New Kid's View
Family lured Jerrianne and her husband to South Milwaukee in 2002 from Southern California where she worked as, first, a journalist, then, as a court information officer. She now stays busy with media-relations consulting, playing with her three grandchildren (part of the lure), writing, discovering her new environs, and hoping her garden will produce before the first fall frost.
Authors on the Road
South Milwaukeen and fellow book author Janet Halfman and I had a taste of Mukwonago's Midnight Magic on Saturday afternoon. Our part of the magic took place at the Mukwonago Community Library where we joined several other authors to sign our books for Mukwonagoians who were partaking of the day's festivities. Janet set up displays of her children's nonfiction Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story and her picture book Little Skink's Tail. I put up a display of my new adult nonfiction Anatomy of a Trial (www.anatomyofatrial.com).
The event was a first for the library and from all appearances, a great success. Streams of moms, dads, kids, grandparents and other town residents trooped through the library's Reading Room where Janet and I were set up along with Mukwonago's Rod Vick who writes about a teenage Irish dancer (I bought one of his books), Jennifer Lowden who writes historical fiction (I bought one of her books, too), children's fiction writer Deborah Lynn Jacobs (I sprang for one of her books as well), picture book illustrator Jeff Miracola (I just couldn't resist his Monster Isle), novelist Douglas Jacobson whose Night of Flames is set in WWII Europe, Linda Godfrey who writes about weird places and strange events in the upper Midwest, and Barb and Ken Wardius who specialize in lighthouses. It would have been nice if I had sold as many books as I bought!
Sharing space with us in the Reading Room was the hot beverage table (the chai spiced tea coffee hot chocolate -- that's all in one, not a choice of -- was to die for) and a children's activity of making Christmas ornaments from CD disks guaranteed a steady flow of traffic throughout the afternoon.
Of note, I didn't see one of the dozens of people who came though the Reading Room during the four hours I was there talking on a cell phone or texting on a BlackBerry (or other texting device).
Elsewhere in the village, folks enjoyed dog sledding, a Christmas parade, horse-drawn carriage rides, arts and crafts vendors, chorale concerts and fireworks. The highlight of the day for me, though, was the trip there and home which my husband (who went with me) and I shared with Janet. Getting to know South Milwaukee neighbors is the most fun.
From Muknowago to Mitchell Field -- Then a FIXX
The Rotary Club of Mitchell Field at the airport and the FIXX Coffee House in St. Francis are hosting the next two Anatomy of a Trial book signing events.
According to my publisher, University of Missouri Press, Anatomy is doing well. That’s reflected in what people who’ve read it say:
