The Troy Book Makers

As a hard-working administrative assistant who raised three children on her own, Barbara Traynor didn’t want her retired life to be limited by a small income. Becoming a “second career volunteer” enabled her to stay active, see parts of the country she’d never been to, put her professional skills to use, and have a dynamic [...]

In 1959, Ed Chevrette was a sixteen-year-old student pilot, and, as he says in his book, Wings of Fortune, it was the greatest experience of his life. Ed went from flying a fabric-covered Cub to becoming a corporate Learjet pilot. Ed experienced what he calls “the golden age of aviation,” the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. [...]

Pat Carley, a life-long resident of Troy with a fascinating Hungarian heritage, has written a short novel,  My Grandmother’s Necklace. In it, she weaves together imagined and factual details of her grandmother’s life in Europe  before emigrating to the United States. And the necklace? Why, it’s the tangible link to her past. Pat talks about [...]

Marion has been teaching a memoir-writing class at the Arts Center of the Capital Region for over a decade. Her recent book, Writing What You Know: Realia, has been picked up by one of the “big six” publishers. (Yeah!) In our conversation, Marion–brimming with energy–explains the word “realia” and discusses the writing process and self-publishing [...]

Imagine a mother, father, and daughter writing a book together. Now imagine, a mother, father, and daughter writing a book together about their family’s drug and alcohol addiction problems. In It Went without Saying, Joyce (mom), John (dad), and Jamie (daughter), openly recount their journey together through pain, to truth and healing. Talking with John, [...]

We’ve posted our second podcast! Last Friday we featured an interview with Bob Congemi, English professor, Albany resident, and author of three collections of short stories. This week we have Kerry Mendez, author of the perennially popular, The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Top Ten Lists. Kerry’s yard is a teaching garden (shown on the front cover of [...]