Author Next Door: George Kleiber
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Author Next Door Spotlight: Tricia Frey
Tricia Frey encourages new writers to “sit down and write.”
By Grace Meyer
While there are a lot of dog books out there, this is one of the best. -The BookLife Prize 2021.
Tricia Frey’s memoir River Love: The True Story of a Wayward Sheltie, a Woman, and a Magical Place Called Rivershire, explores redemption, love, and being enough—just as you are. The 249-page novel also carries a powerful message about the life-altering possibilities that occur when one welcomes a rescue pet into their home and heart.
On the Boardman River, just south of Traverse City, lies a place dubbed Rivershire by its residents. Frey came to Rivershire after buying a home that she envisioned as a vacation spot and an investment opportunity for both her and her sister, Sandra. One day in 2006, Frey noticed movement outside her window and discovered a dog standing in her backyard. As soon as they made eye contact through the window, the dog “took off like a shot to the neighboring property.”
The dog, whom Frey named Sheldon, kept coming back to her property where Frey and her sister transformed a shed into a warm shelter for him and fed him daily. The building supplies for the shed took a bit of haggling from Frey and her sister with a store clerk, who was won over by their story of Sheldon. Even with the shed and daily meals, Sheldon remained timid, skittish, and frightened; it took two years before he even let Frey touch him and six more months before he came into her home.
After being Frey’s dog for quite some time, she discovered during a visit to the veterinarian that Sheldon had both an enlarged heart and a microchip.
Author Next Door: Marney Rich Keenan
Marney Keenan Tells the True Story of the Oakland County Child Killer by Erin Evans “Money and power can make a whole lot of things disappear,” said Marney Keenan (66). This was unfortunately the truth of the Oakland County Child Killings case, a 44-year-old murder investigation that has yet to be solved. Keenan’s book, The […]
Author Next Door: Joan Schmeichel
Joan Schmeichel Writes Mysteries from Fairy Tale Characters to Football by Erin Evans Joan Schmeichel, 88, is always working on a story, and when she isn’t, she is thinking of her next one. When the idea of a character named Roman Boles — a 23-year-old football player — came to her, she was inspired to […]
Author Next Door: Jenn Gregory
Jenn Gregory Writes to Inspire Graduates During the Pandemic by Erin Evans On the night of March 31, one month after Michigan schools shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jenn Gregory could not sleep. Worry for those who were graduating this year—including her daughter—were keeping her up. Around midnight, Gregory got up and looked […]
Author Next Door: Robert Emmet
The Transplant that Changed Robert Emmet’s Life and His New Book that Could Change Yours By Erin Evans After enduring a double-lung transplant and the resulting PTSD, retired English teacher Robert Emmet, 70, took his therapist’s suggestion to write a book about his experience. His book, Close to My Heart: The Terrifying, Sometimes Humorous Journey to […]
Author Next Door: Emita Brady Hill
by Erin Evans The subjects in Emita Brady Hill’s two books of interviews are as different as can be: people living in the Bronx in the 1970s and 80s, and women in the food industry in northern Michigan. The common thread here? She finds all of their stories immensely interesting. Hill recently published Northern Harvest: Twenty […]
Author Next Door: Sally Jo Messersmith
Sally Jo Messersmith’s Hope For Korea We all have dreams for this world. Sally Jo Messersmith’s dream is for the two Koreas to become one again. She has helped bring this hope closer to reality in part by writing a children’s book and a young adult book which she hopes will leave a lasting impression […]
