Library resources can help you explore health care options

Big changes are afoot with the introduction of the Health Insurance Marketplace on October 1, 2013. While the Affordable Care Act affects virtually everyone in some way, participants in Badger Care Plus might be particularly affected.

If you are currently enrolled in Badger Care Plus and have received a letter about changes to your coverage, the library has resources available to help you explore your options. There are brochures explaining some of the new insurance programs, and you can use library computers to explore on-line resources at HealthCare.gov (click on the blue text for a direct link). This site has a lot of information to help you navigate through health insurance options, including answers to frequently asked questions, a checklist of information you'll need to enroll in the Marketplace, and a calculator to estimate your insurance costs. Phone numbers and live chat options are also available if you can't find the answers you need on the site.

Library staff members will help you navigate HealthCare.gov to the best of their ability; however, please note that they can't make decisions on your behalf. The library is here to help you explore your options, but you're ultimately the one who chooses what course of action is right for you.

Children's entertainer Dana McCarthy will come to Augusta on Wednesday, Oct. 2

Children can sing, dance, and play games with entertainer Dana McCarthy on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 1:00 pm at the Main St. gym in Augusta. According to McCarthy's website, "At the heart of a Jump Up! class or show is family play; dancing, sing-a-longs, rhythm activities, and musical games that make every event an enriching experience for both children and caregivers. Our programs are based around original songs that give children simple direction, while at the same time allowing free musical expression."

This program is free and open to all pre-school children who are accompanied by a parent or guardian. Interested parents can also attend a free program on the importance of reading before kindergarten while the children's program is being held.

For more information, please contact Cassie Banaszak at banaszak@augustalibrary.org or call the library at (715) 286-2070.

Adorable audience attends Read to Your Pet Event

Diesel the dog had some intense competition in the cuteness category from the audience at Read to Your Pet Event on Saturday, Sep. 28. Did he hold his own against the three photogenic young ladies who posed with him? Here are the photos; you be the judge.

Alyssa, Roella, and Charissa pose with Diesel

Roella, Charissa, Alyssa, and Diesel by the bins



Charissa holds Diesel while Alyssa and Roella proudly display their literature

The girls help Samma read Dora's Costume Party

Samma reads to her mixed human and canine audience





Another shot of Samma reading to her mixed audience

READ TO YOUR PET

Pets are more than adorable fuzzy faces--they're also effective promoters of childhood literacy. Children can relax, have fun, and gain confidence as they read to animals that are as nonjudgmental as they are cute.

Interested? Come to the library's Read to Your Pet event on Saturday, September 28, from 1-3 pm. Pets--both real and stuffed--are welcome in the library on this special day. Children will have a storytime with Samma and then be able to choose from a wide variety of animal-themed books that they can read to their pets. Please note that all pets should be on a leash or in a carrier, and owners are responsible for their pets while they're in the library.

If you have questions or would like more information, please contact Samma Johnson at johnson@augustalibrary.org or call (715) 286-2070.

Augusta Library Book Group reads Wild Swans by Jung Chang

Wild Swans by Jung Chang
 

 

For its September selection, the Augusta Library Book Group read Wild Swans by Jung Chang, the story of three generations of Chinese women. The general consensus was that at over 500 pages of small, dense print, this was NOT a book to be undertaken lightly; one member said reading it was like cracking open a textbook.

 

The dedicated members who made it through the book, though, generally agreed that it was well worth the effort. They described it as being well-written, thought-provoking, and a source of new insights about Chinese culture and history.

 

Readers interested in China, women's history, or both--and who have a lot of time on their hands--might want to check out Wild Swans. The following link leads directly to the MORE system's listings for the book:

 

Library listings for Wild Swans

The Book Group meets at the Augusta Public Library every second Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Anyone interested is welcome to attend. The October selection is Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin; copies are available at the front desk.

A Notice to iPad, and iOS 7 users!

Do you use your iPad, iPhone, or other iOS device to use OverDrive Media Consol (OMC)? Then you might be upgrading to the iOS 7 soon --and this is pertinent information for you! Our technical guru at IFLS sent us an e-mail about a glitch that could affect the way you use OMC while they are working out the kinks.

As such:

When an existing OverDrive Media Console (OMC) user upgrades to iOS 7, the app will fail when trying to open a DRM-protected eBook. New or first time users of OMC are unaffected by this issue.

 

We are resolving the issue but in the meantime, here are immediate remedies for users:

 

1) Re-authenticate the app with their existing or a new Adobe ID. Refer to the iOS section of this Help article for assistance. (Recommended)  

2) Uninstall and re-install OMC which will also require the user to re-authorize with Adobe. IMPORTANT NOTE: A re-install will clear a user's bookshelf, history, and app settings.

 

Audiobook users won't notice that anything is different unless they attempt to download parts of audiobooks they already downloaded to OMC before upgrading to iOS 7. A user will receive an error message informing them to download the title again. 

If you are having difficulties with iOS 7 on your device, please try these troubleshooting tips.

Thanks,

Samma

Author Carl Brookins
 

 

Mystery author Carl Brookins has had a long and diverse career, and he spoke on many topics at the Augusta Public Library’s Booktoberfest celebration.

Born in River Falls, he spent several years of his childhood in Oklahoma, a nice place to live unless one happens to be there at the height of the Dust Bowl, as he was. Fortunately, although he remembers his father having to get up early to clean dust out of their house each morning, he never developed the dust-induced respiratory ailments that afflicted so many other Oklahoma residents at the time.

After 1939, Brookins spent a great deal of his life in Minnesota. He spent the rest of his childhood in St. Paul and he was a very early employee of Metropolitan State University there. His work with the university was groundbreaking; it was one of the first institutions of higher learning to target adult students and include experiential learning in the curriculum. Over the years, the university has grown from about 300 students near the beginning to over 10,000 students today.

Brookins also did groundbreaking work with North Dakota’s public television system. He was there from the moment it first went on the air, and his dedication helped North Dakota become the only state with complete public television coverage. “I’m very proud of that,” he said.

Although Brookins had already accomplished so much with his life, he wasn’t content to rest on his laurels, and he found himself looking for another project to undertake. He had an epiphany when, after complaining to his wife about the poor quality of writing in one of the many books he read, she told him to write his own book. “So I did.”

Brookins and his wife are both skilled recreational sailors, and his experience on the water provided him with the idea for his first book, Inner Passages. The couple sailed into an ideal setting—literally—and he quickly developed the plotline for the first half of his book after being inspired on the water. However, he was unsure of how to end it until he realized that all of his major characters were men. He decided to add a wealthy heiress to provide key help to his protagonist, Michael Tanner. “My plan was that she would exit stage right,” Brookins remembered, “but she wouldn’t go. Over time, she developed into a full character.”

Since then, Mary Whitney—who later became Mary Tanner after marrying Michael Tanner—has been a regular character in his Sailor series.

Another of Brookins’s favorite characters is short, feisty detective Sean Sean. “I wanted to create a detective who is the antithesis of typical detectives,” Brookins explained.

As a result, Sean Sean is short—only five feet, two inches—but his quirky character makes him larger than life, and he’s not afraid to date a woman who’s a foot taller than he is. Sean is based on a real co-worker Brookins once had, and Brookins added even more authenticity to his character by rolling around a mall on a wheeled chair in order to see the world from a short person’s perspective. He’s become so real that Brookins has to “keep remembering this is a fictional character.”

Unlike many other mystery novelists, who create outlines for their books before writing them, Brookins describes himself as “an organic writer. I start at the beginning and I write until I get to the end and then I stop. That means an awful lot of revising.”

Even so, having to make so many changes isn’t as onerous a burden as it would seem. “I love revising,” said Brookins. “For me that’s what makes a book come alive. To get a paragraph to do exactly what you want it to do—that’s a high no drug can reach.”

Brookins is a successful writer now, but attaining his status as the author of multiple novels wasn’t easy. He considered getting an agent after he finished Inner Passages, but “getting an agent can be very tricky and very time-consuming,” he explained. “Agents reject 98% of the books they get. Writing’s very rewarding, but it’s a hard business to get into.” He added that finding an agent and finally getting the book published by a major publishing house is usually a multi-year process.

To save time, he published Inner Passages with a small publishing firm. Since then, he’s published many more books, the last one in e-book form. His upcoming novel, The Case of the Purloined Painting, is set in World War Two and features a little-known American program to save important European cultural icons from being destroyed by bombs; it will be released in e-book form on Tuesday, September 17.

Brookins has some advice for aspiring writers: “There’s no right way or wrong way to write a book. The difference between wannabe writers and professionals is perseverance.”

Anyone who would like more information about Carl Brookins and his books can go to his website at www.carlbrookins.com.

 

Booktoberfest author Joe Niese and his book Burleigh Grimes: America's Last Legal Spitballer

 

Author Joe Niese holds his recently published book, Burleigh Grimes: America's Last Legal Spitballer

 

Burleigh Grimes may not be a household name—except in those houses that contain baseball fans—but local author Joe Niese is doing his part to bring the once-lauded baseball player out of obscurity. Niese, a librarian in Chippewa Falls and father of three, became intrigued when he read references to Grimes and his career in a book about Hank Aaron, A Summer Up North. As a result, he spent the next two and a half years researching and writing his recently published book, Burleigh Grimes: Baseball’s Last Legal Spitballer.

Grimes, a Wisconsin native, overcame the odds to pursue his career in baseball. He initially began with the Eau Claire Commissioners as a back-up player grudgingly allowed to stay with the team—while paying his own expenses—by manager Russ Bailey. “He wasn’t even supposed to be there for his first game,” Niese observed; Grimes was called in at the last minute to replace an injured player.

He played so well, however, that he became part of the team, and his baseball career was born. Over the years, he played for seven different Major League teams. Niese pointed out that his career didn’t consist of non-stop glory: “He ended up losing 13 games in a row at one point.”

At another point, the Brooklyn Dodgers—then called the Brooklyn Robins, for whom Grimes played—     lost a “barnstormer” game to a team from Augusta, WI, at the Chippewa Falls Fair Grounds.

His setbacks, though, were overshadowed by his 270 victories and his unique status as baseball’s last legal spitballer. (Major League officials made throwing spitballs illegal in 1920; however, Grimes had performed so admirably that they made an exception for him and 16 other pitchers. Grimes was the last of the 17 legal spitballers to retire.) He was finally inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964, one of only four Wisconsin players to receive this honor.

Niese drew on many resources to create his account of Grimes’s life and career. In addition to doing standard Internet research, he was given access to a large collection of Grimes-related primary sources, including photos and scrapbooks, by Ardeth and Charles Clark, who run the Clear Lake Historical Museum.  He also used many library resources, especially microfilm machines. “I’m a microfilm junkie,” Niese explained. “The Internet only gets you so far.”

The long hours and considerable effort Niese put into his book paid off; it’s currently on its third print run, and copies have been sold all over the world. Thanks to Niese, Burleigh Grimes may become a household name—even in houses without baseball fans—after all.

Anyone interested in Joe Niese and his work can find out more at www.joeniese.com.

 

Natalie Buske Thomas and her daughter Cassandra Thomas spoke about their writing and art at Booktoberfest

Author and artist Natalie Buske Thomas (left) and her daughter, artist Cassandra Thomas
 

Mother and daughter team Natalie Buske Thomas and Cassandra Thomas drove from Hudson to share their talents at the Augusta Public Library’s Booktoberfest celebration on Sep. 14. Mother Natalie spoke about her career as an author and artist, and then daughter Cassandra—an accomplished cartoonist—taught the audience her techniques for drawing human figures.

The two women have produced a diverse array of work both independently and collaboratively. Natalie, an author and artist, has written two trilogies featuring fictional private investigator Serena Wilcox. In addition, she’s a prolific painter; among other artistic projects, she’s currently working on two Dr. Who-themed oil paintings for a charity auction.

Natalie has been greatly aided in her writing by Cassandra, who edits the manuscripts. She’s uniquely qualified for this job; in addition to being Natalie’s daughter, she’s one of the few people to have aced the verbal section of the SAT. Natalie attributes Cassandra’s excellence with language to her prolific reading habits. “She would wipe out the library’s summer reading program of all their prizes,” Natalie remembered. “I think they had to re-write the rules for her.”

Although Natalie is now the author of two trilogies, her writing success didn’t come easily. After completing her first novel, she received rejection slips that were often so impersonal, they started with “Dear Blank” instead of her name. One company accepted her Serena Wilcox series but wanted her to commit to traveling to 50 book signings a year; unwilling to spend so much time away from her family, she decided to focus on other priorities.

Natalie devoted considerable energy to raising her 3 children: Cassandra, 20, an accomplished artist and editor; Nicholas, 16, a computer whiz and gifted musician; and Savannah, 11, a talented fashion designer and aspiring photographer.  As the children got older and more independent, though, she decided to re-visit her writing career.

When Natalie re-joined her former group of mystery writers, she was pleasantly surprised to discover that she still had many fans. Her readers especially liked Serena Wilcox, a character she’d serendipitously introduced to resolve a plotline in her first novel. They wanted more of Serena, and she obliged them by featuring the character in two trilogies; the first book of the third Serena Wilcox trilogy is already available on Kindle and will soon be coming out in paperback and audio book.

Like her mother, Cassandra also has a significant fan base. Her original on-line comic series, Ki La iLo, has gained considerable popularity. Her success isn’t surprising given her long history as an artist; she taught herself to draw when she was 11 years old and did so well that a Disney artist encouraged her to apply to their art school. She seriously considered the offer but decided to pursue a math major at UW-River Falls instead.

Natalie and Cassandra also collaborate on the Dramatic Mom comic strips. Natalie, who is on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social media, had noted that she got the most “likes” and comments when she posted about her mishaps and pratfalls. She decided to oblige her fan base by creating the comic; Natalie provides the storylines based on real-life incidents, and Cassandra illustrates them. They intend to publish a Dramatic Mom book once they’ve created 100 strips; in the meantime, the comics are available on-line to interested readers.

Natalie and Cassandra have already produced a considerable body of work and have no intention of letting up. Anyone interested in Natalie’s artistic and literary productions can find links to Dramatic Mom, images of Natalie’s art, and a lot of other information at www.nataliebuskethomas.com. Cassandra’s work can be seen at http://cassiethomas.deviantart.com/.

Booktoberfest photos

 

 

 

Like most Wisconsin residents, the staff of the Augusta Public Library was grateful for Saturday night’s rain; however, they were also grateful that it waited to arrive until after their Booktoberfest celebration. Saturday’s sunny, mild weather allowed visitors to enjoy both outdoor and indoor activities at the annual event.

 

 

Morgan paints Sage's face at Booktoberfest

The sunshine illuminated the charming storyboards painted and donated by local artist Pat Gabler for the library’s outdoor Storywalk, which was set up on a grassy area near the library. Visitors could also meet Gabler and browse through other samples of her work, and children could get their faces painted.

 

 

 

Jane and Cassie pose by the Storywalk
 

Near Gabler’s outdoor display, many Booktoberfest patrons enjoyed hot dogs, barbecue sandwiches, beans, chips, beverages, and a large array of desserts donated, prepared, and served by library volunteers. (Although the library gladly accepted voluntary donations, which went toward the Reading Garden, there was no charge for the meal.)

 

 

Guests enjoy lunch at Booktoberfest

Visitors also had the option of attending talks by four different regional authors. First, Minnesota author Carl Brookins spoke on a variety of topics, including his involvement in founding Metropolitan State University and North Dakota’s public television system, as well as the writing and publishing of his numerous mystery novels. Next, Wisconsin author Joe Niese—a librarian in Chippewa Falls—spoke about legendary pitcher Burleigh Grimes, the subject of his recent book Burleigh Grimes: Baseball’s Last Legal Spitballer.

 

 

Carl Brookins
 

 

Joe Niese

After a break for lunch, Minnesota author, artist, and entertainer Natalie Buske Thomas spoke about the inspirations for her Serena Wilcox mystery novels and her Dramatic Mom cartoon series, which is based on actual incidents from her life and illustrated by her daughter Cassandra. As a grand finale, Cassandra—an accomplished artist—taught audience members how to draw cartoon figures.

 

 

Natalie Buske Thomas (left) and Cassandra Thomas

Though the clouds were building by the time Booktoberfest ended, the day was a perfect one for food, fun, and literature at the Augusta Public Library.

 

BOOKTOBERFEST is gone!

 

If you missed it, you missed an eclectic bunch of entertainment and elucidation!To those of you who came and saw and heard, we thank you for your attendance. All of the authors were interesting and very generous in sharing their experiences with the writing and publishing processes. The story walk and children's activity area were delightful. --And of course, the food was delectable. 

A special thanks to all those who helped make the day possible: 

Leslie, Cassie, Samma and Rebecca--You planned the activites, kept us up-dated with posters, articles, blogs and made the day run smoothly. Jane W.--your decorative flare always makes the library look classy. And Friends of the Library--you helped set up, baked scrumptious desserts, prepared & served lunch, then cleaned up. What a great group of community members! What will we have up our sleeves for next year?

Marty R.

Friends of the Library President

There's a new face at the library!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Augusta Public Library is pleased to welcome its new intern, Amanda Gaveske. Amanda was born in Peru but raised in Marinette, Wisconsin, and she's currently a senior at UW-Eau Claire. Although Amanda began her university career as a Nursing major, the English classes she took inspired her to change her major to English Literature. Another class with Professor Rob Reid further inspired her to add a Library Science minor to her degree. She noted that although many friends and family members questioned her decision, remarking that being a librarian seemed too boring for an energetic person like her, she's well aware that there's more to being a librarian than most people realize.

 

Her first day at the Augusta Public library was a case in point. "I believe I spent less than fifteen minutes behind a desk checking books in and out, which is what a majority of people think librarians do," she said. "I was given a tour of the library, shelved books, checked items in and out of the library, and covered a variety of sizes of books. It may not sound like these tasks may take up a whole five to six hours, but they do. Oh, and I also learned how to clean a DVD! Overall, I had a very successful day here at the library, and I hope to learn new things each day."

 

Amanda will have plenty of plenty of opportunities to learn in the next few weeks. In order to fulfill the requirements for her Library Science minor, she'll be spending at least 140 hours as a library intern over the course of the semester. She'll be working hard, but she doesn't regret her decision to pursue a career in Library Science. She described spending time in a library as a "perfect fit" for her. "I love books!" she added. "There's no greater feeling than being surrounded by the things I love."

 

Amanda's enthusiasm will serve her well as she embarks on what promises to be a fulfilling career path, and the staff of the Augusta Public Library is glad to be part of her journey.

DOLLY PARTON WANTS TO GIVE YOU FREE BOOKS!!

If you love a) books b) free stuff c) both of the above and d) you are or have a child under the age of five, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has quite the opportunity for you. Every Augusta School District resident from birth to age five is eligible to receive a free children's book each month. The books are mailed directly to the children's homes, and there is no cost or obligation for participating in the program.

Interested parents can pick up a registration form at the Augusta Elementary School or Augusta Public Library. For more information, please contact Partnership Coordinator Jen Willms at willmjen@augusta.k12.wi.us or (715) 286-3396.