Sunday, December 11, 2005
Local author to hostretreat for writers
PAINESVILLE -- Nancy Christie of Austintown, freelance writer and author of "Gifts of Change," will host "Writing Retreat at Rider's Inn" on Jan. 21.
The all-day event includes two hour-long "JumpStart" interactive writing sessions. Attendees may use the two hours to work on their own writing. All are to take a writing project (fiction, nonfiction, essay or poetry) to share and for critique.
Reservations are appreciated as space is limited. Cost is $75 and includes a lunch in the inn's private dining area. Those registering by Thursday will receive a $10 discount. For more information or to make a reservation, contact Christie at (330) 793-3675 or nancy@nancychristie.com. Downloadable registration forms also are available on the Community of Change Web site (www.communityofchange.com) under "Upcoming Events."
Gardens show featuresart by Fitch graduate
CLEVELAND -- Artwork by Cleveland children's book illustrator and Austintown High School graduate John Ferguson will be featured at Cleveland Botanical Garden's WinterShow 2005.
The gardens chose several of the area's top design talents to create life-size three-dimensional vignettes based on favorite children's stories around this year's show theme, "Once Upon A Toy." Ferguson re-created the jungle scene from "The Things A String Can Be," his first collaboration with author Julie Goulis published by Bubblegum Books. Copies of the book will be available at the gardens gift shop during the event.
WinterShow 2005 runs through Dec. 31. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon until 5 p.m. Sundays. The event is closed Mondays except for Dec. 26. Admission is $7.50 for adults, $3 for children 3 and older, and free for members and children under 3.
Books and writerswith Ohio connections
"Quilts of the Ohio Western Reserve" by Ricky Clark (Ohio University Press, 116 pages, $19.95 trade paperback)
In this first volume of "The Ohio Quilt Series," Ricky Clark, one of the country's foremost quilt historians, assembles exquisite examples of calamanco, T-shaped and borderless pieced quilts to show the deep influence New England had on the making of quilts in this region of Northeastern Ohio. Rich in color, detail and inventiveness, the quilts of the Western Reserve commemorate history, from small-town fund-raisers of the 1890s to a quilt designed by a Lake Erie shipbuilder to one inspired by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The volume features over 40 color photos of quilts from yesterday to today. Clark, an affiliate scholar associated with Oberlin College, is the author or co-author of several other works on Ohio quilts, including "Quilts in Community: Ohio's Traditions."
"Women Behaving Badly" by John Stark Bellamy II (Gray & amp; Company Publishers, pp. 272, $24.95 hardcover)
Dirty clothes on the bedroom floor ... a missed anniversary ... that little remark about weight ... they're all enough to make many a woman consider doing in her husband or boyfriend. Of course, that doesn't happen -- usually. Cleveland crime writer John Stark Bellamy II compiles 16 of the best (or should we say "worst") strange-but-true tales about the city's deadliest women into a new anthology that could be subtitled "What happens when housewives get really, really desperate." Two of the stories are new to this volume; the rest come from Bellamy's first five books. The subject matter may be gruesome -- take Martha Wise, Medina's not-so-merry widow who poisoned a dozen relatives because she liked going to funerals -- but it is equally as fascinating.
Combined dispatches