I started my career as a journalist in 1985 at what was then called the Springfield Union-News. I was a part-time correspondent, covering two small towns in Western Massachusetts. We got paid by the word, so I wrote long stories!

I loved my job and felt important.

Later, I shifted into full-time reporting at the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Over about eight years, before I started having children, I covered four communities, wrote feature stories, covered accidents and events, and learned so much about things from zoning laws to budgets to laser surgery.

I worked with editors who were excellent writers and mentors, and I loved my work. Today, I still write for the Springfield paper, now called The Republican, and I work well with editors at the Gazette, who pick up releases I send for clients.

Now, I’m excited that I am forging a relationship with a third daily, the Laconia Daily Sun, in Laconia, New Hampshire.

I began writing features for the paper about four or five years ago, and going forward, expect I will be writing more regularly. I’ve been asked to report on three specific communities and write features, and that feels like returning to my roots.

I value that the Sun is a top-notch paper with solid staff members who are compassionate, solutions-minded, and have a nose for news. (Here’s a story I recently wrote about the Sun’s anniversary and staff team.)

What also excites me is I will continue meeting people in the Lakes Region, where I live near both my brothers and my mom. So far, through my work as a journalist up here, I have met and interviewed community volunteers, police fire and rescue workers, marina and restaurant owners, mountain bicyclists—all kinds of people.

It’s great to be telling their stories and expanding a new network a few hours north of my 30-year network in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts—where I visit several times a month to keep those ties strong.

I will occasionally send you some links to Sun stories.

If you need help telling your story, I’m all ears. Be in touch!

The post Going Back to my Roots appeared first on Beetle Press.

Beginning tomorrow, I’m launching a 20-day series of free podcasts on Janice Beetle Books, called Poem Pods, for children and families. They are low-tech broadcasts that aim to give children home on school vacation—without the benefit of summer camps and swimming pools—some encouragement, entertainment, and inspiration. (Read more about the substance of Poem Pods here.)

I host Poem Pods with my 11-year-old grandson Eli, and in addition to reading poems and talking about writing, we interview people about such things as friendship, family, asking for help, and the importance of inspiration and discipline. 

The following is a schedule for Poem Pods, indicating each day’s topics and guests. If you would like to receive an email each day with links to the audio and a written script, sign up for my blog on Janice Beetle Books here.

Pod One: Meet Janice, Eli, and the Family
Airing on June 23
In Pod One, you’ll meet your narrators, Janice (known as Grammy in Poem Pods) and her grandson Eli. They explain what Poem Pods are, and Grammy reads a poem to introduce you to people in her family—who you’ll meet later in interviews about their work and their writing! 

Pod Two: Poems About Pets
Airing on June 24
In Pod Two, you’ll hear what inspired Grammy to start writing when she was six and hear Grammy and Eli’s poems about pets. The activity is to write down some thoughts about your pets and share them with us in the comments on social media. 

Pod Three: More Pets, and Eli Interviews a Writer
Airing on June 25
In Pod Three, Grammy talks more about her inspiration to write as a child and reads more poems about pets. Eli interviews a local writer, Craig Fear, and Craig tells a story about his dog and talks about the books he writes. 

Pod Four: More on Inspiration, and Meet Auntie Molly 
Airing on June 26
In Pod Four, Grammy talks about the typewriter her grandmother gave her that was an inspiration and reads two poems about imaginary things. We interview Eli’s Auntie Molly, a preschool teacher, who talks about children learning to read and write and the importance of creativity and inspiration. 

Pod Five: Meet Eli’s Brother Darrian and Hear How He Learned to Draw
Airing June 27
In Pod Five, Grammy and Eli talk about reading and keeping a diary, and Grammy reads two poems inspired by water. Grammy also reads a poem Eli wrote when he was very young, about his Auntie Molly. And Eli interviews his brother Darrian, who is a budding illustrator who is drawing pictures that will go with some of Grammy’s Poem Pods, in a book she is working on. Eli asks kids to think about who they look up to—and tell a story about that person. 

Pod Six: A Clown Poem, and an Introduction to Shel Silverstein
Airing on June 28
In Pod Six, Grammy talks about writing for her high school newspaper. Eli talks about learning how to interview people, and Grammy reads two silly verses. The day’s activity is to read a book by Shel Silverstein, who wrote wonderful poems. 

Pod Seven: Thinking and Writing about the Things We Don’t Want to Do!
Airing on June 29
In Pod Seven, Grammy talks about writing for her college newspaper, and she and Eli talk about when you have a total lack of inspiration and don’t want to do anything! The activity is to think about the things you don’t like to do, and brainstorm rhymes about them! Use RhymeZone.com if it helps!

Pod Eight: When We Need Encouragement, and Writing About Our Feelings
Airing on June 30
In Pod Eight, Grammy and Eli talk about when we sometimes need encouragement—or inspiration from others—we hear a poem about a gymnast, and then we meet the gymnast! She is Grammy’s daughter and Eli’s mom, Sally. Sally talks about why and what she wrote when she was young. Sally also talks about sharing feelings and her work now as a medical assistant! The activity is to read a book by Dr. Seuss, who was a master of rhymes! 

Pod Nine: Masks, a First Reporting Job, and Rhymes
Airing on July 1
In Pod Nine, Grammy and Eli talk about their masks. Grammy talks about her first job as a reporter, and she reads a poem that is her and Eli’s favorite. Grammy and Eli have fun making rhymes together! The activity is to think of things in the world around you and make up words that rhyme! 

Pod Ten: Illustrators, Snitfits, Being Vulnerable, and a Healthcare Hero
Airing on July 2
In Pod Ten, Grammy talks about reviewing picture books for the newspaper. Grammy and Eli talk about bad moods, snitfits, and feeling vulnerable. Eli interviews an EMT, Amanda Roberts, who talks about her work and what it’s like to wear a mask all day! The activity is to write about a time when you felt sad or mad. That’s a lot harder than writing about when you were happy!

Pod Eleven: Ladybugs Poems, and Making a Healthy, Ladybug Snack
Airing on July 3
In Pod Eleven, Grammy and Eli talk about Grammy’s work—including helping the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. They also talk about what Eli wants to be when he grows up, and Grammy reads two poems about ladybugs. Then, Grammy walks Eli through the process of making a healthy snack that looks like a ladybug!

Pod Twelve: Talking About Grief and Humor
Airing on July 4
In Pod Twelve, Grammy talks about the memoir she wrote about grieving, and she and Eli talk about what people can do when they are feeling sad. Grammy reads a funny poem to Eli, and Eli and Grammy talk about humor and act out a funny story from when Eli was young. The activity for the day is for parents and children to work together to record a funny story about their child—in a story, a video, a drawing, or in audio recording only on a smartphone.

Pod Thirteen: Talking about Listening, Grace, Compassion
Airing on July 5
In Pod Thirteen, Eli and Grammy talk about listening to others’ feelings, and having grace and compassion. Grammy talks about her work in helping people turn an emotional experience into a book. Eli and Grammy act out a conversation they had years ago that demonstrates Eli’s compassion as a tiny boy. (It’s also so silly.) The activity is for parents and children to tell a funny story and write it down or create a video to preserve it and to also record their COVID-19 stories.

Pod Fourteen: Why Family is So Important—All the Time, and Especially Now
Airing on July 6
In Pod Fourteen, Grammy talks about her friend Judy Kelliher’s book, which is about Judy’s brother Bobby and will be available soon. The daily poem is also about family. Grammy interviews Eli and his mom and dad about why family is important—all the time, and especially now. The activity is for children to interview someone in their family about a funny family story!

Pod Fifteen: Telling Other Peoples’ Stories and Interviewing Best Friends
Airing on July 7
In Pod Fifteen, Grammy talks about her work, helping people publish their own stories in the form of books. She reads poems about friendship, and then Grammy interviews Eli and his best friend, Miggz; they talk about what they look for in a friend and why friends are important. The activity is to write a story about your good friend! 

Pod Sixteen: Finding Inspiration in the Woods
Airing on July 8
In Pod Sixteen, Grammy reads two silly poems that are among her favorites, and Eli interviews his Uncle CJ; CJ talks about his canoe and camping in the woods with Auntie Molly, and what inspires him about being outdoors. The activity is to take a walk, look for wildlife, and observe nature!

Pod Seventeen: When You Need Inspiration from Others
Airing on July 9
In Pod Seventeen, Grammy reads poems about boys and girls, written from her perspective on gender. Eli interviews writer Judith Kelliher, who has recently published a book about her brother Bobby’s service in Vietnam; Judy talks about how she sometimes needed others to inspire her to finish her book. As today’s activity, children are invited to listen to Judy read an excerpt from the beginning of her book, in which she talks about who inspired her to keep writing when she felt afraid.

Pod Eighteen: Meet an Air Traffic Controller at Bradley and Learn About Highways in the Sky
Airing on July 10
In Pod Eighteen, Grammy and Eli talk about love. Grammy reads a poem about love, and then our co-hosts bring Grammy’s husband, Steve, on to talk about Steve’s work as an air traffic controller at Bradley International Airport. Today’s activity is to watch the sky to see what planes are flying over your heads, and to search on Google for the aircraft Steve describes to see what they look like!

Pod Nineteen: Talking and Writing About Age
Airing on July 11
In Pod Nineteen, Grammy and Eli talk about a person’s age and also responsibilities. Grammy says she is writing a book of children’s poems about the ages one to 18, and she reads a poem about the age of three. The activity is to write a poem or a story about the age you are at now!

Pod Twenty: Three Final Poems, and a Talk on Learning Discipline
Airing on July 12
In Pod Twenty, Grammy reads three final poems, and Grammy and Eli talk with Eli’s father, Tommy, about karate and also discipline—how you learn it, and why we need it. The final activity is for children to inspire yourselves and think about what to do that will be creative.

The post Fun Poems and Stories for Fun People: The Poem Pod Line-up appeared first on Beetle Press.

I write feature stories for the Laconia Sun newspaper in New Hampshire, and was assigned to write about this resident of the lovely, secluded Bear Island on Lake Winnipesaukee. Listening to Michael Taranto talk as I interviewed him nearly made me weepy at times, as I also grew up on a lake in New Hampshire and discovered independence there as well. The story was published in the Sun in October.

Michael Taranto discovered independence here.  

He grew up in New Jersey, where his father worked as an orthopedic surgeon, and his family vacationed on the Jersey Shore in the summer months. Then, a neighbor and colleague of Taranto’s father told the family about Lake Winnipesaukee. 

For two summers, the Tarantos visited the Lakes Region, finding it so peaceful they bought property on Bear Island in 1954 and built a house. That first summer, Taranto and his friends learned to drive an aluminum boat with an outboard motor. They explored coves. They went hiking, hunted squirrels, and practiced marksmanship. 

“It was an idyllic lifestyle. To this day, I’m still a teen when I’m on that island,” said Taranto, who will turn 78 in November. “Bear Island is the allegorical Neverland. It’s emotional. When I want to get plugged in and rejuvenate my life, all I have to do is look at Bear Island. Just to stare at it.”

About the island

Taranto lives in Plymouth with his wife, Elizabeth or “Teddy,” from fall to spring and on Bear Island in the summer. He’s a second-generation islander. He and Teddy’s home is a rustic camp with a fireplace, three small bedrooms, a living room, and a screened-in porch. 

The Taranto’s place is one of about 190 summer homes on Bear Island, where there are also two summer camps—one for boys and one for girls—and a chapel, according to John Hopper, the island’s historian. 

Hopper said in the summer, about 1,500 residents and campers inhabit the land. Virtually all of them are summer residents, there from Labor Day through Columbus Day. “Occasionally, one or two individuals live out here during the winter,” Hopper added.

One of roughly 250 islands on Winnipesaukee, Bear Island, at 780 acres, is second largest to Long Island, which is connected to the mainland by a bridge. People can access Bear Island by boat only.

An island history 

Hopper has spent summers on Bear Island since the 1940s, at first with his parents and now with his wife, Linda; the two live in Center Harbor in the winter months. 

Bear Island was first settled in 1801. “One of the very first dozen Meredith colonists, Robert Bryant, bought it,” Hopper said. “He had come to Meredith in 1764. He settled on South Bear in 1801, not too far from Mike Taranto’s place.”

Bryant and two other families divided the southern part of the island into farms. By the early- to mid-1800s, there were a half dozen year-round farms on the island as well as areas used by mainlanders for seasonal grazing. “The era encompassed the ‘sheep craze,’ during which most of the stone walls in New England were built. Bear Island was no exception. There are stone walls all over the island.”

Vacationers discovered the gem as early as the 1850s, shortly after the railroad reached the Weirs. By 1883, new landowners were subdividing the shorefront and selling lots. Hopper said development was slow but steady over the years, with big boons in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. 

“The island population more than doubled over those three decades,” he said. “It increased modestly thereafter, largely due to the lack of available land.

“Once people found Winnipesaukee, they had to come back,” he added. 

Island discovery

Taranto’s family came in one of those early, post-war waves. He, his mother, and two younger sisters visited every year from the time school let out through Labor Day. His father flew in on the weekends on Northeast Airlines’ nonstops from LaGuardia to Laconia. 

Said Taranto with a laugh, “Mom would have a martini for him in the back of the station wagon at the airport.”

In 1978, the Tarantos became the owners of the Bear Island house. Teddy and their three children spent summers on the island, and Taranto arrived when he was able while he was still working in sales and management in the industrial minerals industry; he travelled all over the world. 

Later, he started a consulting and trading company, and he worked on the island, answering the phone in his “hammock office” in his bathing suit. “I had business going all summer long for 20 years from the island,” Taranto said. 

Taranto’s children also worked in the Lakes Region, holding their first jobs at area restaurants and attractions. 

Careful planning is involved

While island life is tranquil, it also involves organization and inconvenience. 

In the early days, residents reached their homes in horse-drawn boats and then on steamers, Hopper said. “Gasoline powered boats took hold after 1920,” he added. “Many people relied on taxi boats from Shep Brown’s or the Weirs in the early days. Wealthier vacationers had their own boats. Otherwise people used row boats or canoes.”

In the 1950s, new outboard engines and fiberglass boats became the norm, and people began to access Bear Island on their own—the Tarantos among them.

Because there are still no stores on the island, Taranto said his family must shop and pack everything they will need. They park the car at one of two public docks in Meredith, move their belongings and provisions from the car to the boat and make the 10-minute ride to the island.

“You have to plan ahead,” Taranto said. “If someone takes the cheese you were going to use on the pizza you’re making for dinner, you have to go to town and get it.”

There is also no dump on the island, so all trash gets bagged and loaded into the boat and then into the car; it’s dumped at the transfer station in Meredith. 

A trip to the store—for pizza cheese—or a dump run take about an hour, Taranto said.

In case of emergency

There are no roads on Bear Island, only trails that people use for walks or jogging. 

Likewise, there are no municipal services. In the event of fire or other emergency, help must come via boat.

Meredith has a fire boat—and Taranto said boats are also available from Gilford, Laconia, Moultonborough, and Center Harbor. “In the early 2000s, there was a fire in back of our house,” he said. 

“Wind blew down a power line. It was Memorial Day weekend, so there were many residents here. Together, we beat back fire with brooms and rakes for the 30 minutes it took to get fire crews there. If not for all those people, we might have lost most of the island.” 

Because ambulance service also comes via the water and takes time, many seniors who own property on the island are often forced to sell their homes. “They are concerned that if something happens, there is nobody around to help,” Taranto said.

Gift for the next generation

It’s the young people who thrive on Bear.

Taranto is now teaching his grandchildren to drive his aluminum boat. For the first time this summer, his 13-year-old granddaughter Katherine soloed, operating the 15-horsepower, Suzuki engine on her own.

“She is the first grandchild to do that,” Taranto said. “Next summer, her brother Michael probably will. It’s absolutely cool. It’s exciting.”

The post Newspaper Story Resonates Personally appeared first on Beetle Press.

As I launched my career as a journalist over 30 years ago, the part of the work that made me most anxious was interviewing people, asking questions. I was painfully shy back then and had also yet to understand that good interviews form the basis for good stories, and good stories educate, entertain, and inspire.

In my work today, I see interviewing people as a privilege. For 30, 60 or 90 minutes, I have the unique opportunity to sit with perfect strangers and ask them deeply personal questions about their lives. I have heard stories of love and loss, ingenuity, luck, perseverance, need, and transformation.

It is those stories of change, in which people move from difficulty to stability, that I find most rewarding, and those stories come through in my work with all kinds of clients, from those in the for-profit sector, such as Florence Bank or Patrick’s Pub & Eatery, to nonprofits such as Glenmeadow and United Way.

This summer, I was honored to be asked to tell the stories that would be held in the Campaign Report 2018 for United Way of Hampshire County, which brings advocates for social justice together to bring about real, long-lasting change in our region.

In August, I interviewed Melissa Jensen of Montgomery and Sage Inglis of Easthampton, who have each been served by United Way partners and each have a story of hope.

Melissa’s compromised health had led to financial woes for her family of four, and her two children also have serious health diagnoses. Over the past eight years, every member of her family has been served in multiple ways by United Way of Hampshire County’s partner, the Hilltown Community Health Center.

Staff helped Melissa access disability payments, as well as parenting education and a wide range of health services for her and her husband. When Melissa was recovering from various operations, the center sent someone to her home to help with chores. Rides were also provided.

“They’ve helped in so many ways,” Melissa says. “I really don’t know what I would have done without the center. I feel safe and confident, going to talk to someone at the community center, knowing no one is judging me. Staff are there to help, and they care, and they want everyone to be happy.”

Sage was the single mother of four children under 8 in June 2016, when she headed to Easthampton from Maine as the hopeful candidate for a job here. Upon arrival, she found the home she’d rented was caught in a long-term probate snag, forcing her to move into a friend’s house. Sage slept on the living room sofa, her children on the floor.

“It felt like a crisis,” says Sage, who was able to find a landlord to rent property to a single mom with no job after several weeks. She was also later hired for the job she moved here to hold.

That first year in the Valley was difficult for Sage, though. The Easthampton Community Center, funded in part by United Way, offered everything from referrals to area professionals to donations of food and clothing and karate classes for her children.

“In the dozens of times I’ve been there, the center never failed to be helpful,” says Sage, who now lives with her new husband, Dan, and their children in a home in Easthampton.

Sage told me her story as I sat with her at her kitchen table; her son nibbled on Goldfish as we talked. I saw that Sage is absolutely awed to be stable, comfortable, happy.

In her gratitude, she gives to organizations that served her when she was in need. “I’m trying to pay it forward,” says Sage.

Note: Photo of Sage Inglis by Jim Gipe / Pivot Media in Florence.

The post Privileged to Have a Window into So Many Worlds appeared first on Beetle Press.

By Gabby Freel

My final semester at Westfield State University was made whole by interning with Janice Beetle at Beetle Press. This internship was more fulfilling than I ever thought possible, and I’m truly grateful to have been given this opportunity.

Before coming to work for Janice, I had mainly done creative writing. My forte was poetry, and I had no idea what a press release was supposed to look like. I thought blogging was just talking about your favorite recipes on Pinterest or Tumblr. I had a lot to learn, and Janice had a lot to teach.

One of my first tasks as an intern was to read a client’s manuscript and give any feedback or edits I thought were necessary. This was a new experience, and I learned from Janice some ways in which creative license can be applied.

After the manuscript came blog writing. This is the 20–year anniversary of Beetle Press, so I was tasked with interviewing some of Janice’s first clients and writing blogs on their experiences in working with her. My first phone interview was with Rich Cooper. I was terrified of the phone at the time. I was barely able to muster the courage to enter into an interaction to refill a prescription, never mind interview a stranger.

Nevertheless, I was adamant about facing everything that was thrown at me head on and at full speed. Of course, I wasn’t thrown overboard without a life vest. Janice picked Rich to be first knowing that it would be easy to talk with him. She even did a mock interview with me in the minutes leading up to my phone call with Rich.

After assisting with the blog on Rich, I interviewed Janet Grant and Bonnie Zima Dowd. (Bonnie’s entry will post in two weeks.)

In a not-unusual overlap of relationships in Beetle Press, I continued to work with Rich, but on a project of interest to him and Janice’s colleague at the Springfield Republican, Cynthia Simison. Rich and Cynthia are leaders of the Northampton chapter of Dollars for Scholars, and they were interested in having Janice and I write brief synopses on each of the scholarships, telling the story of the people for whom they are named.

Writing press releases was another skill I was able to hone during this internship. Janice showed me a couple of press releases she had written and then sent me off to try a few myself.

One of the last major tasks that I am still working on is tracking the recent press releases for Beetle Press through an Excel spread sheet. Each time Janice sends a press release to the media for a client, I add it to the Excel file and then indicate where each release is published thereafter. Janice used to be able to track pick-ups using only her memory, but with the volume of press releases she is distributing, that’s now impossible.

I truly valued the experience of being an intern for Beetle Press, and I’m grateful that Janice wants me to continue working with her. I’ve officially graduated from Westfield State University and can put my real-life PR experience to work.

Thank you, Janice. You’re a wonderful mentor, and I’m lucky to also call you my good friend.

The post Life as an Intern at Beetle Press appeared first on Beetle Press.

Sometimes it’s because the material is not presented clearly, but more often, there are gaps in information because the intern neglected to ask key questions in the interview with the person who was the source for the story.

When that happens, I repeat my mantra about how to prepare for an interview by writing down questions. I also talk again about the importance of follow-up questions and the fact that there are no stupid questions. And I tell this story:

In my first week on the job at the Springfield Morning Union, I was assigned to write a story about a grant that the Granby Fire Department received. My editor gave me a short and sweet press release to get me started, and he told me I’d need to interview the fire chief.

I waited to call the chief until all the seasoned reporters had gone to dinner so no one would hear me on the telephone with him. I was certain I would say something ridiculous or ask a dumb question.

When I finally dialed, I was terrified. And, of note, I had not made a list of questions to ask. I was acting on impulse alone.

I introduced myself to the chief and explained that I was writing a story about the grant. I asked him to spell his name, and I asked when the grant was received. I thanked him, and we hung up. I read the release over a second and third time and started writing my story.

I realized as I typed that I did not know what the grant money would be used for, and I dialed the chief back. I was not embarrassed when I asked this question, and he told me the funds would be spent on a new pumper truck.

We hung up, and I started typing again and then soon realized I didn’t know where the grant money had come from—what organization had offered it up to the Granby Fire Department? I put in another call, and yes, at this point, I was embarrassed.

Suffice it to say, I called that chief a total of five times, and the last time, I had to ask the most critical and obvious question. If there had been other reporters within earshot, I may have had to just die in the center of the newsroom.

In that last call, I had to ask, “Oh, and um, I also need to know how much the grant was for.”

Duh.

So, point is, we all learn by doing, and sometimes we learn what it means to be prepared by being woefully unprepared.

The post Learning the Hard Way appeared first on Beetle Press.

He was flattered and surprised to be recognized for his contribution to the areas of writing and teaching. Acknowledging his students and colleagues, the Springfield College professor since 1999 also says the award “doesn’t happen without a lot of people doing good work.”

Marty encourages his students “to be inspired by the mission of journalism for it is a mighty responsibility to tell peoples’ stories.” As much as his students force him to be in the present and keep him feeling young, rather than dusty and archaic, he impresses upon them the importance of respecting the leap of faith subjects have with sharing their stories.

Janice recently wrote a piece on Marty’s award for Springfield College’s Triangle magazine. The two formerly worked together at the Daily Hampshire Gazette and enjoyed reconnecting and catching up; Janice especially enjoyed hearing Marty talk about the ways in which he inspires students. She also appreciated his passion for telling stories.

Most of Marty’s stories have represented athletes. In recent years, his focus has been shifting into more civil rights issues and other human interest stories, although he says his “quest for the deep poignant story that goes to the heart” remains the same.

Marty is currently working on a book about the time period between the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, to the signing of the Civil Rights Document on July 2, 1964, drawn into the “shimmering optimism…that contains a lot of darkness in it,” he says.

He chose this focus for it is a “transformative and heartbreaking time period,” and it is one of those cultural moments that are significant enough for people to remember exactly where they were and what was going on when it happened.

Marty has had a lifelong interest in Martin Luther King Jr. and vividly remembers the day he died, even though he was a naive 7-year-old kid, because of the effect his death had on his mother. After a few years at Springfield College, Marty discovered that Martin Luther King Jr. was a commencement speaker there in 1964. He was so fascinated by the story that Marty wrote an article for Triangle in 2004.

“It was the genesis for my book project,” he says. He was “obsessively fascinated” with the topic and couldn’t help but dig further, starting the book project roughly three to four years ago. There are five main characters, including Martin Luther King Jr. The other four had brief but significant interactions with him. Marty continues to publish small parts as a way of doing research to help lay the road work for the book, including a four-part series on Marshall Irving Bloom that was recently published in The Daily Hampshire Gazette. (Read installment one, two, three, and four.)

Teaching during the college semesters is very demanding, making the book a slow process because it isn’t like building a deck, where you can just pick up where you left off the day before. He says he has “to mentally plunge into it.” He dedicates mornings whenever possible to writing as he is most lucid and alive.

In researching, there is continuous reading about the time period, immersing himself in it, as well as talking to people involved. He tries to “authentically connect with people” and seeks poignant stories of people that take risks, live on the edge and where it resonates in his heart.

This summer, Marty is heading to Washington state to interview and spend time with one of the characters, a young southern girl back then who put herself on the line for civil rights and was arrested with Martin Luther King Jr. He has done some phone interviews with her, but his endless curiosity of the world intrigues him to visit for more in-depth interactions.

Marty uses a countdown timer when writing to make sure he focuses and doesn’t get sidetracked. He tells himself, “This day matters. Don’t sell it short. Use it well. The fierce urgency of now,” quoting Martin Luther King Jr. from his “I Have a Dream” speech. The Fierce Urgency of Now is currently a potential working title for his project.

This gratifying yet challenging book is an important and “more ambitious project” than his others, Marty says. It is two years from completion, he hopes. Even though the progress is slow and sometimes he feels like he is slogging away, he has a willingness to keep moving forward to complete this complicated, textured story.

The post The Quest for Poignant Stories appeared first on Beetle Press.

I am often that person sitting in the background, absorbing all that I am hearing but not contributing anything of my own. I am a nerd of sorts that enjoys solitude. Things like reading and writing (general English-y things), running, the occasional RPG video game or two, exploring nature, hanging out with my dog and sunbathing on the beach—those are my passions.

My internship with Beetle Press forced me into situations where I had no choice but to communicate with people, a variety of people, through email, phone or in-person, in a number of different situations and tasks. In my last semester at Westfield State University, I was given the opportunity to grow and develop as a person, open myself up more to the public world and to not be afraid of what is out there.

People don’t seem so unapproachable to me anymore.

I was slightly intimated when I first had to interview someone. Well, two someones. Two teenagers taking on an incredible role in the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of Hampshire County.

Although they were around my height (honestly, probably a little taller), and they had only just begun their high school careers (whereas I was ending my college one), I was nervous while interviewing them. Afterwards, I didn’t understand why I was so anxious beforehand. It was a stupid feeling, but a feeling nonetheless.

Then I began interviewing more people. Adults. Local authors, professors, business owners, past interns.

Each time, the minutes before I dialed the phone number, my nerves increased, my heart fluttered fast and I tried to control my breath. Then I would get on the phone, and it would all be okay, normal even. After I hung up, I would get that same confusion of why I was so nervous, even when it came to talking to people who were my colleagues only a year ago. But each time, the nerves decreased, and I took on each assignment as a personal challenge.

One of my goals when starting this internship was to increase and develop my communications skills since I knew they could be much stronger. And that I did, even inspiring a growth of my own confidence as a nice complement.

But that wasn’t the only thing I got out of my internship with Beetle Press. I was able to demonstrate my organization skills by being in charge of the editorial calendar regarding the blog posts for www.janicebeetle.com, maintaining and updating it each time Janice was inspired with a new idea for a post. Often, I helped Janice publish the blog posts to their respective websites, gaining a comfortable understanding of WordPress and its functions.

I was also privileged to be allowed to read Janice’s romantic fiction manuscript, Unleashing the Sun, still a work in progress. Although the process was longer than I realized (check out my blog about it), it was an experience that created an insight into the long and gruesome process in writing a full-length manuscript and the incredible dedication involved.

Interning at Beetle Press was an invaluable experience. I learned more than I thought I would. I remember being nervous on my first day, unsure of what I was doing or where it would go. Now I know I made the right decision when I decided to stretch out of my comfort zone and apply for an internship. And I have Janice to thank for everything that I learned, the skills I’ve developed and the new insights I have about myself and my writing.

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