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Setting the Voices Free – Part Two – Tom Weiss
Setting the Voices Free Part 2 in the Series As the years slipped away during the writing of My Dear Boy, one thing became crystal clear. My journey of research and writing was dramatically enhanced by the people who often serendipitously came aboard for the ride and then remained my friends to the journey’s end.…
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100 Years Ago – December 1918 – Tomas Masaryk on return from Exile
https://youtu.be/MZgf8l56tQg In this video from 1918, at about 8:10 minutes, the Mayor of Benesov, my dad’s Czech hometown, greets Tomas M. Masaryk returning from exile during WWI to become the president of the newly former Czechoslovakia. At the time my dad was six years old. My father’s aunt Valda was married to Jaroslav Marik, the…
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A sad story of separation
With echoes of today’s turmoil around the world with ruthless separation of families, all trying to find a better and safe life, these letter excerpts from my father’s parents writing to him for his thirtieth birthday, are heartbreaking. By this time, torn apart by the Nazis, Dad and his parents had been separated for over…
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A-ha moments
One of the great gifts of this most recent life chapter of nearly a decade is having the freedom to do just what I want. It sounds spoiled, and maybe it is, but I worked long and hard to come to this time of choice for what I do with my time. Conducting research about…
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March 14, 1939 – This day in history for Valdik Holzer
This day in history, March 14, 1939, my father served as he had for the previous seventeen months as a Czechoslovak Army soldier protecting his country in Carpathian Ruthenia in the easternmost Slovakian region. On that day, the republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation of Czech areas and the separation…
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TIME TO WRITE…Tales from the Writing Journey
TIME TO WRITE…Tales from the Writing Journey Along my now nine-year writing journey, I’ve encountered many incidents that I believe entail a wink from the cosmos. This short story involves a nod from the star character of my books-my dad-prodding me from the great beyond. Let me know if you agree that this sounds like…
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New Year Optimism and a Mom in Spirit
Each New Year for me is a little bittersweet. I always yearn for great optimism and hope for the coming year, but a piece of that feeling fell away when seventeen years ago I lost my mother – Ruth Alice Lequear, known affectionately by many as “Chick” or to her grandchildren as “Chickie.” It was…
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Help Build Confidence in a Writer
Help Build Confidence in a Writer…An Evening of Readings February 20, 2015 at Florida Institute of Technology Evans Library… What does a Shuttle astronaut, an honorary Brevard County Historian, the wife of a Florida former poet laureate and Joanie Holzer Schirm have in common? Nothing that I, Joanie, can figure out until February 20, 2015…
Steadfast Ink: The Journey Within
MY DEAR BOY: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation
Adventurers Against Their Will
