Stories from the Writing Journey
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Leaving an Old Friend
by Joanie Schirm on October 27, 2014 PermalinkI broke up with an old friend today. Since our friendship began in 1981, the whole situation was very upsetting. I have to admit this relationship was never a deep, intellectual connection. It mostly revolved around shopping. What maintained the bond the longest was travel. Together we trekked the world. The idea of a break-up
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“Man who nabbed most dangerous man in Europe dies” …
by Joanie Schirm on October 2, 2014 Permalinkhttp://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/30222106-418/paul-kraus-wwii-gi-who-nabbed-most-dangerous-man-in-europe-dies-at-95.html Imagine meeting someone through their seventy year-old letters – not addressed to you but to your father- who by the time you read the letters had passed away. Through the letter writer’s own intimate 1940’s words, you meet this person as a young man; a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague in Shanghai, China.
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What’s up for your next path in life?
by Joanie Schirm on August 23, 2014 PermalinkWhat’s up for your next path in life? As an author who started to write books after six decades of ‘not’ writing books, I’m a good example to think about when you want to step off the sidewalk, turn a new corner, and follow your dreams. I’m proof that each day offers the opportunity to
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Fateful Choice – August 1940
by Joanie Schirm on August 10, 2014 PermalinkFateful Choice – August 10, 1940 Czech refugee Osvald “Valdik” Holzer writes from Peking (Beijing) on August 20, 1940 to refugee friend Rudolf “Rudla” Rebhun in Shanghai. Valdik has unexpectedly been forced to leave his position as head physician at the American Brethren Hospital in Ping Ting Hsien, Shansi (Shanxi) Province in the Northern Central
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“Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.”
by Joanie Schirm on May 24, 2014 PermalinkRecently, I was a guest author at a local book club. The 13 attendees all had read Adventurers Against Their Will and came with questions and compliments that once again reminded me why I’m doing what I’m doing in this second chapter of my life. Clearly resonating with readers is the humanizing of history through
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How can we make peace in our world? One hopeful idea.
by Joanie Schirm on April 28, 2014 PermalinkHow can we make peace in our world? If we look to our past, there is one simple way for our shared humanity. As if foreordained, the Holocaust Remembrance Day of April 28, 2014 mirrors the time in which my paternal Czech grandparents, Arnost and Olga Holzer, began their journey to meet their fate
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My “homage” to Adventurers Against Their Will soon to be expressed as “pocta”
by Joanie Schirm on March 25, 2014 PermalinkAs I held my pen to sign this Triton publishing agreement, words from my 1992 Walt Disney World Dreamers and Doers Award came to mind: Somehow I can’t believe there are any heights that can’t be scaled by someone who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special criteria, it seems to me,
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Remembrance + Hope – A Common Cause for Humanity
by Joanie Schirm on January 25, 2014 PermalinkRemembrance + Hope – A Common Cause for Humanity It would seem to most that the United Nations-sanctioned International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 and Chinese New Year this January 31st would have little to do with one another. And yet during my father’s life, and now in my own daily writing,