Daily News

Today’s Flyover People column:

A recreation of an Osage orange made by Jancy Morgan and Tom Dunn.

AT TOWN CRIER

Books appear to be such simple, ordinary things.

But you have to watch out - a book can be nimble and sneaky.

You might be reading purely for entertainment but later realize that the book has slipped a few facts into your head.

Books can take us to places we never would have gone on our own: emotional heights, exotic countries, perilous situations.

Let us take a moment to thank writers for that gift. Amen.

On June 14, 24 authors gathered at Town Crier Bookstore for the Second Annual Authors Extravaganza. Each writer offered something different.

Roy Bird is Mr. Book himself. Born in Herington, raised near Navarre, Roy Bird is not only the director of the Kansas Center for the Book in Topeka, he’s a prolific writer with 15 published books to his credit.

Roy Bird

Two of his recent books focus on the Civil War. He reached for the “Civil War and Indian Wars” book displayed on the table before him.

“This is something I’ve wanted to (write) since I was a kid,” Bird said.

He told me that Indian wars had not been documented together with the Civil War and that the information on the various Indian wars was scattered. “I wanted to bring them all together in one place,” he said.

Authors Jancy Morgan and Tom Dunn of Berryton have written and illustrated a children’s story that allows a tree to speak, “If this Old Tree Could Talk to Me.”

Jancy Morgan

Inspired by a real-life Osage orange tree in Overland Park, Morgan and Dunn use illustrations and rhymes to describe what that tree might have seen during its long lifetime near the Santa Fe Trail.

“Buffalo once gathered, to graze beneath my boughs. And once, a loving couple stood below to say their vows,” they wrote.

In addition to writing and illustrating the book, Morgan and Dunn have recreated the tree – and they brought it along with them. They took a 6-foot-tall animated butler, normally sold as a Halloween prop, covered it with bark-like fabric and turned it into a tree.

Jancy Morgan and Tom Dunn

Their tree was placed on the sidewalk outside Town Crier and their table-top display was also elaborate. Obviously, the authors’ creativity can not be contained within the covers of a book.

Patricia Davids of Wichita makes a steady income from writing.

Davids writes inspirational romance for Steeple Hill, an imprint of Harlequin. The company’s book club sends out four books to members monthly; about 60,000 copies of each book are delivered.

Patricia Davids

“(Writing) has been very successful for me, which is unusual in the book business,” she said, adding that she was recently able to retire from her job as a neonatal intensive care nurse.

Davids’ newest book is “Military Daddy.” She has two more books coming out in 2008 and is currently working in cooperation with five other writers to produce a six-volume series for Steeple Hill – an intertwining story of six heroes and six heroines.

My special treat for the day was to meet Karen Ross Epp of Newton. Last winter I read her book, “With Love, Stan: A Soldier’s Letters from Vietnam to the World.” Her brother, Stan, was killed in the war.

For the book, Epp transcribed letters that her brother had written from the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam, added personal and family details, and also included memories from the men who served alongside her brother.

A book can turn you inside out. “With Love, Stan” touched me deeply.

At Town Crier, Epp had some of Stan’s actual letters with her, letters stained with mud from Vietnam. The handwriting and the muddy smears made me sense Stan’s presence.

There’s often a silent bond that forms between writer and reader. And when you meet an author whose work has made a lasting impression on you, it’s a happy day. Amen.

###

Karen Ross Epp, author of With Love, Stan, and Beverley Olson Buller, author of From Emporia: The Story of William Allen White, a 2008 Kansas Notable book.

***

Cheryl Unruh writes Flyover People, a column about Kansas topics, published every Tuesday in The Emporia Gazette. Copyright 2008 Cheryl Unruh.

Filed under: columns, other people's stuff on June 24th, 2008