105 Meadowlark Reader; Unknown

today and keep your prisons hot off the press a one off five metal or reader and j mcintyre one of five middle or reader has a brand new publication of kansas creative nonfiction it's the brainchild of cheryl unruh entry fee million simmons of emporia nice to visit with you both think you for having escaped this case be here thank you take us back to two thousand nineteen and the message from tracy that opens your inaugural edition and uploaded here from page one has cheryl do you want to help me with the brainstorm take that conversation to this publication i think sailing i have been brainstorming products together for probably the last fifteen years or more and as long as we've known each other we've worked on book projects together sometimes her projects sometimes my projects and we've often talked about products that we want to be together so this was this timing thing we had met light was posting a lot of books and i've always had a journal as a dream something and i

wanted to do and part of what i put into publishing with my life it's a lot more fun to do it with someone and them the services department crimes writing about kansas and kansas book seemed to be a natural tracer grew up and i say i grew up in putting rocks or boh from the western end of the state and so kansas is near and dear to our hearts of course and so anything we do is use like kansas entered so i created non fiction that tells us tales our stories get them you to share is a kansas experiences a way that fiction may not be able to i think so and i both at heart are getting creative non fiction as are our passion we both write it the most and probably read at the most and am we also talk a lot about though had a white kansas was missing as far as the literary publications and it does seem like there are a lot of opportunities for poets and of course fixes is fine

and we can create nonfiction was different and what was out there so tell me about the significance of the title one or five metal or creed or so that they're one hundred and five counties in kansas and when we were going talk about their nonfiction journal or do we were making kansas we want to go beyond kansas but the idea that we finally settled on it so we did wanted to be a kansas project and by naming one of five we were committing to reaching every county in the state they're writers everywhere we know there are and so we just need to encourage them from every corner of the state to cement and sometimes certain stories are set in different counties that you know or the riders are from those counties so but clearly there are more people so we would assume there are more writers in say johnson county sedgwick county how do you

make sure the eu and get writing from people in some info less populated counties in kansas we have plans yet we wanted to get to her and that is going to be the challenge i think even if we don't eat them what were things we talked about early on as the digital doesn't have to be full of professional writers or even polish writers and storytellers are everywhere and we can help the storytellers you know with all of the the technical parts the writing of it we just find those people so what we are brainstorming lots of possibilities hope rates than the more rural areas but we were very thrilled with the first issue we ended up with thirty five authors and twenty five counties are represented in which i'm honest is a little more than i expected for the first issue it was thrilled to get that many people and there's no hurry we don't have to give it all into year we're going to be around for a

while so you whip it and eventually a visiting with cheryl unreal and tracy million simmons their brand new publication hot off the presses is one of five meadowlark reader talk about some of that howland says you've had in putting together this first issue especially since you've been doing this earn a pandemic challenges i mean a lot of it is through the pandemic and people of illicit use social media and an end you know a bank as soccer squad is tricia and then i community writers that meat across the state but this is kind of force them to use technology to get to present meaning since that so and many ways i think as far as like reaching out there may have been a little easier to connect with people because that social media and that became kind of the focus of that where people were looking for

writing opportunities and and and you know maybe people were home relaxing more so they have more time to be creating and writing i was thrilled at the response and and how quickly we cut them yeah i told cheryl when we started and collecting entries from other thing that then it's like don't be surprised if everybody waits till the deadline to submit and that wasn't the case at all a certain role in the first week and we forget seven for the next time or something like that's happened yet and what four days so it is also with a pandemic we could meet face to face as comfortably we've met peter pan park which in the more months the damage like jane winter was great when we started out we were out of peter pan party in the enola gay was plenty of space around their batman when it got cold and you lose a lot when it's just all by email were you know an answer on it i don't think either one of the server exam people a minute the

camera and all that says we'd much rather reid mean the park or at the coffee shop or so that there was all rough but we found ways i guess we made it through the letter now about the park again i'm kate mcintyre today and keep your prisons and visiting with chafee million simmons and cheryl and root beer respectively the publisher and editor of their won all five meadowlark reader a kansas journal of creative non fiction tracy or the publisher sure you're the editor talking about third division of labor how is how is that working out tracing does most of them sheehy formats alone and desolate that the technical work of putting together a book which i mean she does this beautifully through the year with all her all of the books as she publishes with metal i pressed and so that's kind of her home base for sheila or she she works and operates and months easy for her i would say that the parties might my

favorite party it's fun to work with searle though especially you know you have i don't know how many we have forty five fifty entries to read and eat you know that either of you reading when you have your own thoughts but then it's nice to have someone else can you know balance ideas back and forth in and used a different perspective which is good because they're going to be the only reader of the journal self start now with two of us i think definitely strengthened our time position and our approach them and it also can and takes the pressure off i know i'm proofreading my goodness we said sir allen i both developer of reading and then we have hazel hardy is one of our great in france and in his camper for the nafta had had certainly they will steer the live there was helpful what kind of things are you looking for in your submissions that come in when somebody is admits an essay to one of five middle or

reader what are the things are you looking for when you decide yes this this will work or a mobile pass on this one i'd say authenticity the writer's voice that they come through an energy passion and some things he can or separation for instance you know a tragic story but that but it's the way it's written how how the story's told how it unfolds and enter there is a blank went well you know it varies from piece to piece so it think each piece as i have to be strong in every area that i'd say just their overall energy and tens of intensity in we talked a lot about this when we were sitting at the guidelines and we decided that we didn't want to create a formula where everybody was basically writing the same type of story so you know even you know what are our word count i think we had three hundred or three thousand words week where does it take you to tell your story and each week it had the difference in

length the different in style we didn't wanna dictate you know whether you write in first person or third person there and i think that was a good name because we did there is a really good variety both in subject matter and in the style of writing but you know as far as whoa week when reading then the essay for me it's like do do i start reading and i want to read other waited and if you lose me you know couple paragraphs and i don't have to work for that one in an essay that just pulls me through what will say as a reader it's nice to have that variety of lengths but it's also nice to have that variety of styles that sometimes maybe i'm not the madrid sent us first person them and i can flip a couple pages on and read something that's maybe told in the third person or something that's very historical verses something that is a very personal story so it's a really nice variety of

topics as well its edition of the one of five middle agree there is going to be built around the room and not surprisingly maybe for your first issued your theme was beginnings talking about that theme answer of how about weaves its way through your stories just let everybody take that word and whatever it meant to them in whatever way on the beginnings i can think of you know five hundred stories of beginnings for whatever so it's you know everyone took it and ran with it and got so many different things which so much for it was me coming up with a list of themes the beginning we had rainstorm probably thirty or forty ideas but i'm clearly the first issue the beginnings was the obvious place to start and i was very curious to see you know what people where people go with iman

beginnings are known only always obvious you know when you read some of the essays their about the end of their own really powerful words that really powerful stories about him every one of them you can see the beginning you know this is my first hunting trip this isn't a memory of a springtime with my dad when i was seven union square up to we have the stories about the mother and the daughter coming back together kind of at the end of a moms time which again as a new beginning it's been i was delighted with the stories that we did get there and it was fun to see the historical pieces that tenet came into and i'm looking back at and i'm thinking of the story from hutchison about that a hot food no and you know it's that was her became her grandfather's story and it's fun to see that kind of thing come into and his

english airliner in tracy million simmons sterling tracy of a creative geniuses behind one hundred and five meadowlark reader could have you read a selection from your reader and so this is a story it's actually one of the first one that first stories that i read once are getting submissions and so it was a great first story i read because it's like people get it and and this is going to be a fun collection it's called winter gas and the other is barbara waterman peters who is an artist and topeka russia's a gallery and noto cell phone it's about living on a farm in nantes it's cold it's winter and thats going back to nineteen eighty and of course as often happens that the livestock decide they're going to have their babies on the coldest days scientists starting in the middle here late one evening my husband thought he'd better check the

cows one more time before going to bed checking the livestock was a new concept for the city girl but it seemed a good idea in light of the fact that the cows we had purchased the previous fall to feed over the winter were bread spring cans strapped into fresh one grass and licked clean by their mothers in the sunshine would thrive and grow stronger for winter's blast that these slutty cows had gone over the fence much sooner than anyone thought and were dropping vulnerable what little babies and the wrong season so far they have managed to avoid losing any but the coldest day was different bundled up a hooded sweatshirt coveralls boots gloves and stocking cap and assorted other bits of matter where he wound down the back steps the when was still blowing as he disappeared into the darkness i felt sorry for him but since this was all his idea in the first place well that's for another telling

suddenly he was back calling for our daughter to help him cradle in his arms with a tiny black thing he planned to take it to the basement to one that our cellar was dank and musty with a dirt floor and it stimulated detritus of seventy years went by the ubiquitous single twenty five watt bulbs not warm but out of the way and at least there seemed a solution they worked on the little creature rubbing it with towels but he didn't respond having been dumped into a hard icy surface from a warm soft when might have altered its will to survive my husband asked if we could keep it in the kitchen for the night as it might be warmer there of course i said it would be ok i have a tendency to do that before i think opportunities concerning animals completely through again no that is another story about this time we hit upon the idea of calling the doubt for advice

for silly he was in and in a rare fan frame of mind whiskey he said and mix it with warm milk we looked at each other and at the phone as though we hadn't heard him correctly but i found the wild turkey nothing but the best for this calf now just how strong you make a tidy for a calf that has only half an hour old is it really mentioned among the various old wives' tales and folk remedies i'd heard over the years so it was a guest at best to save my soul i can't remember how tidy and calf came together was it a spurned a silk cloth i meet base or a funnel of time at peak up who knows but we did manage to get some other down into the porsche every little thing and i continue to shiver and are forty degree kitchen along with the rest of us something had to be done remember that one comfort zone i mentioned before by now fifty degrees was a tropical paradise so we set at the veterinary tree us human and its

patient to my carpeted parlor it was at this point that my nurturing instincts must have really kicked in because i assumed all responsibility and then are sharing i begin to run the furry little body gently with a towel i'm a size its spindly legs and fuzzy timing and silky back for six hours and that time i discovered things about nature i had not known before such as the facts the new born calves do not have a smooth surface on the bottom of their homes and they have great tongues and that they smelled very sweet the long i dragged on interminably just before dawn my husband had to leave for work at the goodyear plant forty miles south well i think says breakfast and packed his lunch having left the probably hung over a baby in the woods living room my has been suggested i call his mother who live forty miles in the opposite direction if i needed any help

our daughter of course with cynthia to get ready to leave on the school bus before she left i'm sure she offered her own fourteen year old wisdom which would've been considerable but then she too was gone i was alone with a six year old child and a six hour old heifer calf and we three females were all new to this particular kind of circumstance now as long as they have for was lying on her blanket all was well she wasn't shield anymore thanks to the first class accommodations said that was a relief but the relief was short lived in fact my very next emotion was panic not only was the creature alive it was on the move as soon as the caf is dry and warm its first impulses the stand that this was my first inkling of having been perhaps too stingy with the wild turkey because she soon was on her feet and frolicking around my furniture one other fact that has had escaped my notice until the moment cavs are not born

housebroken soon evidence of someone's having eaten well while in utero was deposited all over my rug i ran to the phone to call my mother in law a woman who wasn't all things capable especially this thing bless her heart she must have broken several speed records because she was there and very short time i think i saw the halo surrounding her head as she got out of her car but that may have been a trick of the light when she came in she was astonished to see that half was in the living room she had assumed it would be in the kitchen which was as far as a cab ever had gotten into her house i sensed that her respect for me ratcheted up a notch that morning wasting their time she looked at the various piles of poop and pronounced the calf healthy unlikely to have a rich full life she must have carried or let the caf outside in hopes of hooking it up with its mother which was vitally important to have survival because of our human intervention a cow

might have rejected it i seem to remember that the cow did let her thoroughly confused offspring nurse to her heart's content analysis as well because the whiskey bottle was almost empty and that's tracy millions the men's reading an excerpt from it one oh five metal or reader treats you remind us who that who wrote that one in the name of the story and that was when tear gas by barbara waterman peter's pie it's one of the stories and the one of five middle or greater again the theme for this first reader was beginnings how are you selecting your themes and what's ahead we just go to the lesson but what feels right at the time just so that thing are working on now for our next book is kansas road trips which is going to be a fun one to read hampshire so there are a lot of different directions no pun intended that you can take with that theme surely everybody has a road story we all have one i'm visiting with sarah and her entry three million simmons

barrett new publication hot off the press is the one in five meadowlark reader when i think heart of the press this is really hot off the press tell me about what you been up to today before our interview in terms of that getting this publication out how we picked him up yesterday in wichita kan and today repackage them and casey stood at the post office window for probably forty five minutes while they individually wade each one and the postage on them and send them on their way and this afternoon we're driving around town delivering them in emporia so the idea is that this publication will be available primarily by subscription yes it's so it is a subscription you can you can by just a single issue or you can subscribe to the year which has two issues i'm we're also working where i am very closely with independent bookstores in kansas with aig i mean there would be we would encourage folks to buy there as well and then

it will be i mean it is available book by book of people just want to order it and you know as an end of a job look at the topic or the author's attract them it'll be available and always but the idea was to get people to subscribe and invest in and hopefully if the whole collection and oh there will be many eventually theo and i guess just in the interest of full disclosure i will say that i was one of the charter's subscribers to the one of five meadowlark reader i'm very excited see this publication come out and it's going to be or twice a year publication how did you decide on that kind of format i think he can and if you're going to make it and turn all that you know more than once here seemed seemed appropriate more than twice here seem like it might be able much with everything else we were done so and without a spring in the fall as you would be something wicked

weekend handle and be appreciated and this is a prayer journal not an online journal which most journals he stays or online because it's so much less expensive to do it that way but we did because we have subscribers and because we have advertisers we can halperin journal which we love books we love to open them and read them rather than read them on mind that that's when we get when we committed to like that initially you know it was like do we want this to be a midwestern although we wanted to speak open to anybody and when we decided let's make this a kansas project and that's when we kind of grew into that will work with kansas bookstores it done have a have a directory and i have resources for writers are storytellers ham and we'd like to grow that as well people who work with with doctors and people who in when help people tell their stories they always said we'll just go all out and so not

only are the authors kansans or former kansans time and we're working closely with our independent bookstores but that the book itself is printed in kansas at least the first rhyme so on that was part of the know if it's local all the way they said they're to make that happen it's a beautiful publication and i want to call attention to that cover in particular can you describe that that the cover of your very first issue of one of five monologue reader my husband took that photo dave like her and that's of piper hayes feeding of a caf in chase county she's the rancher in case county and it's it's just a beautiful picture and shows i mean to us it symbolizes beginnings were in about the dawn light coming into the stone barn with a calf human being fed and uncensored to catch stories in the book that this was going to be the perfect cover for the buck and the thickness or under and chafee millions demands on

today's key pierre presents their new publication is the one of five meadowlark reader some others in this first issue are familiar names to kansas readers and to listeners of keep your prisons that care and miriam goldberg former kansas poet laureate who was just on a pure present a couple weeks ago talking about her new collection how time news i'm kevin rapists also former poet laureate who will hear from later this hour but it also includes authors like betty stevens and emily whacker who'd their publications are in the victor very first published works with that intentionally try to have a balance of established writers ends and new writers are not necessarily new writers bit and published writers i think absolutely from i mean we were we wanted to be a place where people who were near the reading felt comfortable

sharing their stories and i think a lot of people when they start writing maybe write personal stories and so though maybe even made it that easier to market yeah i think we always pictured a place that we would have both seasoned writers and the writers right there together we hope to grow this to a more diverse group of riders then on what we've we just in the first issue that we talked about that we knew you know the larger cities we we knew we would get more entries from and we knew we would get entries from people we knew and because we both have a fairly extensive writing communities a while and there's a mining communities in many ways he's so you're reaching outside of those communities was it wasn't ever an honest there was that we we have quite a few writers and her that neither of a snail what was a welcome home get to see new names in and then

simulate that item that's nice to have friends i know we have a friend sharing that the calls for submissions to so and i think we're going to get there oh speaking of friends sharing at the call for submissions i'm sure we have a number of people who are listening to k pr consensual maybe an emerging writers give me your best sales pitch to them why they said submit their creative non fiction essays to the next one of five middle or greater i think i read him here our readers features true stories that we hope will remind you of the routes we share deeply embedded in the kansas landscape looking for funny stories heartfelt stories stories that may surprise you stories that may inspire you to contribute to your own future issues of one of five mayor mike reagor and i think if you pick this out then you look at the variety of stories that are in here i think anyone

who even thinks about writing is going to have something in their head that would fit i'm in this journal and a feature when it would from that you know very personal item stories and intimate about yourself your family or they're your life to more at one of sycamore academic approach and you're researching your community or maybe stories from your county that might require trip to live or a trip to amuse them all of those things are benefit and one of it so you're not trying to create something to our style you can you can share with us your style of writing in your passion and probably going to find a way to fit it in one of our issues i think somehow it's only go about stability and an essay to the next or the next for the next one of five middle or greater than the website is one of five men like reader

that come that would be the place to start because you can check out our guidelines which i'm super deep held as far as instructions but they'd guide you and then we do take our submission tons of medical i'm so you know that's very easy even if you've never used a fever he's a word processing document you just save it and you can upload it to the state and there are a few questions that we ask that you have to the land and then it submitted and there's no cost to cement there's no why you probably do have to create an account as amenable but that's very easy this really on password a year and have them and from there a teenager's watch for responses from us that also where you get information about subscribing to the knoedler greater yet the website has information for subscribing and has information about if you have services for writers and you want to be in the directory

there's a link there for entering information if you want to advertise a lot like theirs information on advertising there and details for contacting us a few questions and we have a facebook page to one of five metal or creed or where we update a month or twice a week this let everyone know what's going on what the process is what we're going on stage we're out there we're taking applicator taking on some issues or whether were proofreading or whatever we would like to keep up today but that page still no one or five meadowlark reader starts out with an introduction by you could i have you read the words dear reader here it is the inaugural issue of one of five middle a creature we are thrilled to have you along for the ride when we began this new and exciting adventure tracy and i set out together troop into stories and the highlights are many talented kansas riders because our journal was coup and to seek contributions from kansas riders we wanted to

publish stories that shared an authentic kansas experience beginnings seemed like an appropriate thing for this issue between these covers shall find thirty five stories written by kansans and former contestants as you make your way to this journal you'll find a wide variety of writing styles and content everything from the birth of calves to a study of william stafford form from water skiing on a tiny lake to how to play two man baseball over time when the fires goal is to publish stories from across a rectangular map stories with connections and each of the one hundred and five counties well the larger population centers will russia's with more submissions we know that in each and every rural county there are countless writers with hands spreading ink across a page heads bent over keyboards we want to hear from all of you when a fight is looking for a true diversity a beautiful countess voices please consider writing and sobriety

your own stories we welcome storytellers of all levels of experience we're looking for stories that capture an authentic experience written in your own unique voice the theme of our art an issue as kansas travel stories visit our web site for submission guidelines and one of five mentally prepared dot com we want to help build and encourage a strong community of kansas riders check out our directory of resources in the back and please consider subscribing to one of five metal our creator be a part of this magnificent kansas adventure tracy and i are excited to produce a journal that showcases kansas writers and we are delighted to have you with us your reader thank you that sir andrew reading from the inaugural issue of the one of five metal or reader sees the editor of the reader and tracy million simmons is the publisher with metal or press what they've been working on this

inaugural issue what kind of surprises have you had along the way either in terms of what it's actually like to put something like this together poor or what kind of content you're receiving i denne i'm struck by how excited the bookstores have banned to be a part of this and danny came the raven is when i first when i called her i can talk about you know this is what we're thinking and what you think and he was you know great fantastic eat everything he said made me think okay who's visited deal were i just imagining it and i'm so it's been fun to have to reach out and of course you know what the pandemic we were able to travel like we may have that if we had done this a few years ago and that you know now we are starting that the ability out again andy we've had we would've we say there are three new books or is that we didn't even know about in kansas when we we publish this that we've

already added too are listed to talk to so your health playing were part of growing that too and we're excited about the flint hills bookstore opening that just opened up in council grove which is right now our nearest independent local bookstore and jennifer kassebaum was gray hair and she has a great selection where out the road between emporium cult appropriations or any other surprises along the way just what the response that we got the first time without you know we just you mentioned that on facebook and the word spread and we were just really pleased with that they're quality and quantity of stories that we got and i think we do we didn't quite picture a two hundred page journal initially i yeah i was thinking we might have a hundred pages i thought a hundred fifty might be the most a menu when you know you said this really didn't have any pieces a myth and i think that's coming if we don't get a lot of entries we could probably fill in with some of our own writing either none of the

women have to i mean did people respond you know it was lovely and i think actually we were as we were putting altogether were like wow how big is the straw that debate and how are we going to limit didn't have in the future you know this they i think it will be a more competitive and it's going to be hard because a clip i think the story is the quality of the stories that we got the first round i was very pleased with but i'm sure at some point we will be looking at the location and and you know where which counties are we still trying to fill out that map on i had a lot of fun we're seven google map made just for one of five with each like i bet a layer for is you won with so we have thoughts on all the counties that are covered and you know i'm excited as we get as usual humble way or phrase you to seale be able to look

at the whole thing as we and make our way across the state and it's going to be fun to see how many issues it takes us to get every county covered so if you're a writer and you really wanna increase your chances i guess to look at that map and maybe take a little road trip and find out what stories need to be told there and you know start on the us so with those counties where you're going it's just like if you're right or maybe one and think about moving to rick's county you couldn't have but i think you could just go there and talk to people and share their stories in our i mean there's nothing saying you can't take a road trip to rick's county write the story you can find them and visit with tracy million simmons and searle andrew they are respectively the publisher and editor of the one hour five meadowlark reader hot off the press available now in your local independent bookstore and you could get a subscription at what's left that began one of five

middle like reader tracy before i let you go this is a pretty exciting a month for meadowlark books can you talk about some of the other things besides the one of five middle or creed or so many other things are going on in your world well one of the most exciting at a recent announcements was we got news that we had three tidal stream of like petals maybe the midwest book award shortlist or finalist list and the winners will be announced and sharing but this i mean to make the list would have been a thrill but to make it with three for books that once was and very exciting and toss with those books are so intimate mystery thriller category week made it with all hallows status wood says the third keystone book by my grace and i'll jump in here mike re suspend day guest on keep your prisons not once but twice for his pizza stone series

so i'm i'm especially excited to see him make it tootsie pete's don't make another appearance and congratulations mike about the other two books and the other two books and that young adult category and that they have three a slaughter three books in east west and two of those are men like parks so we have a time for tears which is by jarrett jail and germans hendrix and choose from parent korea and that is a hawaii novel it's so world war two time the family from topeka by eight they the father ends up in france and it's it's about the french resistance and varied weighty topic obviously but i'm very well written and it's received very positive feedback so excited about one on the west and the second tidal is opulence

kansas by julie still strong and that's a beautiful beautiful book but it takes place and opulence obviously isn't a made up town in cannes that picture in the center of kansas it's right in the middle and and it's a story that i young woman from she grew up in chicago and the wealthy you rich area and and she has them dramatic event loses her father and she ends up coming to kansas went to stay with in an uncle for the summer and it's a sweet story beautiful story about someone lying to appreciate them you know the slow kind open ways of kansans i think anyone who's kept your will know the aunt and uncle and can relate to those people but congratulations something a really exciting year for meadowlark books end and chris congratulations on the one of five middle or creator of that seven it's a really wonderful

inaugural edition in i'm really looking for to seeing where this publication goes from here thank you think ski i'd been visiting with tracey million simmons he's the publisher and share our memories she's the editor of the one five meadowlark we're hot off the press published by metal art books and j mcintyre keep your presents is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas