The Maryland Writers’ Association created the Writers’ Round Table Program to encourage writers, poets, playwrights and authors through monthly articles and activities.
The Notable Maryland Author articles and associated Fun With Words writers’ prompts are the centerpiece of the program. Each month, Southern Maryland Newspapers will feature a Maryland Writer’s Association article about an author. Marylanders are encouraged to read the articles and try their hand at the writing prompts each month.
Author: James Burd Brewster
Genre: Children’s picture books. Books contain pictures or illustrations that complement the story, often mirroring the plot. Both the text and the illustrations are important to the story. The pictures get the reader’s attention and the text tells the complete story.
Sample reading list: “Uncle Rocky — Fireman: Fire!” “Sparky Protects, Ice Rescue,” “Officer Jack: Underwater, Baby’s Breath, Tourniquets for Heroes, La Plata Maryland — Team Effort; EMT Morales: Clamshell Stretcher, Deep Snow.
“Glad to do it!” — James Burd Brewster
Brewster was born a twin in Rochester, N.Y., on Dec, 8, 1954. Raised in Albany, he attended the United States Coast Guard Academy. Assigned to Wilmington, N.C. after graduation, he met and married Katie Spivey and careers later led them to Baltimore in 1987.
Hoping to give his sons a desire to help others, he began telling “Uncle Rocky — Fireman” stories.
Twenty-two years later, the family moved to Pomfret and after their youngest son Sam Sam left for college, they took a Wayne Karlan creative writing course at the College of Southern Maryland where the idea of turning the Uncle Rocky stories into books bubbled to the surface. With St. Mary’s County illustrator Christina Allen and the support of Yvonne Medley’s Life Journey’s Writer’s Guild, the couple started a publishing company and published their first book, “Uncle Rocky — Fireman” in 2013.
Initially, Brewster made up the stories and only had firemen books but at their first book show, a woman told him about a fire rescue her father had performed in New York City and Brewster realized he should base his future stories on real rescues. Her story evolved into “Face Mask” in the “Uncle Rocky — Fireman series.”
Other first responders later asked Brewser to write about them and to date, the “Glad to do it!” series consists of 21 books, 10 about firemen, eight about police, and three about EMT.
Through a grant provided by the Maryland State Arts Council, Brewster customized a “Glad to do it!” book specifically for the La Plata police department, titled “La Plata, Maryland — Team Effort.”
Brewster joined the MWA in 2017 and a year later initiated the Notable Maryland Author series as part of its 30th anniversary.
Next month’s Notable Maryland Author article, the 77th in the series, will be the last as Brewster and his wife are moving to be closer with their grandchildren.
For more information on the “Glad to do it!” books, go to www.GladToDoIt.net.
Fun With Words
The MWA invites writers to have fun writing children’s books about first responders like Jim Brewster. Using up to 100 words, pick a first responder service and write dialogue between first responders before, during, and after the dispatcher calls them.
Title your work and send to https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by June 30th to receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate.
Last month, readers were asked writers to write metafiction like John Barth and in 100 words pick a literary convention and parody it or explore a relationship between literature and reality, life, and art.
Here are some regional selections:
Anything Goes in our Town
This fairy tale it may sound ‘Grimm’, but The Princess Bride has heard/
That Don Quixote he has said “I Want to Kill a Mockingbird.”/
And Uncle Remus has just crossed, The Bridge Over The River Kwai/
He’s on The Hunt for Red October, with The Catcher in the Rye/
All their noise stirred Rip Van Winkle, who is no longer fast asleep/
From Wuthering Heights he asks us now, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/
Then The Maltese Falcon shared, a lesson from The Mouse That Roared/
The author’s pen it really is, much more mighty than the sword. /
Steve Baker, Waldorf
Folly’s Wisdom
In ancient Baghdad there lived a scribe named Abeez. Every day he scratched down with a distracted qalam on papyrus grain counts half-heard. Truly, he wished to write stories but lacked plots.
One day he learned in the Storytellers’ Precinct of the Plot Djinn. This magical being knew tales yet told. From that time on, Abeez searched for the storied spirit.
Ten years later, he found the djinn haunting ruined Antara.
Abeez said, “I desire original plots.”
“Turn around,” the djinn said. “What do you see?”
“My footprints shadowing dunes.”
The djinn smiled. “In them find the stories you seek.”
Lawrence McGuire, Waldorf
Chatter Boxing
You hear continuous chattering through walls pretty thin. What you hear is from two male dwellers, Bosco and Letague. Between the chatter you hear music playing, tenors singing opera or show tunes. The music prompts more activity like furniture moving, clatter of dishes.
I recognize Bosco plainly. He sounds louder and even caustic. Letague, a more gentle soul, is meek in manor and does not retort.
Sounds are shadows not permitting a full picture. Bells tinkle, doors close, and at middle age they rarely leave home. They are occupied by daily events between sunrise and sunset.
How I came to adopt these two parakeets is another story.
Christine Hickey, Deale
Happy Endings
Within the zeitgeist of modern culture, three forms of “happy endings” abide: The satisfying organic resolution to a real or fictional narrative that begins fraught and concludes well; the overwrought and over-written Hallmark Network tear-jerking formulaic caca-show that requires a complete suspension of belief and rationality; and the mirthless carnal conclusion to an unlicensed and medically useless non-therapeutic massage by a bored and contemptuous “masseuse.”
I remain a fan of two out of three of those. It’s silly, I know. Cannot help it. I bubble up, start quivering and soon need a Kleenex. If that’s a crime, arrest me.
Jon Ketzner, Cumberland
Scenes from (Not Quite) True TV Detective
The night was dark, no stars, no moon. The building stood before them, a hulking half-acre maze of pitch-black rooms and hallways. The perps were in there, somewhere. Ignoring the obvious need for support, the detectives entered, the beams from their tiny flashlights dancing off the walls and corners.
I want to scream, “No, you idiots! Wait for backup! Or at least turn on a freakin’ light!”
Who writes this stuff?
Then…”Clear!”
Wait, what’s clear, that room you scanned for two seconds without looking in any closets or other obvious hiding places? That’s clear?! Who writes this stuff?!
Jim Coleman, Ridgely
Train Encounter
As Maggie sat down, the woman next to her whispered. “Hello, Maggie.”
Maggie turned. The woman looked familiar. “Do I know you?” she replied.
“I am Lilly, the mousey woman from Strangers on the Beach. I just loved being in your novel. It was a best seller, but basically a beach read, don’t you think? Not up for a Pulitzer,” the woman replied.
Maggie stared at her.
“Another thing, if you put me in a novel again, could I have big boobs and ooze with sex appeal?” The train bumped.
“Gotta go,” she said exiting her seat. Maggie sat stunned.
Beth Smith, Cockeysville
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