Fall Issue of The Westsider

The fall issue of the Westsider is filled with lots of great stuff (as usual)- and this issue focuses a lot on the Back Mountain area of the Wyoming Valley.

The article that I contributed to this edition was “Kingston Celebrates 150 Years.” For the story I interviewed a long-time resident and Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee chairperson Sandra Kase, about all the activities surrounding this milestone.

My story starts out like this:

Atherton. Hoyt. Dorrance. Loveland. Reynolds. Butler. Bennett. Dilley. Pringle. Pierce.
When driving through the side streets of the borough of Kingston, take notice of the street signs. These street names are more than just a way to get from here or there. They are more than just a way of labeling mailing addresses for its residents and businesses. They are a tribute to the history of the borough, many of the signs bearing names of important people who founded Kingston a century and a half ago. Other streets- and landmarks are named for prominent early residents.

And, I was also the subject of an article written by Westider writer and Wilkes U. student Megan Krisanda on the Wilkes book I compiled.

For more on the Westsider, visit this cool magazine online.

Wilkes Book Featured in Citizen’s Voice

The Wilkes book got some ink! Brian Jarvis from the Wilkes-Barre Citizen’s Voice did a nice story on the Wilkes book- and Warren Ruda took a nice picture– and they layout guys did a nice job. I felt very proud!

Here is a snippet:

Donna Talarico knows Wilkes University.

Having chosen the school three times — first as a freshman, nearly a decade later to finish her undergraduate work, and now getting a master’s this fall — Talarico was an ideal candidate to ink a book aimed at giving incoming students the skinny. Though college guidebooks abound at bookstores, most don’t give the information students desire: What are the most popular classes? Are freshmen pressured to pledge fraternities or sororities? How are the surrounding neighborhoods? Does the student body have much diversity? And most important, how many females are available for each male?

Click here to read the rest of the story from today’s Citizen’s Voice

New Book: College Prowler

This post also appears on my personal blog, www.randomthoughtsfromdonna.blogspot.com.

Wilkes University: Off the Record is available for preorder.

The book is published by CollegeProwler.com. This company has a VERY cool history in itself– it was born from a college class project at Carnegie Mellon. ( www.collegeprowler.com) The company has published over 250 student-written guides that give the ‘real deal’ on colleges. I’m thrilled to the gills!!

It took about a year for them to put it out after I submitted it. A BIG HUGE thanks to Nora Jurasits and Stephanie DeBalko who served as the ‘bounce-back’ team, and are also credited in the book. They helped fact check.

The one thing that held up the process was all the edits– as we all know, Wilkes and Wilkes-Barre changed so much just in the past year that I had to add a lot of new things to the book and change many things– the Barons became the Yankees, we got a downtown theater, Barnes & Noble, a pool hall, a Bart & Urby’s, Eienstien’s and so, so much more. In a way, I am glad the book came out later that way we filled it with more cool stuff.The way the book is set up:It’s divided into about 15 sections– food, guys & gals, social life, academics, nightlife, security, etc. I begin each section with an editorial and the the rest is 3-5 pages of student quotes about each topic. I also wrote an introduction and closing statement. Each category is given a grade, which I had no say in, as they wanted it more objective (we all know how much I love Wilkes and Wilkes-Barre!)– so they looked at what I wrote, as well as the student quotes and gave it a grade. Wilkes fared pretty well in everything, except parking!

The book also has a directory of clubs, restaurants, hotels, transportation and more…Final Thoughts:I just like subheads. I don’t know why. At any rate, this is a far cry from a novel– it’s more like a compilation like “Kids, Have You Seen My Backpack.” But it’s one more publishing credit and one more way to get on Amazon.com. I am just thrilled to give back to Wilkes in this way, as they have given me so much the past ten years!