Tonya Anderson is a writer, sacred therapist, and inspirational speaker. As a mental health counselor, she has vast experience working with people from all walks of life. She has a lot of wisdom to share, and her latest project is one that will make you sit up and take notice.

We're talking about a new book in the works and a course that accompanies it.

My husband, Lance, enjoys giving gifts. He finds amazing gifts, imaginative presents with meaning and symbolism.

For example, when we purchased our lovely house on the river, he knew we had traded in our dream to live on a boat and sail far away. Okay, my dream.

He mounted our ship’s bell—one he ordered for us with the name “Tangent” cast on it (my dream boat’s name)—on a plaque to commemorate the “launch” of our house. On the ship’s bell pull, he sewed two pearls from my wedding dress. These pearls represent the pearls of our life: our children.

Another present was a blue clock carved from fossilized coral and dyed the color of the sea. It was our 35th wedding anniversary and he wanted to mark time with the traditional wedding gift of coral.

Still another present was an amazing mystery game that arrived each month in the mail, a puzzling clue sent by a stranger, and I had to solve the mystery.

History of Writing - Robin Van Auken History of Writing - Robin Van AukenToday is Mother’s Day, and he’s given me yet another amazing gift. This writing set contains a leatherbound journal, a quill pen with extra nibs, a bottle of India ink, a small lamp, a box with colorful wax pellets, and a heavy brass stamp that is engraved with my logo. I can use the stamp and sealing wax to close letters and let people know they are from me.

This stamp, from a company called Nostalgic Impressions, features an outline of my logo, which he copied and sent to them for engraving.

My logo is an elaborate “V” and “A” from the ancient Book of Kells. It represents my married name, Van Auken, but my maiden name is Kelly. The logo is my way of honoring my Celtic Heritage.

This gift for writing and the brass stamp with my seal are a forgotten, or seldom-used, system of communication and I was so touched by his thoughtfulness, I had to dedicate this episode to the history of writing.

Today, I'm talking horses. Our son invited us to visit for the weekend, and join him and his sweetheart at the Charles Town Races in West Virginia.

I'm a huge fan of horses, and the racetrack is attached to a casino, of which I'm not a huge fan. I abhor casinos. It's not the gambling, which I don't partake, but the fact that these are massive, noisy, stinky buildings filled with people and are meant to do one thing - separate people from their money with deceit. I don't mind separating from my money. I'm a bit of a spendthrift. It's the people I mind - they're crammed into one big building, smoking cigarettes and cigars and playing slot machines, huddled over gaming tables, focused on something. I don't know what. I don't get it.

I'm happier outside where the racetrack is next to the turf and the thoroughbreds are walked sedately to the paddocks before ambling to the post. I enjoy seeing the gorgeous animals who receive the best care from their owners, trainers, jockeys and stablehands. Horses are made to run, and those who run fast and free are my favorite.

Janice Ogurcak is the Director of Public Programming and Outreach at the World of Little League Museum.

This museum is to Little League what the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is to Major League Baseball.

Its filled with significant artifacts that range from serious to frivolous. There is a piece torn from the Berlin Wall when it fell, the badge of a fireman who perished in the World Trade Center on 9/11, a 1970s-era Troll Doll and a patch that flew in space.

Each of these artifacts tell a story — one person’s story — and how they credit Little League with helping them develop the traits of character, courage and loyalty that helped them persevere when difficult times called for it.

Did I mention that Jan is also the author of The World of Little League? It’s a photo book that shares some of the history of Little League Baseball, with a focus on artifacts that can be found at the youth sport’s organization’s museum.

A former newspaper reporter and editor, Jan is a consummate researcher and she loves the art of the interview. She was employed by the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, joining the newspaper’s editorial staff in 1977, then accepting a promotion in 1990 as Lifestyle Editor.

When she accepted the invitation to write the book, she dedicated herself to finding the people behind the artifact and, when possible, talking to them.

Despite the fact that their story can’t possibly fit into the lengthy photo caption, it was important to Jan to listen to it, and to honor it.

She also honors their stories when visitors come to the museum, and she’s able to tell them a bit more about that strange piece of dental work, or the bicycle, or the origami cranes and the Emmy awards.

A museum is a curiosity shop when you don’t have context, and that’s what Jan does best - gives context, and meaning, and accuracy to people’s stories.

I hope that Jan's interview inspires you to listen to someone’s story today. Honor the story by sharing it with others. That’s how we live forever.

Jan is a lucky woman - she has seven grandchildren, who fill her days with happiness. She may not have time to write another book yet, but that time will come. For now, she’s doing the most important thing she can - being a grandparent. I'm envious! She keeps saying she's happy to share, but I haven't opened my door to find a box of kiddies yet.

Spring is supposed to be here, but I live in northcentral Pennsylvania, and it's slow coming. We've had several snow storms in the past few weeks, but the ground is too warm for it to stick around. Then we  endured rain and high winds. I believe the temperatures are rising next week to the 60s, so I'm itching for a writer's retreat.

I like to go on solo writing retreats, isolating myself from the Internet and phone, and the various tasks that get heaped on my shoulders. My husband is heading out of town in a couple of days, traveling to Florida to visit with family, so I could technically set up a retreat here at the house.

But that still leaves the Internet and phone and the classes I'm wrapping up at Lyco. We have three weeks left in the semester, so I can't run away.

Yet. 

I enjoy writing retreats.

During sessions of solitude, periods of silence, or "Time Retreats," we shun life's chattering distractions and simply notice what is left: ourselves.

- Helen Cordes

Last year, I took a solo camping trip and had a great time. I mentioned this on a previous podcast, but it bears repeating. I took my camper and my dog to Bald Eagle State Park, about an hour's drive west of here. No Internet except for the data on my phone. X

Writers don’t always feel inspired to be creative. It’s happened to me. I’d been on a hiatus from my fiction writing career for too long. It wasn’t intentional. I let other tasks and chores get in the way.  I wanted to wrap up a book series and move onto the next one, but I needed to get back into the groove.

I wrote quite a bit on a novel I'm working on, and I read several books. It was a week of peace, hiking the trails with my dog, taking photographs, relaxing around the campfire, cooking whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to, going to bed late and sleeping in.

It's not the first writing retreat I've taken. I journeyed to Virginia with my friend Janice Ogurcak one year, when she had a timeshare vacation to use and her husband wasn't available. We drove to a cabin in the woods in January, and spent sleepless nights listening to the constant honking of migrating Canada geese. We also drove into D.C. to have lunch with her son and my daughter, at Old Ebbit's Grille. Then we toured the National Archives.

I wrapped up my first novel on that retreat, wrapped in blankets and downing kegs of coffee. Come to think of it, that's probably why I could sleep. Not the geese. Jan slept fine.

Writing retreats are great outlets for creativity, and they inspire me to kickstart new writing routines.

What helps even more than retreats are writing sprints. I look at these as mini retreats.

My infatuation with writing sprints blossomed after I attended a workshop taught by Dr. Rachael Hungerford, on “Journal to the Self.” At the short workshop, she armed attendees with tools to journal efficiently. I used her 5-minute and 10-minute writing sprints to break through a stubborn mindset, and was delighted with the feedback.

This is the kind of positive reinforcement you can only get with a challenge. Challenges force us to prioritize, and I needed a reason to quit shuffling between email and social media and my manuscript. I was able to combat this by accepting a simple, short challenge. It had a beginning and an end, and positive results.

It's a win-win situation.

So how about you? Can you take a writing retreat? If not, consider writing sprints. Better yet, create a mini writing retreat wherever you are.

Aren't writing retreats a time of solitude and quiet, when you go away to a secluded location to focus on your writing project?

Yes, but also no.

According to Judy Reeves, author of  "The Writer's Retreat Kit: A Guide for Creative Exploration and Personal Expression," a writing retreat is time you take out of your ordinary day-in and day-out routine, when you set aside everything else and give yourself over to your writing.

Kathy Kolb is the publisher of NorthcentralPA.com, a news outlet that’s been online since 2009, and she’s been steadily growing since then by personally connecting with her readers.

I know, this sounds impossible — how do you connect with thousands of people? She’s accomplished this by building an amazingly loyal Facebook following, which total tops out at 31 thousand people!

Kathy’s been chronically ill for the past 30 years. This illness prevents her from having an active life, physically, but she’s more than made up for it with her online presence.

Before she started her news site, she operated Kolb Net Works, a web design and development company, and she was helpful in creating most of the early websites of local companies, non profits and even government entities.

For many years, along with the J.V. Brown Library, Kathy hosted hundreds of local non-profit websites. I built many of those sites, and I was grateful that she created this absolutely free platform.

But, she always had a vision of what local news should look like online, and when this wasn’t accomplished by other local news organizations, Kathy decided to make this vision a reality. She imagined a community of citizen journalists, people who take ownership of the news and events that affect them, and that’s exactly what she’s created, along with her husband, Lou Kolb.

Kathy wants to make sure that community news is easy to access, but also that it will always be preserved. As traditional newspapers struggle to create new identities and to survive in the Internet age, they can learn much from a web guru like Kathy. She studies the analytics behind the curtain, so she knows what drives people to read and share and respond to online news content.

None of this mattered, though, when she shared her first scanner report. That, she did out of common courtesy to her readers. People were in the dark, literarily because the power was out, and frightened about a high-speed chase between a police officer and a criminal. The tragedy that ensued that night is not easily forgotten, and it shouldn’t be. A person died as a result.

That Kathy was able to share news in real-time was an amazing hat trick, but it was also a gesture of generosity. She takes her role as a news publisher seriously, and loves her hometown. Despite illness and fatigue that comes with it, she devotes herself — and her personal income — to making sure that people can have local news.

By being present, and being consistent, Kathy was able to build her followers. But more importantly, she didn’t just post on Facebook and sign off. She stayed online and updated people when she had updates.

She participated in the conversation and she kept the conversation civil, also, which is difficult to do with a social media platform like Facebook.

I’m a huge fan of Kathy Kolb. She’s a technophile, like me,and we enjoy learning new things and sharing with other what works. She’s a kindred spirit who has helped enlarge my world, and I’m grateful to her.

Lance Van Auken is probably the world’s foremost experts on the history of Little League Baseball. There’s only a handful of people who may know more, or as much, as Lance. He earned this honor by being a Little League volunteer, and employee, for most of his life. He shares this knowledge as the co-author of “Play Ball! The Story of Little League Baseball®."

He attended his first Little League game as a baby in his mother's arms, as his father coached his four older brothers at Cross Bayou Little League in Seminole (now Largo), Florida. His family was devoted to Little League, and the field there is still named for his father, Robert Van Auken. His mother, Ruth, helped in the concession stand, helped by designing the program covers. His brothers, Joel, Harry, Danny and Calvin, were his role models, and he learned how to pitch and catch and hit, but more importantly, he learned the rules of Little League.

Knowing those rules became significant and when he became too old to play ball, he umpired the game. On July 22, 1981, he became a father and his dream of becoming a manager of his son's team became a possibility. He managed or coached or supported his son, Lance II, through all levels of Little League, from Tee Ball to Big League, sharing his love of the game. His daughter, Sarah, attended games and helped her family as a volunteer, but playing baseball wasn't her hobby. A reader, an artist and a musician, she did perform with her school band at a Little League World Series.

He had a chance to visit he Little League Baseball World Series in 1991, as a journalist, covering a Florida baseball team who made it through the Southern Region to the championship game. In 1992, he returned as an umpire, selected to participate in the series representing the Southern Region as a volunteer. He was smitten.

The next year, he became an employee of Little League Baseball, working as an assistant director of the Southern Region, before joining the headquarters staff in Pennsylvania in 1996.  He worked in the communications department for two decades, and had many adventures, including developing Tee Ball on the South Lawn, a program that placed Little Leaguers and their families at the White House, playing 28 games for President George W. Bush.

Today, Lance is a vice president of Little League Baseball® and the executive director of the World of Little League Museum in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He, and his co-author (Robin Van Auken), are republishing their book “Play Ball! The Story of Little League Baseball®” with Wendy Dean Butler of The Omnibus Publishing, with a new chapter and an updated appendix.

Fans of Little League Baseball can look for “Play Ball! The Story of Little League Baseball®” in the spring of 2018.

Wendy Butler Dean is the owner of The Omnibus Publishing, a boutique publishing company that specializes in children’s books, Young Adult novels, and some non-fiction.

The Omnibus is a hybrid company, combining a unique blend of older, traditional book publishing and new, digital publishing. She produces ebooks and print on demand paperbacks.

Wendy’s a savvy publisher and knows how to harness the power of building a community. Many of her authors are people she has connections with, either through her academic background, or through their proximity. As a Baltimore, MD-based publisher, she’s encouraged Maryland authors to embark on publishing careers.

She works with freelance illustrators from around the world, and they not only create books with The Omnibus, but they illustrate posters.

Wendy’s embraced the technology of the 21st century, and uses a variety of tools in the acquisition, publication, and promotion of books. She’s active on social media, and she has flair with her striking videos and photographs. These are skills she’s taught herself, as well as the techniques of traditional marketing.

The result is fresh and friendly and fun. As a result, she’s also got a few Amazon bestsellers under her belt now, as a publisher.

Wendy and her biggest fan -- her father, Jimmy Butler

She works with authors and illustrators with a team mentality. This may harken back to her background is sports. She earned an M.Ed. in Exercise physiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and spent her undergraduate years at VCU in her hometown of Richmond, Va. She also worked as an assistant athletic trainer at Mississippi State University, and as an instructor at Towson University in Maryland.

She’s the mother of three energetic and creative, children, and it was her desire to find, and read, quality books to her children that led her to become a publisher. According to Wendy, you can only read “Goodnight Moon” so many times before you need a new book.

This made me laugh because “Goodnight Moon” was my daughter’s favorite book as a child, and the one she learned how to read by herself. I wondered how many times I had read that book aloud before my daughter, Sarah, was able to read it herself.

Wendy’s mission is to create timeless books, like “Goodnight Moon,” books that people want to read over, and over, and over again. Many timeless books, so children (and parents who read to them) will have more and better choices.

We can learn a lot about creating works for those we love from Wendy. She developed her business because she wanted to be a part of her children’s literary world, and she’s accomplished that many times over. Not only that, but her children now help with the business, as beta readers and helping with sales at book festivals.

You can learn more about Wendy and The Omnibus Publishing company on her website. Check out her social media accounts, as well.

Today I try out a new software platform for recording podcasts, Anchor, and experiment with recording smaller audio clips, transitions, and putting together a show on the fly.

I've done this to test the system and to see if I want to use it in an upcoming communications class I teach at Lycoming College.

I also discuss an amazing book, "How to Be Alone," by Sara Maitland, a handbook on solitude and why it's important for people, particularly those individuals with introversion qualities.

If you're an introverted person, pick up this book and learn how to accept the fact that being with people 24/7 makes you crazy.

If you're an extroverted person, pick up the book so you can understand that loner in your life, and why you really need to give her or him space.

Maitland writes about silence and solitude and why she lives in a small cottage on a backroad on a Scottish moor:

“What changed was that I got fascinated by silence; by what happens to the human spirit, to identity and personality when the talking stops, when you press the off button, when you venture out into that enormous emptiness. I was interested in silence as a lost cultural phenomenon, as a thing of beauty and as a space that had been explored and used over and over again by different individuals, for different reasons and with wildly differing results.”

Today I chatted with my good friend Tom “Tank” Baird about his passion for archaeology, and how he's become a local expert on the topic of prehistory and Native American cultures.

I met Tank in 2005 when he rolled up to my dig site in Muncy on his Harley Davidson, with his beautiful, blonde wife, Anita, on the back. The two were clad in black leather, on a loud motorcycle, and just a little intimidating.

I was teaching people, including children, how to excavate at a public archaeology dig in Muncy at the newly formed Heritage Park and Nature Trail. Tank had read about the public dig in the newspaper and was curious. Soon, he muscled the kids out of the way and became my best pupil.

Over the next few months, Tank proved to be the best volunteer a project director could find. His wife, Anita, however, saw a snake at the site and beelined out of there. She would occasionally visit, standing along the road, but her heart wasn’t in it like Tank’s.

During the next few years, I talked Tank into working at the Muncy historic dig, and a few other prehistoric dig sites. He joined Northcentral Chapter 8 of the Society for PA Archaeology at my invitation, and his presence helped our little archaeology chapter come back to life. He became the NCC8 president, and served for several years in that role, before accepting the vice president title when his tenure ended.

He’s introduced a lot of people to archaeology during the past ten years, as he became an avocational archaeologist, himself. He’s self-taught and spends much of his free time reading about prehistoric cultures in the Northeast, visiting museums and archaeology sites, and absorbing everything.

He’s been to places I’ve dreamed of going, but never got around to doing it.  That’s the difference between passion and interest. Tank doesn’t wait for an invitation. He seizes opportunities to learn with both hands and relishes everything.

He’s become a local expert in just a few years, because his passion is genuine. He’s made many new friends because of it, including his great pal Joel Buck, another avocational archaeologist. Tank and Joel do a lot of exploring, heading off to Indian Mounds and museums in other states, reading the same books, even kayaking and fishing together.

I know what he’s going to do when he finally retires: Even more archaeology, more presentations, and maybe write a book about local prehistory. The topic is sparse and we could use a new comprehensive explanation about Indians along the West Branch of the Susquehanna.

Tank stays busy: He gives Scouts and college groups tours at the local dig site, he goes to public schools to talk to classes, and he is a frequent guests on the rubber-chicken circuit, chatting at the VFWs, the Rotary Clubs, the Masons, the Moose, and more, telling anyone who will listen about local prehistory.

He's also a frequent guest on Ted Saul’s “Sunday Morning Magazine” talk show on iHeartRadio, speaking about Indians and significant local historic events.

Tank has many legacies but he’s most proud of the fact that he’s been a part of several PBS documentaries, sharing his stories about Indians in the West Branch Valley.

He’s also proud of the rare, priceless human face effigy he and Anita was able to purchase from a collector, placing it in the local museum, and ensuring it will remain protected and a part of NCC8’s public educational outreach for a long time. You can learn more about this effigy and other projects that keep Tank busy on NCC8's website: www.PennArchaeology.com.

While you're on the website site, consider becoming a member and supporting local archaeology. It's only $20 a year, and who knows, you might become the next Tank Baird.