EAST LONGMEADOW—Glenmeadow will present “Writing Your Life: An Author’s Tips on Crafting a Memoir” on Tuesday, May 23 from 10 a.m.-noon.

Author John Sheirer will talk about his creative writing life and his work leading English and communications courses at Asnuntuck Community College, and he’ll read from his memoirs, Loop Year and Growing up Mostly Normal in the Middle of Nowhere. Sheirer will also offer participants guidance on writing a memoir and will lead them in a writing exercise or two, using prompts he developed on his own and features in his book What’s the Story?

Sheirer has taught at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, Connecticut, for 24 years. He is the author of a dozen books, including several works for children featuring his dog Libby.

The program will be offered by Glenmeadow at Bay Path University on its East Campus in the Philip H. Ryan Health Science Center, Room 222. The center is at 1 Denslow Road.

The program is free, but seating is limited, and registration is required; call (413) 567-7800 or email learning@glenmeadow.org. Visit glenmeadow.org/events for more information.

Glenmeadow Learning is one of many free programs Glenmeadow offers to members of the wider community. And these programs represent only one facet of the life plan community’s mission to serve seniors across the region and to operate as a socially accountable organization.

Established in 1884, Glenmeadow is a nonprofit, accredited continuing care retirement community; it provides independent and assisted living at its campus at 24 Tabor Crossing in Longmeadow and expanded Glenmeadow at Home services throughout greater Springfield.

To learn more about Glenmeadow and its history and offerings, visit www.glenmeadow.org.

About Glenmeadow

In the 1800s, elderly individuals without family or means were sent to live at what was called “the poor farm.”  In 1884, a group of civic leaders raised funds among themselves and other area families and purchased a house on Main Street in Springfield’s south end. Quickly outgrowing that house, land was purchased on the corner of Chestnut and Carew streets, where a new home was constructed and opened in 1900.  In 1960, the name was changed to Chestnut Knoll, and in 1992, it began to admit men.

In 1993, the organization purchased a 23-acre parcel in Longmeadow to build a new community that would provide both independent living and assisted living in one building with various common areas.  This was a new concept known as a continuing care retirement community.  Existing residents from the old Chestnut Knoll property were moved to the new campus in 1997.  Shortly after the move, the board voted to change its legal name to Glenmeadow to coincide with the name being used by the developer of the property.

The post Glenmeadow Learning Offers Author Talk on Crafting a Memoir appeared first on Beetle Press.

And she is certain that, in her internship this semester with Beetle Press, she will enhance that learning with experience and skill development.

Over the next four months, Molly will work closely with The Creative, a collaboration of three women business owners—Janice, Ruth Griggs and Maureen Scanlon. Molly will conduct research for The Creative and help oversee its efforts in social media and blogging. She will also have her hand in several client book projects, and she will write for the Daily Hampshire Gazette under Janice’s supervision.

At UMass, Molly is part of the communication and education clubs, and she gets involved in missions that are meaningful to her. She helps support victims of domestic violence through a fashion show called Sisters on the Runway, and last year, she helped rebuild houses in New Orleans as part of an alternative spring break trip. “The work in New Orleans definitely opened my eyes to other places and how others live,” Molly says, noting she fell in love with the city and its culture.

Molly plans to pursue a career in public relations or marketing after she graduates in May—ideally with a nonprofit or an organization that serves children—as that would combine her passion for writing with her compassion for community service.

In five years, she sees herself working in PR in Boston. But first, she hopes to travel abroad, to Europe or South Africa, even though that would take her away from family—an important aspect of Molly’s life.

Molly says her family members—her parents and three siblings, Liam, 23, Rian, 17, and Colleen, 19—have always pushed her to work hard to meet her goals, and she attributes much of her success to them. She also deeply admires her grandmother, who is actively engaged in her community and earned a master’s degree in genealogy at age 70.

“My parents both were able to thrive in their careers while managing a large and loud family,” Molly says, reflecting on how they raised four children with two dogs. “Luckily, I have had amazing role models in my own family who continue to support and motivate me towards my goals, and I am forever grateful for that.”

The post Meaningful Missions a Part of Her Education appeared first on Beetle Press.

Shannon has been writing since she was in fifth grade, but she didn’t realize that writing creatively is what she was meant to do with her life until she was in high school. She is currently working on a fantasy novel, but is planning on editing some short stories and an ongoing novella project in hopes of publication. “After college,” she says, “I plan on working for a publishing company, hopefully in the editorial side of things.”

While at Beetle Press, Shannon will help Janice research and refine several of Janice’s own manuscripts—one a fictional love story and the other a memoir about visiting the South Pacific this winter. Shannon will likewise have her hand in several client book projects and in writing for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, under Janice’s guidance. Shannon will also learn how to write press releases and blogs.

“I wanted to strengthen my skills in both communication and writing,” Shannon says, noting why she chose Beetle Press for her internship. “I also wanted to get a ‘real-world’ experience, to acquire practice and familiarity with such things as interviewing, blogging, etc., and to grow as an individual.”

Shannon was born in Natick, Massachusetts, in November 1993. She attended Harwich High School and lives in Harwich when she is not at Westfield State, where she is a senior English major with both a writing concentration and a psychology minor.

The captain of the cross-country team at Westfield State, Shannon also runs track and was part of the league championship team that took the state title for the twelfth year in a row last year. “I personally had one of my best seasons running-wise,” Shannon says. “Continuing with running (from high school) and trying out for the Westfield State team was one of the best decisions I made. The friends I made through it are like a family to me, and they helped me grow as a person.”

Shannon is also a part of Sigma Tau Delta, Westfield State’s English Honors Society and is presenting her memoir, Wildest Dreams, at its conference in March. The book focuses on Shannon’s studies abroad—and a romance that ensued—in Denmark in the spring of 2015.

In her freshman year, Shannon journeyed with a team from Westfield State to Nicaragua in a community-service class. Sophomore year, she visited Nepal with a university group and trekked through the Himalayas for two weeks. Just this January, Shannon travelled with her best friend from home to Malaysia, backpacking for three-weeks throughout the country, just because.

“Traveling teaches you so much about yourself and others, and that’s why I’ll always want to travel,” Shannon says, noting that others should make efforts to see the larger world.

The post Cross-Country Traveler, Passionate Writer appeared first on Beetle Press.

The 53-year-old local Northampton author works full time as a professor at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, Connecticut, and he writes creatively on the side.

“I have two careers, one that pays reasonably well and one that doesn’t,” he says. “But both are about making the world a better place, and I’m happy with that.”

Like many writers, it’s difficult for John to find the time to write creatively. He said he is always preparing for school, and the key thing for him is to grab small pieces of time as they arise.

John writes a monthly column for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and in order to organize for this he will grab 15 minutes here and there to gather his thoughts until it finally comes together, similar to his own personal writing. He referred to this as episodic writing—brief but intense periods of writing in which he gets an abundance done in a short time frame.

His main genre isn’t definitive, however, he does work a great deal in memoir writing. One of his works, called Loop Year, is an ecological memoir. This book focuses on John’s experiences in hiking the same trail for an entire year, and he describes it as an environmental and anthropological study, as it focuses on the current events and people he came into contact with during that year in that specific region.

The column he writes for the Gazette is political in nature and deals primarily with current events, and he also has published a book, called Tales of a Real American Liberal, which is political as well. His most recent endeavor has been children’s books featuring his dog Libby, titled Libby Speaks and I Like Sticks! John says that everything he writes comes out of his own life; it is a way for him to connect with what comes from outside of himself.

John has been publishing since he had a poem appear in a literary magazine in college. He used to rewrite obsessively, and felt that everything he wrote needed to be literary or scholarly to be considered worthy of reading. Now as a more mature writer, he says that it wasn’t until he finally gave himself permission to make mistakes as a writer that he was able to publish his books.

Once he let go of the need for perfection he finally saw the greatness in his work. He now starts hundreds of projects and finishes five, and says he now comes up with his best stuff that before he would have disregarded.

He feels that his writing career is more of a hobby; he sells a few books here and there, making enough yearly to cover one mortgage payment, and he works with small publishers, so it is an intimate experience. His goal is not to get rich but to connect with people, including his students. He teaches children’s literature and all levels of college writing, and feels that writing makes him a better teacher. By having lived the craft, he can more artfully model the experience in a skilled way to his students and connect with them on a deeper level.

John grew up in Central Pennsylvania, in Bedford County, on a farm. He elaborates on this experience in his book Growing Up Mostly Normal in the Middle of Nowhere: A Memoir. He moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1989.

He has been teaching full time at Asnuntuck Community College for the last 22 years; it has been “the career job he was looking for.” John teaches a vast array of courses, from literature, writing and English offerings to communications courses. He has also held administrative positions at the college but prefers to be in the classroom.

Given the ability to write full time, he would jump at the chance, but he would also still teach part time because teaching is a great passion for him as well.

All of John’s books are available on his personal website here, and are all definitely worth the read. He is also available on Facebook, so check him out!

The post Local Author Series: John Sheirer appeared first on Beetle Press.