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Recognitions

Joan McNulty Pulver

Welcome to Recognitions, a column designed to celebrate the writing successes of Writers' Village University members!

Donna Sundblad worked hard to build her freelance writing business over the last two years. Besides her book, Pumping Your Muse, short stories, and her articles on writing, she’s written several stories for U. S. Legacies, where she is listed as a freelance writer. A consulting firm contacted her regarding writing a legacy story for a client’s mother in order to preserve her story and create a booklet to be used as a take away gift at her upcoming birthday party in April. The job involved interviewing, researching and getting the job done with a deadline.

“I enjoy interviewing elderly people and listening to personal histories unfold. Getting paid to do it makes it all the sweeter.” To learn more about Donna go to her website: The Inkslinger.

Donna joined WVU several years ago, participates as a member of several study groups and takes and facilitates classes. She lives in Florida with her husband, Rick, and works as a rental agent. She also has a job as a Senior Fantasy Editor at ePress-online where she edits manuscripts and trains other editors. “There’s no greater thrill as a writer/editor than finding a good story and working with an author to make it better. I’ve been on both sides of the process. I remember how thrilled I was to hear my book was accepted. To this day, I cherish the help I received from my editors. Now, I’m able to do the same for others.”

Rayne E. Golay wrote The Wooden Chair, a novel of victory over childhood abuse, sending a message of hope to others. She won the Royal Palm Literary Contest from the Florida Writers’ Association for it. It will be published in August 2006 by ArcheBooks Publishing, Inc., who do not accept manuscripts from unagented authors unless it has won a recognized and reputable contest.

When Rayne first found out that her book would be published she was overjoyed. “It took a couple of days to sink in that it's really happening.” The story starts in 1943 during the war in Helsinki, Finland. My female protagonist, Leini Bauman, is four and a half years of age at the outset. Throughout her childhood and teenage years, she suffers both physical and emotional abuse from her mother, Mira. The hard and unyielding wooden chair in their kitchen is symbolic of Mira's hostile lap when Leini, in search for affection, wants to cuddle. At the age of nine, Leini, in a desperate effort to win her mother's love, agrees to undergo surgery of her right eye to correct strabismus. Through a mishap, she loses sight in this eye.

Married to loving husband, Bill in Geneva, Switzerland, she becomes pregnant with their first child, a turning point; she's determined to break the pattern of abuse, to heal from the trauma. She struggles through the pains of past hurts, little by little growing into a nurturing and loving mother and wife, a successful professional as she grows from victim to victor over adversity and suffering.

As a child and young woman Rayne wanted to write, to be a writer. Her father had other plans, so she studied psychology to become a therapist. She is a retired psychotherapist and addictions counselor, now a full-time author. She managed to fulfill both their dreams. To learn more about Rayne visit her website at: Rayne Golay

“When I first joined WVU, I posted in the Independent Novel Workshop, F-200, then in the Misfits study group, where I posted parts of The Wooden Chair and my first novel, Life Is a Foreign Language, published in June 2006. I'm also a member of Colin R. Onstad and Spilt Milk study groups. Most of what I know about creative writing I've learned at Writers' Village University both through receiving and giving feedback. I've learned to accept even the toughest critique as a learning experience, not anything that diminishes me as a person.”

When asked what advice Rayne would give to other writers or students of writing she answered: “In my limited experience as a writer I'd like to stress to all those who think they have a book or two in them: if you're a writer, write - every day even when it seems tough. Never give up your dream. Nobody said it better than Richard Bach, writer of Jonathan Livingston Seagull: “A PROFESSIONAL WRITER IS AN AMATEUR WHO DIDN'T QUIT.”
 
Jim Kelley gathered and compiled true life stories from the Special Forces into an enjoyable read in Volume II of Tales from the Teamhouse published by Special Forces Teamhouse in conjunction with Old Mountain Press. This book continues where Volume I left off by allowing the reader to gain insight into the lives of Special Forces, also known as The Quiet Professionals Jim shared with us the following excerpts from the book:

• There is an important use for helium-filled balloons. You see, we had this monkey and we named him (what else?) Jocko.
• As it turns out, a tiny baby rat had wiggled through a plastic loop on a set of curtains she [a seamstress] was making, and the loop was stuck around his "waist" and he couldn't get loose! Well, I held him down, cut the stitches free and had myself a rat with a self-equipped collar.
• About 5 P.M. I was sitting in our radio bunker. Suddenly a most awful, terrifying noise came over the radio. I had heard it before. It was the screams of dying men; a sound, if heard once, you could never forget.
• Finally, one guy about twice as big as Ben steps up to him chest to chest and puts his hand in his back pocket. Ben looked him right in the eye and said "Son, what ever you pull out of your back pocket better be between two pieces of bread 'cause you're gonna' eat it." Bang, the fight was on.