Iona wrote a few books before Wycliffe. Unlike the newspapers, these are in chronological order.
Metamorphosis
I wrote this book about divorce from both sides in 1982. My parents were divorced and I was getting divorced. A kindly printer in a neighboring town taught me how to typeset and lay out the pages. He guided me to a printer and I was planning to use my rent money to pay for publishing 400 books. It was so exciting seeing all those butterflies coming off the press that I was snapping pictures and talking to the workers. The owner was leaving for his lunch when I was ready to pay him. “How much do I owe you?” I asked. “Nothing.”
The Order of the Earth mini-book
After my mother sold her home and moved into the beautiful basement apartment my sister and her husband created for her, I used my proceeds from the sale to pay off some of our Grassroots Coalition debts and take time off from my crummy part-time jobs so I could write all my best environmental thoughts in a little book. I was super anti-technology then, even more so than now, and I wrote it all by hand. Then, I had it copied on unbleached, recycled paper. The dimensions of the pocket-size book were 2 3/4 by 4 3/8 inches. A group of friends and I teamed up to cut the 8 1/2 by 11-inch papers, arrange them in order, fold, and staple them. There are 32 pages in this little book.
Then we made 11,000 copies! Mostly we gave them away but I did sell a few for $5. I also sent originals to other people so they could make copies. The day I learned that one of us had seen someone else at a festival with our books and we had not made them in-house, I knew my book had a life of its own and I could move ahead with other projects. Please click on the link below my hand-written pages to read the contents of this little book.
Off Our Rockers: Earth, Hearth and Wanderlust, A Lifestyle Conversation Between a Suburbanite and an Environmentalist
About 20 years ago, my friend and I had fun writing letters to each other back then; yes, letters! She asked me questions and I answered them. We pulled out our rocking chairs for the cover and placed them on her lawn. Hers was a traditional brown rocker and mine was a work of art with colorful animals and designs topped by a moon and a few stars sprouting from the headrest of the chair. We tried finding publishers but nobody nibbled.
I’m sorry to say that I no longer have a copy of our book, nor did we copy it as a pdf so there is no way of showing it to you. We enjoyed working on it together and maybe this gives you an idea of a project you could take on with a friend.
A Doctor for People and Planet: Chung Whan Byun
I have had two free and fabulous trips to South Korea; one was to report on the INLA dance festival (see September 2014 issue of my Go-Back Club newspapers) and following that in 2016 was the opportunity to write the biography of an unbelievably fantastic man who had started both a hospital for traditional Korean medicine and a breathtakingly beautiful university. For both trips, I was treated like royalty, housed and fed elegantly. I had a large, modern suite and all the meals were vegan. It was as close to being in heaven physically as I’ve ever been.
Dr. Byun had already written his autobiography so what I did was to work on his use of the English language a little but while maintaining the integrity of his story. At the same time, I added my own experiences and photos. This is the only book I’ve ever written that was published professionally because he wanted hundreds of copies made to distribute to his friends and colleagues. I got one of them.
True Story of and by a Tree
Story of and by a Tree large photos 12.25.19
How On Earth Did I Become a Radical Environmentalist Grandmother?
This is my memoir as of 70 years old. Life had taken me to lots of new places and I’ve met lots of new people but I feel strongly that my Wycliffe/violence book will be my last. There is something truly unusual in this book. I had started to write it differently earlier so I included that effort as well in the middle. I swear, when I create something, I do NOT follow guidelines. I just do whatever comes to mind; that’s what you’ll find in these pages. I learned to be different long ago. It’s fun. Try it sometime!
