Local commercially-published authors sign books at crafts show in Sayre

SAYRE - The Guthrie Healthcare System is known in the region for the medical care it delivers.

Now a number of current and former employees at Guthrie are making a name for themselves creators of children's books.

At Guthrie's Employee Craft Show, which was held Sunday in Sayre, Maureen Wright of Athens Township, who serves as a volunteer at Guthrie's Sayre House, was selling and signing copies of the children's book she wrote, titled "Sleep Big Bear, Sleep!".

The book, which was commercially published in September by Marshall Cavendish Corp. of Tarrytown, N.Y., is available at major book stores, such as Barnes & Noble, and on-line, she said. Starting in January, the Scholastic Book Club will begin selling a paperback version of the book, which she said is a prestigious development.

And at the same crafts show, Laurie K. Merrick of Litchfield Township, who works as a secretary at the Guthrie Clinic, was selling copies of the children's book she wrote, "Mama, Don't!", which was published commercially two years ago by PublishAmerica of Frederick, Md.

Merrick said she recently signed a contract with PublishAmerica to publish another children's book she wrote, called "Cowboy Mike," and will propose to the company that it hire a clerk at Guthrie, Judy Smith, as the illustrator of "Cowboy Mike."

The crafts show featured over 70 crafts vendors, who are either employees of Guthrie or are family members of Guthrie employees, said Kim Maxim, an organizer of the show. At the event, which took place in the atrium of the Guthrie Clinic and the cafeteria of Robert Packer Hospital, members of the public could buy everything from jewelry to fudge to Christmas wreaths.

Wright said she has wanted to write since she was a little girl.

"I've been trying for 20 years to get a book published," Wright said. "I have a pile of rejection letters eight inches high."

She said she was motivated to keep trying to get her works published after she read that Norman Vincent Peale had thrown his unpublished manuscript for "The Power of Positive Thinking" into the trash and that his wife fished it out of the trash and brought it on her own to a publisher. After it was published, "The Power of Positive Thinking" became a best-seller.

"My husband has always been very supportive of me and my work," she added.

Wright said she did have another book commercially published in 1995, a humorous book on motherhood called "The Keeper of the Zoo," but that that book is now out of print.

"I have two more children's books coming out," she said, adding that she left her job as an activity aide at the Sayre House in April to concentrate full-time on writing children's books, promoting them, and making appearances in local schools, where she reads her works to children and talks to them about the process of writing.

In "Sleep Big Bear, Sleep!" Old Man Winter, who appears as a storm cloud, tells a big bear to go to sleep, because it is wintertime.

But the bear doesn't hear very well.

"It gets all mixed up," she said. "It thinks it's supposed to drive a Jeep, sweep, leap, dive deep and climb a mountain top steep."

There are not local references in "Sleep Big Bear, Sleep!" except for the fact that she and her family see bears where they live. "I live out in the country, so occasionally a bear passes through our property," she said.

Merrick

Merrick said she has been writing since she was a little girl.

"I always wanted to write, ever since I could pick up a book," she said.

However, it was eight years ago, after her father died, that she began to take writing seriously, she said.

She was 42 at the time.

"He was blind since the age of 10, but he never let his blindness stop him from doing what he wanted to do," she explained. After his death, she said she felt foolish for not pursuing what she wanted to do.

Her father had had a logging company, had worked as a carpenter, and had taught himself to play the piano and guitar, she said.

He also taught his wife to play instruments, and together they performed country-and-western music, Merrick said.

"He had a strong faith in God," she said.

Maxim said it would be safe to say that a few hundred people came to the crafts show, which benefits the Guthrie Human Service Fund.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.

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