2019 LYCOMING COLLEGE LC MAGAZINE SPRING

“ Wight says the storyline for “Birds of Paradise” came to her during a creative writing class she was taking in 1980. “We were nearing the end of the six-week class and the professor gave us a prompt to use the next 20 minutes of the class to write some sort of a love story,” she recalls. “Somehow, I came up with the idea of Bert and Bessie, and 20 minutes later I had the story.” “The professor actually accused me of cheating,” she says with a chuckle. “He thought I used the 20 minutes to rewrite a story I had already written, which wasn’t true — Bert and Bessie just ‘flew’ through my writing pen. But the professor also told me I should publish this story as a children’s book.” B Not too long after completing the assignment, Wight shared the story with Steinle. “I gave Shelley the story and asked her what she thought of it. A few months later, I get a manila envelope in the mail that includes five beautiful illustrations to go with the story.” But as often happens, life got in the way, and the story of Bessie and Bert quietly faded into the background before being resurrected clearly out of the blue. “I was living in California and getting ready to move to Boston, and I got a call from Shelley saying that she and her husband were coming to San Francisco and wanted to visit while they were here,” Wight shares. “We hadn’t seen each other in 30 years.” Steinle and Wight enjoyed the chance to reconnect and reminisce about a lot of things, including the story and the illustrations which Wight still had. Although she had shared the story with family members since first writing it, this was the first time in a while that Wight had entertained the idea of turning it into a children’s book. So, with irds of Paradise” (Borgo Publishing, 2017) is a children’s book written by Pamela Wight ’74 (English major), illustrated by Shelley (Luebberman) Steinle ’76 (art), and published by Nancy “Easty” Lambert-Brown ’74 (Near Eastern culture and archaeology). It tells the tale of Bessie and Bert, sparrows who grow up as differently as night and day but become friends and rediscover the delight in being birds as they help each other confront and overcome their fears. the help of a really tough editor — her five- year-old granddaughter —Wight rewrote the story. Fast forward to 2015, when Wight and several other Lycoming alumnae who have remained friends gathered at the home of Karen Luce Paulick ’74. Among them was Lambert-Brown, who unbeknownst to Wight had become a publisher and was purchasing her own bookstore in Tuscaloosa, Ala. “I decided on a whim to take the story with me and share it with my friends,” Wight says. “I read the story, and Karen (who had been an elementary school teacher) said, ‘This would be a perfect story for my students.’ And then Easty said, ‘I want to publish this.’ And that’s how the book came to be.” Once the book was ready in 2017, Wight and Steinle flew to Tuscaloosa for a public launch of “Birds of Paradise” at an open house at Lambert-Brown’s independent bookstore, Ernest & Hadley. “It was a great day to celebrate the unlikely but highly successful collaboration of three Lycoming alumnae,” Wight says. “The synchronicity is actually pretty amazing.” “Birds of Paradise” is a great read for all children, whether they are three or 93. The hardbound book, recognized as a finalist in the Children’s Picture Book: Hardcover Fiction category for the 2018 International Book Awards, is available online through borgopublishing.com or Amazon.com. The three alumnae are collaborating on another children’s book, “Molly Finds Her Purr,” expected to release in July 2019. Pamela Wight ’74 Shelley (Luebberman) Steinle ’76 Nancy “Easty” Lambert-Brown ’74 25 www.lycoming.edu