July Events

Hard as it is to believe, today's the last day of June. I know it's a cliche, but time sure does fly! Cheryl always says that when you get to the 4th of July, summer is basically over. I'm not ready to concede that yet, but I know the second half of the summer will go just as quickly as these first six weeks--and I want to be sure YOU don't let our upcoming events sneak up on you and fly past before you even knew they were coming.

Our Summer Camp will begin in the middle of next week, with an event for grown ups. On July 9 we're teaming with the Cafe on the Square to see if there's interest in an afternoon book club or writing group here in Seward. At 2:00 that afternoon, anyone interested in forming a writers' group--not a critique group, just a group of writers who want to meet regularly to affirm each other, keep each other committed to the writing process, and maybe engage in some creativity or writing exercises such as those Lucy Adkins and Becky Breed describe in their inspiring book Writing in Community--is invited to join us at the Cafe for an informational session. Then, at 3:00 we'll host a similar organizational meeting for anyone interested in forming a book club. For both groups, the Cafe will provide (for a small fee) snacks and coffee and a place to meet, so no one has to clean their house or bake. Chapters will help with book selection and give members a 20% discount on books purchased for discussions.

A highlight of our camp will be the Type Rider II Tandem Poetry Tour Stop on Saturday, July 12 at 10 a.m. at the Olde Glory Theatre and Community Hall. This event, cosponsored with the Seward Arts Council, features New Jersey poets Maya Stein and Amy Tingle, who will ride a tandem bicycle and tow two manual typewriters 1400 miles from Boulder, Colorado, to Beloit, Wisconsin, building "Little Free Libraries" and promoting poetry, community, a love of reading, and a spirit of collaboration along the way. Their Seward stop will also feature Lincoln poets Marge Saiser and Lucy Adkins, as well as Nebraska author and Little Free Library expert Charlotte Endorf. Participants will help construct a wooden library box for a local community, learn about the Little Free Library project, receive personalized poems by Maya and Amy, participate in a bike rodeo, and read and write poetry with Lucy Adkins and Marge Saiser. We'll have snacks, too, of course. All ages are welcome, and activities will be appropriate for both kids and adults. We're hoping families will come to enjoy the event together.

Then, the actual "Camp" activities will be Monday-Wednesday, July 14-16. From 10-11:30 a.m. 4-6 year olds will enjoy activities with favorite characters doing funny stuff--Pigeon takes a bath, Pete the Cat wears sunglasses, and kids have lots of fun. We may even throw a 10th birthday party for Chapters! Ages 6-10 meet in the afternoons from 1-2:30 p.m. to eat bugs, make Star Wars characters from old books, do some calf roping, build with Legos, and spend time together having fun, based on our most popular camp activities from past years. Preregistration is required, and space is limited, so call 402-643-2282, email, or visit our website at www.sewardchapters.com to register now.

Camp week ends with a joint venture with the Seward Memorial Library as we bring author James Kimble to town to discuss his book Prairie Forge: The Extraordinary Story of the Nebraska Scrap Metal Drive of World War II.  He will talk about Nebraska's role in organizing the scrap metal drive that spread across the nation and yielded five million tons of metal for the war effort. Learn more at 7:00 p.m. on July 17. Books will be available for purchase and autographing.

Second Saturday Signing

Our next "Second Saturday Signing" is coming June 14. June's event at Chapters will feature area authors of nonfiction books, including biographies, historical fiction based in family history, and books about trains.  Authors who will be speaking about and signing their books that day are Barb Mohrman, Jim Riesdorf, Faith Colburn, Jean Lukesh, Mary Ann Carson, and Lisa Kovanda and Brian Thomas. Read through the biographies below, and you'll start to see a theme or two emerge!

Mary Ann Carson is new to Chapters and our events. Her books are Down the Tracks of Time and Tales of Tails. A resident of Grand Island, Mary Ann has compiled her mother's memories of being stationed in North Platte as a telegrapher on the Union Pacific Railroad during World War II in Down the Tracks of Time. As a member of the Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association Auxiliary, Mary Ann compiled and edited Tales of Tails, a collection of stories from veterinarians and their families across Nebraska. Proceeds from the book support a veterinary student scholarship fund.

Faith Colburn, author of From Picas to Bytes and Threshold, is a sixth generation Nebraskan. Her books chronicle the history of the newspapers published by four generations of the Seacrest family in Nebraska and of eight generations of her family as they lived and worked, mostly on the Great Plains. Faith also writes poetry and short fiction, as well as essays for NebraskaLand magazine. Read her blog at http://faithanncolburn.com/.

Lisa Kovanda, with Brian Thomas, has written Modified Flight Plan, the story of  Brian's road to recovery and regaining his life after a life-threatening illness leaves him a triple amputee. Lisa is active in the Nebraska Writers' Guild and in other Nebraska writers' groups. She is a script writer and novelist. Brian worked for Duncan Aviation in Lincoln before his illness and now is back at work and lives in Lincoln. Lisa can be found online at http://lisakovanda.com/.

Jean Lukesh owns Field Mouse Productions and is a contributing columnist for Nebraska Life Magazine. She is the author of several biographies of notable Americans, many of them Nebraskans, including Ben Kuroki and Evelyn Sharp.

Her books have won eleven national/international book awards. Her newest book Eagle of Delight has won four Gold medal national/international book awards and is a finalist in two Book of the Year Awards. She lives in Grand Island.

Barb Mohrman is the author of Four Blue Stars in the Window. From a box of her father's World War II mementos, Barb set out on a personal journey to trace her family's history from 1930 through 1947. Along the way, she uncovered family secrets, and in Four Blue Stars in the Window, she recounts the joys and anguish of a family that survived the Nebraska dust bowl years and sent four sons to fight in the Pacific and Europe during World War II.

Barb is a former teacher and is a speaker with Humanities Nebraska. She participated in our April Second Saturday event, highlighting her young adult book, The Dust Covered Days of Dorie Archer. To learn more about her, visit her blog at http://barbaraeymannmohrman.blogspot.com/.

Jim Reisdorff has been a contributor to Chapters' local authors' events since we opened. He is a native of David City, where he established the South Platte Press in 1982 as an outlet for publishing Great Plains railroad history. His wife Sharon is a co-publisher. Jim has also co-written several railroad books for the press. Read more about him and his work at http://www.southplattepress.com/index.html.

Spring News and Notes

Like the rest of you, we at Chapters have a lot going on this spring. To keep things as simple as possible, here, in one place, are some bits of news you can use. Happy Spring, now that it finally seems to be here!

News and Notes from Chapters. . . 

Our Giver Boxes arrived!

World Book Night, the night YOU get to give away 20 books, FREE to both you and the recipient, to help spread the love of reading throughout our community, is April 23. If you did not sign up to be a “Giver” and wish you had, I have three extra boxes of books available to the first three people to contact me. If you did sign up to be a “Giver” and haven’t received an email from me by Friday, let me know because you may not be on our list.

Here's me with Lydia and Kelley.

                           

Don’t miss this weekend’s book signing with Lydia Kang, Carol Bicak, Barb Mohrman, and Linda Svoboda. Meet them all Saturday, April 12, at 1:00 p.m. Signed books are welcome gifts!

You’re invited to “Spend an Afternoon with Edith Wharton” Saturday, May 3 at Seward’s new Olde Glory Theatre. Beginning at 2:00 with tea hosted by T Party Place, the afternoon features a 30 minute play by Edith Wharton about a book club, which will be followed by a brief scholarly discussion of Wharton’s life and work. It would be a perfect spring outing for a book club, mothers and daughters, or groups of friends. The show is appropriate for ages 12-up. Tickets are available at Chapters and the Seward Chamber of Commerce.

Chapters’ Annual Summer Camp will be July 7-12. Our theme will be “Poets on Bikes and other Unusual Combinations.” Highlighting the week will be a family event on Saturday, July 12, featuring—of course—poets on a tandem bike! We’re also working on an author visit and other fun activities throughout the week, so watch for details as they’re finalized.

The Seward Community Read to Me Program donates a free book to every child attending kindergarten round up and every 4^th grader in a Seward school. Giving away almost 250 books each spring is expensive, and the Read to Me Program would appreciate your tax deductible donations. Please send contributions (checks to Seward Read to Me Program) either to Chapters or to the Read to Me Program, C/O Seward County Bridges, 216 S. 9^th St., Seward, NE 68434.

We’re hoping to start a book club that will meet during the afternoon at the Café on the Square. We’ll meet once a month—more if the group wants—and read whatever the group wants to read. Interested? Let us know what day works for you. Invite your friends, too! The group will form as soon as enough interested people respond.

Don’t forget that books make great gifts for confirmation, weddings, Easter, Mother’s Day, graduation, and all those other spring events that will be here before you know it.

Second Saturday Series

Stephanie Grace Whitson, Kathy Wiens, and Mike Curd visited Chapters last Saturday--the "Second Saturday" in March--and received a fantastic welcome, one of the best we've ever had for an author event at Chapters! We're hoping for more of the same as our series of author visits continues April 12 at 1:00, when Lydia Kang, Carol Bicak, Barb Mohrman,and Linda Svoboda will be here.

Our featured presenter on April 12 will be debut YA author Lydia Kang. Lydia, who resides in Omaha, is a practicing physician, writer, and mother.  Her novel, Control, is a dystopian futuristic story set in Neia, a fictional state in the middle of America. You can probably guess which states comprise Neia. The characters in the book are a misfit band of teens with mutant traits ranging from extra arms to green skin. The book has adventure, romance, and mystery, something for everyone. I met Lydia at a dinner in Omaha sponsored by her publisher (Penguin) and my favorite Omaha bookseller, Ellen from The Bookworm. It was fun to visit with Lydia and the others that evening, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again at Chapters, where she'll speak about combining motherhood, a medical practice, and writing and tell us more about Control.

Joining Lydia that afternoon will be Carol Bicak, who I discovered the night I met Lydia, as she was also at the dinner in Omaha. Carol, an Omaha World Herald staff writer, wrote The Littlest Lion, a book about a litter of five lion cubs recently born at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. The book's informative text is complemented with gorgeous photographs and will appeal to readers of all ages, preschool through adult. If you liked Jeff Kurrus' Have You Seen Mary? about the cranes, you're sure to enjoy The Littlest Lion. Wouldn't it be fun if Carol could bring a lion cub with her instead of just a photographer?

Barb Mohrman, best known for her World War II book, Four Blue Stars in the Window, has also written a tale of the dust bowl for young adult readers. She will be at Chapters April 12 to sign copies of The Dust Covered Days of Dorie Archer, a fictionalized account based on true events as experienced by Barb's family in Nebraska during the 1930's. It's a story of hope, resilience, and perseverance in the face of adversity. Barb is a speaker with Humanities Nebraska and a former teacher, and she will have some interesting stories to share with us.

Seward's own Linda Sue Svoboda will also be here April 12 to sign copies of her picture books.  Linda's books for young children include Because I Love My Kitty, Loving Times With Grandma, and The Little Brown Bird that Could. All have sweet, encouraging messages for children.