribune.” – Buffalo Spirits, Elizabeth Black

LITERARY LICENSE, APRIL 2010 5 Final Chapters Rags to riches: To succeed,

Jules Steinberg of Winnetka, a long- time member of Society of Midland clean up your online presence Authors, passed away March 20 in Tempe, Ariz., where he and his wife s I write this, I am wearing an Marietta Marcin, also a member, had a apron. There is a mop to my left, Updating your winter home. Aa broom to my right and a duster in my hand. Spring cleaning fever? You “online information He was 88 years old. Jules, a writer, business consultant, and bet. But I'm not cleaning up my house (to for 25 years executive director of my wife's dismay). I'm cleaning up my should happen National Association of Retail Dealers of online presence. America, wrote hun- Over time, we all have joined numerous twice or three times dreds of articles for groups online, opened up various the trade press, and accounts, updated different profiles, and a year. two books – published content related to ourselves and Customers Don't Bite, our businesses. But how often do we and Childbirth with check on all of that content and all of For all your social” media accounts: Hypnosis (with Dr. those accounts? Pictures: Most social media accounts William Kroeger). “Cleaning” and updating your online allow you to upload a picture so that peo- During his tenure at information should happen twice or three ple can identify you. It is wise to use the NARDA. membership times a year at least – or more, depending same one or two pictures across all plat- by electronic, appli- on what you are “cleaning.” We're here to forms so that you keep your identity con- Jules Steinberg ance and furniture give you a checklist to make it a nice, stant. retailers rose from 600 painless process, free of Profiles: With pro- to 4,500, mainly because of the innova- Lysol-fume-induced files, you need to tive programs he devised and offered to headaches. Literary decide which nuggets of members. What to clean: information about you A memorial service will be held in the For your book Loudspeaker: are the most important, Chicago area sometime in the future. and/or personal Web and make sure that site: Tom information is available News: The news page on EACH profile you should be updated Ciesielka have. This is an impor- Letters to the Editor monthly at the mini- tant part of maintaining I read every line of the newsletters; mum. This is where you can highlight your brand. As with bios on Web sites, especially enjoying Craig Sautter's recent media attention or your recent this information can change, so be sure to items monthly about members from our activities as it relates to the industry at revisit each profile at least once a year to illustrious past. large or your geographic region. Letting make updates. Bernard Brommel this get two or three months out of date Alerts/Privacy: Each platform has dif- gives a very poor impression to website ferent settings for privacy and notifica- visitors. tions. Take 15 minutes to log in to each Homepage: Give your Web site visitors program or application you use and see I have an especially warm place in my a reason to come back often. Have a news which settings you may want to change. heart for the Society of Midland Authors, teaser on your homepage that links to Do you want to know when someone who made my very first novel, A your news page. Sync your blog to a sec- starts following you on Twitter? Do you Clearing in the Forest, the winner of the tion of your homepage so content is want all of your friends to know when Children's Fiction Award. always changing. Consider adding some you comment on something on Facebook? That was many years ago, but that sup- personality to your site by incorporating a These are all easy to control, so make port was an inspiration to me. I was able “sticky” idea that engages visitors (we use sure you know what power you have. to attend that award dinner, but unfortu- a post-it note on our site). I guess there really is no need for the nately this year I cannot be there. Please Bios: Often times, we write our own apron ... or the mop, the broom and the know my thoughts and heart will be in website biographies as soon as we are duster. Unless I want to clean the area Chicago. hired or as soon as the website goes live. around my computer ... or go home and Gloria Whelan Then we leave it stagnant for years. Just surprise my wife with a house that The writer is the winner of the 1979 as the news changes, so do you! Update sparkles. Society of Midland Authors Children’s your bio at least once a year, highlighting E-mail Tom Ciesielka at [email protected] or Fiction Award. new achievements and new interests. call (312) 422-1333.

6 LITERARY LICENSE, APRIL 2010