Talents from the past

Hi everyone,

The Missouri Arts Council table, where I sat on Saturday during the Heartland Book Festival, was adjacent to The Writers Place table. I belong to TWP and was privileged to speak to them last year. Among the talented authors at the table during the day were our most recent former state poet laureate, MARYFRANCES WAGNER and two of the editors on the staff during my days at Hallmark Cards more than fifty years ago, TINA HACKER and BARBARA LOOTS. Barbara gave me a copy of her book of poetry, The Bee Keeper and Other Poems.

I’m reading Barbara’s book now and thoroughly enjoying it. She’s a gifted poet. So is Tina, whose work I’ve been reading for the last several years. I’m reminded of how many talented people worked there when I did. One of the editors had a Ph.D. Another was a published novelist. BARBARA BARTOCCI went on to publish numerous books and tour the country giving inspirational talks. CHARLIE BARSOTTI became a cartoonist whose comic series, Sally Bananas, was syndicated and carried in numerous newspapers before he became a longtime contributor to The New Yorker. One time I sent Charlie a note and asked, “What are you doing?” He answered, “Just sitting here waiting for my muse to drop by.” One Hallmark editor left to start his own card company. So much talent.

At the time when I served as the Editorial Manager, the department was divided into four groups: editors of seasonal cards, editors of everyday cards, the writers, and the clerical group. As I remember, there were more than thirty of us in total. During the years after I left to return to Springfield to run Glenstone Block Company, at least one of the former staff members — LOIS HUNT –was promoted to the same job I’d had. I’ve lost track of most of the others from my days in Kansas City, 1963-1973, but I know there were others who went on to successful careers in other fields.

The art department dwarfed editorial. At that time, it was the largest commercial art group in America. Many of those who worked at Hallmark at some point in their lives were highly gifted artists who held frequent showings of their work. We have paintings by some hanging in our home. That was true in homes and museums throughout the country. One such wonderful artist (and writer) is CHERYL HARNESS, whose many books have brought joy to countless young readers and whose artwork can be found in such places as the Harry Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.

When I left science to find a more creative environment for my day job (in hopes that it would stimulate my night job of writing), I doubt that I could have made a better choice anywhere in the country. And fifty years later, I’m reading poems by Hacker and Loots and being reminded that I’ve been privileged to work with many, many talented people.

A busy but quiet week

Hi everyone,

It’s good to be home and at work. The Heartland Book Festival was fine and I enjoyed meeting a lot of people, especially two of my old colleagues from Hallmark days — TINA HACKER and BARBARA LOOTS — both of whom are published poets, and MARYFRANCES WAGNER, my predecessor as Missouri’s poet laureate. My thanks to creators of the festival and to GINNY SANDERS and MICHAEL DONOVAN from Missouri Arts Council for making arrangements to get me on the agenda and taking care of so many of the details that make a conference visit successful. A great bonus was seeing MICHAEL FRIZELL and JULIA RITTER from Springfield who stayed at the same hotel we did. I also had the pleasure of meeting DANNA YORK.

This week I’m attempting to catch up on mail and declutter the tops of every surface that needs it = 100%. I hope to get back to my chapter book story but may not make it. First I have to work on my part of a presentation with TIM RASINSKI and MARY JO FRESCH and one with Mary Jo for NCTE next month in Columbus, Ohio. I also hope to get together online with GEORGIA HEARD and the editors of Missouri Reader about an article we’ve proposed to write for that journal. And Tim and I are writing our response to our editor at Routledge / Taylor & Francis Group about their reader reviews of our book proposal with them.

All considered, you can count on me to be mostly quiet this week, a change from the last few weeks.

At The Writers Place

Hi everyone,

SANDY and I had a good time being back in Kansas City even for a short visit, and I enjoyed the chance to address an audience at The Writers Place. My thanks again to TINA HACKER for the tremendous amount of work she invested in the event. It would never have happened without her. My thanks to Missouri’s current poet laureate MARYFRANCES WAGNER, who is also president of The Writers Place and introduced Tina who in turn introduced me.

I was grateful to see a number of dear friends in the audience, including CHERYL HARNESS, JOANIE ARTH, GAIL and ED CUNNINGHAM, and others. The program lasted an hour and a half.

The slides worked well and while the talk is fresh in my mind, I may look for a venue closer to home to give it a second time and see about having it recorded. I’m also considering making an article of it and sending it somewhere. We’ll see.

Whether I do anything else with it or not, it did me good to collect my thoughts for the talk and I loved being in front of a live audience again!

Back to work tomorrow…

Hi everyone,

My sincere thanks to TINA HACKER for creating and circulating a new reminder of my talk in November to The Writers’ Place in Kansas City. If you would like to help, please share this with those you know who might like to attend the free evening event. Thank you!

I sent much of last week on the sofa fighting a bad stomach reaction to a strong antibiotic. Today I can walk without hunkering over like an old man — no comments or smirks allowed — and my gut ache is down to a too many green-pear variety. I hope that by tomorrow morning I’ll be back at work and start the game of catch-up.

Here’s a little guy that has been around my office for a long time. I’ve forgotten where I got it. I wrote my first PINK PANTHER book in 1975. When I can, I’ll tell you about that, and the other two PP titles I did.

A hacker through and through

Hi everyone,

My friend and colleague, TINA HACKER, tried to post a poem for this month’s Poetry Challenge. Alas, the gremlins ate it. She tried again at my request and I’m posting it here for her. Thank you, Tina!

Hacker’s My Name
 
Used to be uncommon,
so when it first appeared in newspapers,
“Hackers Cause Computer Headaches,”
I cut out the headline, posted it
on my office walls. Soon had enough
to post on everyone’s walls.
HACKERS, the movie, turned
the swell into an ocean.
Never thought I’d be infamous,
send emails people wouldn’t open.
Might as well type SCAMMER
on the subject line.
Considered adding a disclaimer:
I’m not a virus or a vampire
sucking secrets from computers,
just someone with a name
as dreaded as an earthquake,
bubonic plague,
winter in Fargo.
Crashing worlds if not today
surely tomorrow.
Now on Blu-ray.
Tina Hacker

Previously Published in Silver Birch Press