Luzerne County Community College professor and author William Kashatus
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
Local author Cecilia Galante sometimes imagines entire conversations for her characters as she runs.
CLARK VAN ORDEN/THE TIMES LEADER
Poet and author Dawn Leas writes a lot of her poetry in bookstores, such as Barnes & Noble in downtown Wilkes-Barre, when she’s not writing in the family room at home.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
Luzerne County Community College professor William Kashatus is mentoring students Jennifer Williman of Swoyersville, Gregory Carter of Wilkes-Barre and Laura Downs of Nantico*ke, a trio he describes as promising writers.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
One hundred years ago, you were scribbling with a fountain pen in a garret, trying not to starve.
A few decades later, you were hunched, bleary-eyed, in front of a manual typewriter and a wastebasket overflowing with crumbled papers.
But if you’re a writer nowadays, all stereotypes seem to have vanished.
You could be out jogging, driving your car or even enjoying a vacation — and simultaneously working on your craft.
It’s not as if you have to be handcuffed to a strict procedure, said local history writer William Kashatus, who admits he believed, when he was first starting out, that there was only one way to write.
“You had to sit down and get the 3-by-5 index cards and make notes. You had to toss everything you had into a word processor and then, like a sculptor, whittle it down,” recalled Kashatus, 51, of Hunlock Creek.
Today Kashatus, whose most recently published book is a biography of the late Congressman Dan Flood, allows himself more freedom — as do many other local authors.
“I consider myself to be writing as I run,” said Cecilia Galante, 39, of Kingston, an avid jogger and busy mother of three whose latest young-adult novel, “The Summer of May,” was released last month.
“I work out plots as I run. I hear dialogue in my head as I run.”
Actually, inspiration can strike, blossom or grow any time. That’s why Dawn Leas, who teaches at Wyoming Seminary in addition to writing poetry, constantly carries a notebook for the jotting of ideas.
“I’ve been known to ask my son to write something down while I’m driving,” said Leas, 41, of Shavertown, whose “I Know When to Keep Quiet,” (a chapbook, or a short book of 29 pages) was recently published by Finishing Line Press.
As for Sabrina Benulis, who has been making minor revisions to “Archon,” the first of three novels she’s writing for the Eos imprint of HarperCollins, a looming deadline last fall simply meant she took her computer on a trip.
“This past September I went on vacation with my family,” said Benulis, 27, of Drums. “It just worked out that’s when I had to do a major rewrite.”
No, she wasn’t perched on a cliff, balancing a laptop as she listened to the roar of Niagara Falls.
“I worked in the morning,” she said. “In the hotel.”
As a full-time writer who landed a three-book contract, Benulis has the luxury of choosing the time of day that’s best for her.
“When I was younger I used to work mostly at night,” said the author, who at the request of an editor has been tweaking her novel to make it more appropriate for young adults. “Now I have my little office, and I’m usually getting started in the morning. I’m lucky because this is my full-time job.”
For those who balance writing with other responsibilities, it can be a case of grabbing a few hours whenever you can.
“It’s 8 to 11:30 a.m. this year, and it’ll be 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. next year,” said Galante, referring to the times her youngest child is in school. “If that’s all you get, you’re gonna take it.”
For Leas, writing time tends to come later – between 7 and 11 p.m.
“Luckily I have a very supportive family. One son is in college; one is a senior in high school,” she said, explaining she’s often working in the family room and interacting with her family as she writes.
Family matters – including the empty nest she and her husband will experience next year – are a favorite topic for Leas, whose first chapbook of poetry draws on such childhood memories as crossing Lake Pontchartrain’s 23-mile concrete causeway with her mother’s hands tensely gripping the steering wheel.
She’s also working on a novel about “a professional organizer who’s keeping everyone else’s life in order while her own starts to unravel.”
The unraveling fabrics of life – also known as conflicts – play a key role for most authors.
Galante’s latest story, “The Summer of May,” published by Aladdin, an imprint owned by Simon & Schuster, tells of an adolescent girl who vandalizes a classroom and pays restitution by repainting the room and attending one-on-one summer school with the teacher she insulted.
Herself a former teacher in Wilkes-Barre’s three high schools, Galante met some students there whose behavior helped her form the plot.
“At first I used to ignore the troublemakers,” she said. “Then I realized they really wanted my attention.”
Though her book is fiction, still some research was required.
“I had to ask what summer school was like,” she offered as an example. “I didn’t realize it was only in the mornings.”
For Kashatus and other non-fiction writers, research is usually more intense.
“We have an obligation to use the facts in a way that’s accurate,” he said.
Kashatus, who teaches history at Luzerne County Community College, said he is mentoring several promising writers there.
For a recent project, he had them contrast such popular movies as “Seabiscuit,” “JFK” and “Saving Private Ryan” with primary-source documents to see how accurately each movie reflected the time period, characters and situations it portrayed.
After the three of them presented their papers on Wednesday, they said they’ve learned a lot from Kashatus.
“It’s important to be concise and get to the point and believe in what you’re writing about,” Laura Downs, 19, of Nantico*ke said. “
“You formulate the topic and get the idea out of your head and rough-draft it,” said Gregory Carter, 38, of Wilkes-Barre. “It sounds easy, but to actually do it, it takes practice.”
“I got an A on my last paper, and that meant so much,” said Jennifer Williman, 20, of Swoyersville. “The reason I’ve taken (a second class with Kashatus) is because he challenges me.”
“They’re three of my best students,” said Kashatus, who has another piece of advice for aspiring writers: Choose a topic about which you are passionate.
His love of history and baseball is evident in his own work, which includes 12 books. Soon to be published by Cornell University Press is “Fire & Ice: Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and the Integration of Baseball.”
Another project involves the influence of the Quakers on Abraham Lincoln’s decision to emancipate the slaves.
“I like to write about an aspect of history or a figure in history that hardly anybody knows,” he said. “It’s a way to stay fresh.”
