Arlington Heights resident Paula Burzawa recently appeared at Barnes & Noble for a book talk about her newly released first novel Seasons of Sun now available at Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com, Borders.com and at Barnes & Noble stores.
Paula credits her writing success to her involvement in the Library's writers' group, The Writing Place. Here is an excerpt from her comments at the book talk:
"My novel would have never come together without this group. A few years ago, during one of my weekly visits to the Arlington Heights Memorial Library with my son and daughter, I noticed a poster for a new group that was forming, called The Writing Place. Created for aspiring writers of all backgrounds, it allowed participants to share their creative writing - be it poems, play manuscripts, even short stories. I was ecstatic about the formation of this group because for years I had been trying to put together a travel memoir of my summers spent in Greece.
Over the course of a year and a half, we wannabe authors met at the library, sharing our stories, critiquing each other’s work, offering not only guidance, but encouragement to one another, as each of us dared to follow our writing dreams. After each session, I left the library uplifted, more driven, more focused on what my story needed to be. My questions and challenges about how I should tell my story were answered by sharing with the group.
In the end, however, aside from the technical guidance, the most valuable gift the Writing Place provided was the motivation never to give up on a dream. Despite the challenges of compiling my manuscript, the optimistic camaraderie between fellow members of the group kept me focused towards the completion of my project."