Local author Jan Bono holds signing for new book

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, September 18, 2012

LONG BEACH, Wash. Author Jan Bono wrote 272 humorous personal experience newspaper columns for the Chinook Observer between 1993 and 2003. In 1995, 68 of those award-winning stories appeared in a collection published by Kaleidoscope Press.

Fast forward to 2012, and Through My Looking Glass, Volume II, a 71-story collection gleaned from those same columns, is hot off the presses.

It took a little time, said Bono, but a good story is still a good story. My original publisher is now doing missionary work in Thailand, but we agreed these stories were meant to be told over and over again.

In the ensuing years, Bono has written for magazines ranging from Guidepost to Womans World and has had numerous stories included in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She has also penned several other short story collections and 12 one-act plays. She is currently looking for an agent for her first mystery novel, set on the Long Beach Peninsula.

But I kept coming back to these columns, she said. So I decided to self-publish this second volume in order to keep these stories alive.

Bonos family and friends are often the subject of her writing, and in August, her one-act play, A Visit With Mom, was performed at the River City Playhouse.

Nobodys safe around me, she quipped. There are stories everywhere, in every single day, just begging to be written.

Some of her chapters include Special Occasions, Unforgettable Characters, Diet and Exercise, Critters and Multiple Personality Quirks. Quite a few of those quirks belong to me, said Bono with a laugh, but theyre still pretty universal.

For instance, she continued, almost everyone I know has a problem containing their clutter. I call it crapstacking, and Im even guilty of doing it electronically.

Theres something for every reader in Bonos eclectic collection. Tennessee author Kay Elam writes that the book is Quirky. Clever. You never know whats around the corner. Readers will enjoy identifying with many of the stories.

Bono will have a book signing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, at Long Beach Coffee Roasters, 811 Pacific Ave. S. For more information, call Bono at 360-642-4932, or visit her website at www.JanBonoBooks.com