To provide free copies, never for commercial purposes, of
1. My works including four books completed since retirement, PowerPoints and Lectures in Atmospheric Science, Hydrology, Atmospheric Art and Optics, plus Essays, Poems, and Stories.
2. Selected short writings of the members of the Sun Valley East ++ Writers Group of Boynton Beach, FL. (See below!)
We, the writers of the SVE++ Writers Group, an inconspicuous group of largely unknown writers, might think our talents are mediocre, but au contraire, for each of us has exhibited impressive talents and wide-ranging skills as a writer.
Donald Silverman writes mostly memoir pieces. That puts him in a league with millions. But most of his pieces demonstrate his uniquely funny way of looking at life. Donald extracts the humor from countless experiences and memories, and the way we laugh or chuckle at them shows that his viewpoint resonates with something in each of us. Thus, Donald’s writings possess two features that make for great literature. First, he has captured some human universal, and second, he has done it in a novel way.
The point is that Donald is not alone among us to possess those qualities, because the writings of each of us have exhibited these two qualities to some degree.
Mickey Komet doesn’t consider herself a good writer. But her neighborhood memoirs evoke all our memories of the stores, places, and experiences we loved as kids. And when Mickey decided to write outside the box, she created a short story we all thought was real. Impressive!
Suzi Lynch exhibits the dramatic flair to make the recital of a statistical report on farm produce sound like the Gettysburg Address. And her writings show a varied imagination, often with a wow-type surprise.
Gloria Stein is our poet laureate. Gloria’s rhyming is so simple, but so natural and catching it is startling. And her poems often illustrate general themes.
Agi Finkelstein thinks herself no writer because she doesn’t multiply words. But there is strength in that simplicity and directness. Agi writes about the worlds she has sojourned in and we all know and feel it.
Dave Thomas is a story teller. And his stories wrench a wide range of situations and emotions. He can portray in a sympathetic way winners, losers, sinners, and saints. And we always wind up asking him if what he read was fact or fiction.
Doug Kane, another story teller, is perhaps the most imaginative among us, and his writings reek of intense feelings and longings. How to retrieve and magnify love long gone and lost to all but memory may be his forte. And doesn’t that resonate with all of us geezers! Doug could have written Ecclesiastes.
Jay Worsham is, hands down, our wittiest (and sometimes most ghoulish). We all have demonstrated wit to one degree or other, but Jay just has that extraordinary way of seeing irony clearly through the fog of sugary sentiment and caramelize it as poetry, art, or song.
Janice Lieberman is our word artist. When Janet describes a scene, we are there – we recognize everything – we get the picture. When she describes the White Cliffs of Dover, everyone is there with her.
Steve Greenberg, the unassuming philosopher, gives his work experiences sound and wisdom of fables, but are both touching and humorous true accounts that rivet our attention.
Finally, there is Stan Gedzelman (that’s me). I count myself our group’s intellectual or perhaps the scarecrow, who only wanted a brain. But from time to time I hit upon a universal truth that helps make life or our world more comprehensible.
Do others in countless other writing groups share our distinctive talents? Sure, but only in their own unique ways. As just as our finer works have impressed us, so they would impress many others.