Woodbury Writes - Season 1

Waterbury resident Chase Taylor writes and illustrates his books featuring the “Letter Critters.” He also hosts the podcast The Social Chase and can be found reading and sharing his work in area schools. His website contains resources to support learning from his books. Find out more about Chase on LinkedIn. His books are available on Amazon.

Connecticut writer Sivan Hong writes the Super Fun Day Books series, which she writes, illustrates, and publishes independently. The books are written and illustrated for neurodivergent children based on Sivan’s experiences both as a student and as a parent. Find out more about Sivan at her website. Her books are available on Amazon.

Connecticut writer Mary Doucette is fascinated by Anne Boleyn and the world of the English Renaissance from which she emerged. Mary’s research and her novel draw attention to Anne’s influence over Henry VIII, a power that’s easy to overlook, considering Anne’s fate. Mary’s novel The Ghost of Anne Boleyn is available on Amazon.

Barbara Connery of Woodbury is a lifelong educator who is passionate about creating supportive, engaging learning environments for all students by building understanding among teachers, students and families. Her book Just Like Me, available on Amazon, offers rich insights into what it means to have dyslexia.

Local writer Avye Andonellis left Ohio to raise her family on a Greek island, where she taught English as a second or other language and established an organic feta cheese plant. She spent eight years writing The Marionettist, a novel that acknowledges life as a complex spiritual reality we only dimly understand. Find out more about Avye at Xifos Press and on Amazon, where her book is available.

Woodbury resident Mark Hehl is a management consultant, writer, and public speaker who is passionate about his family’s history as well as sharing his experiences as a world traveler in his role of engineering consultant. He has written Ameri-Sicula: Sicilian Culture in America, An Immigrant's Dilemma, and Amusing Confessions of an International Consultant. Mark's books are available on Amazon. Find out more about Mark on LinkedIn.

Woodbury resident Deb Holman is a genealogist and the keeper of her family’s story about fleeing the Holocaust and starting life in the United States. Currently Deb is writing her great-grandfather’s story based on her research. You’ll find Deb on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Entrepreneur and career coach Claudia Fox of Southbury describes herself as a connector of people who has built a successful life and career by making the most of opportunities that come her way. Claudia’s book Degrees of Success is a collection of stories about people who, like her, have succeeded in business without a college degree. Find out more about Claudia and her efforts to teach others how to succeed without a college degree on her website. Her book is available on Amazon.

Poet Deborah Nash Ott co-authored the collection of poems titled Twin Soul with friend Heather Joy Gatley. The poems are reflections about love, lost time, travels, dreams, and the search for home. Deborah's writings have been published in small presses and at memoirst.org. A retired English teacher, Twin Soul is available on Amazon.

Local writer Cindy Eastman, author of Flip-flops After 50 and Other Thoughts on Aging I Remembered to w\Write Down, is also a teacher who runs writing workshops. Find out more about Cindy and read writing samples on her website. Flip-flops After 50 is available on Amazon.

Lin Northrup of Woodbury is a retired educator who has taught both children and adults. She continues to hold writing workshops in the area. Her novel Leela and the Forest of Light is imbued with her love of nature and concern for the environment.

A primary care physician for 35 years, Watertown resident Charles McNair began writing after serving as a medic in Vietnam and has now self-published two war novels, Soldiers of a Foreign War and In a Dark Wood. He is working on his third historical novel. Check out Charles's books on Amazon.

In this episode, Sandy speaks with Ed Edelson, a former first selectman of Southbury and a retired businessman and innkeeper, about Lois’s Story, Ed’s self-published book for children that tells how the people of Southbury kept the Nazis from building a military training camp in the Kettletown area in 1937. This is a story of civic engagement that Ed has worked doggedly to put in the public eye and keep it there. The story is part of the Region 15 curriculum for fourth graders, and curriculum resources are available from the Connecticut State Department of Education. Check out resources about the book, the curriculum, and the time in history that the book recounts.

Learn about some of the resources available at, and through, Woodbury Public Library in this conversation with Ron Fairchild, reference librarian.

Learn about some of the resources available through Woodbury Public Library with Marla Martin, adult librarian and program coordinator.