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March 20, 2015
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Library hosts Author’s Night
by Christopher Cornell ADVANTAGE EDITOR
Writing a book — a book that will sell — is a journey. And there are pitfalls along the road. Several local writers who have travelled that road, pitfalls and all, came together recently at the Valley Community Library for the fourth annual Local Author’s Night. Local authors participated in a panel discussion and book sale, and Lee Sebastiani of Eynonbased publisher Avventura Press gave a presentation entitled, “Don’t Get Scammed!” Among the authors present was lifelong Lackawanna county resident Jerry Fagnani, whose novel, “Sons of Sorrow,” is a family drama set in a small Pennsylvania coal town after World War II. Fagnani, 75 and a big fan of the Valley Community Library, is donating 50 percent of the proceeds from his book to children’s programming at the library. Avventura Press also made a donation. “The Valley Community Library has always been a great support for local authors,” Fagnani said. “They keep a special shelf for copies of books by local authors. They offer wonderful programs for everyone in the community.” Fagnani said the setting for his novel was inspired by Jessup, though in the story the town’s name is Hanway. “‘Sons of Sorrow is permeated by the ‘Jessup Soul,’” he said. “The town is an important character in the novel. When I was growing up in Jessup, everybody knew me, and I knew they’d help me if I ever needed help. We had little neighborhood diners, ice cream parlors. There was a feeling of being safe in the community.” The novel explores the different ethnic neighborhoods in Jessup — and he’s writing what he knows. “I might have been the first baby born to Irish and Italian parents in Jessup!” he claimed. “The
Local authors included, from left: Cori Wright, Donna Darmofal, Tom Cerra, Rachel Mackrell and Kenny Luck.
descriptions of the town are right out of my memories of the people I grew up with and the people I’ve known all my life in the Valley, in Jessup. It was a wonderful time in a wonderful place.” It took Fagnani a year and a half to write the book, but it would be decades before it was published. “I finished it in 1978,” he said. “I had a very prominent New York agent, an editor for the Saturday Evening Post, who loved the book and predicted great things for it. Unfortunately, he died and the chance was lost.” But recently he showed it to Sebastiani, and it was accepted. “They don’t publish fiction, but they made an exception for me,” he said, adding that it is developing “a local cult of readers. Everyone who reads
it tells me how great it is.” Asked what advice he would give to a literary hopeful, he replied: “Never give up! And try to meet other writers to network. I like to spend time at Books-A-Million, and that’s how I met Kenny Luck [another local author who was at the event], who introduced me to his publisher.” “Sons of Sorrow” is available for sale at the Valley Community LiJerry Fagnani, brary. author of “Sons of Sorrow.”
Kingston 570-287-9631 Exeter 570-655-8811 TS_CNG/ADVANTAGE/PAGES [A01] | 03/19/15
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