The Smell of Death
My personal essay about my grandfather’s passing and the experience of sitting by his deathbed was published in the 40.1 issue of Schoolcraft College’s literary magazine, The MacGuffin.
Order a copy of the magazine here.
A Constant Amidst the Change
This article was published on the LutherWoman blog in November 2024. Read it here.
From Scared to Trusting to Angry to Thankful
This article was published on the LutherWoman blog in July 2024. Read it here.
Review of “Right By My Side”
This review of Right By My Side by David Haynes was published in the Mankato Free Press on 11/30/2023. Read it here.
Review of “The Belinda Chronicles”
An enjoyable read that finds its strength in its honesty, ingenuity and familiarity, “The Belinda Chronicles” by Linda Seidel, a retired Truman State University English professor, is work that manages to turn tough topics into a light read without losing depth.
An enjoyable read that finds its strength in its honesty, ingenuity and familiarity, “The Belinda Chronicles” by Linda Seidel, a retired Truman State University English professor, is work that manages to turn tough topics into a light read without losing depth.
This “lightly fictionalized memoir” takes an unflinching look at the later stages of life, including losing one’s parents and confronting one’s own mortality.
“The Belinda Chronicles” is a steady read, taking a thematic approach that flirts with various timelines. The book alternates between vignettes about the people in Belinda’s life and her reflections as she struggles with the approaching deaths of her aging parents and enters a new stage of her life. It compares multiple generations of family members and asks about the ways our elders impact us, even as we become elders to those that come after us.
Despite mainly focusing on life’s endings and the anxieties of old age, Seidel still manages to intersperse moments of lighthearted humor that bring a genuine smile to the reader’s lips by interspersing happy memories and staying true to her witty self. The narration is honest and inviting; many of the sections about Belinda reflecting on her own life feel as if the reader has been invited to sit down with her and listen to her story.
If there is a weakness in the work, it would perhaps be the commentary on Belinda’s singleness. Seidel makes a clear case for why Belinda does not wish for marriage in her old age, but Belinda feels largely removed from social circles beyond her parents’ nursing home. It may have been nice to see Belinda find a new purpose in her life as she learns to live as the now-oldest generation of her family. However, considering the work is a memoir, that new purpose may not yet be ready to be written. The prologue sees Belinda setting out to learn in this new stage of her life and while she does learn over the course of the book, more lessons are undoubtedly to come.
While displaying a sharp mind, deep introspection, and clear writing ability, Seidel maintains an air of approachability that gives the reader the sense that they already know her. Belinda’s character sits at the intersection of the quintessential elderly woman and the free-spirited feminist. Her story is one of both family and individuality as she copes with what it means to “become a grown-up who made her own safety — and found her own fate.” She perfectly encapsulates the beginning of the end mentality that so many people face after retirement while still remaining relatable for readers of all ages. This book would be perfect for anyone beginning a new stage in their life because whether it is seventy years or twenty, everyone has a past that informs their future.
If you enjoyed “The Belinda Chronicles” and would like to read more, Seidel has continued to post new installments on Facebook and some of her vignettes are published in the digital magazine “Wordpeace,” where Truman professor and fellow Golden Antelope author, Monica Barron, is on staff.
Farewell Piece for “The Index”
As the girl sits in front of the blank Google Doc, she wonders if it’s still correct to call herself a girl.
As the girl sits in front of the blank Google Doc, she wonders if it’s still correct to call herself a girl. She’ll have a college degree soon. She’s looking for apartments and finding a Real Job®️ like a woman. But at the moment, writing her last story for her college newspaper, she still feels like a girl. Uncertain, small, maybe even timid — which is not a word that people would often use to describe her.
How is she supposed to fill this page? How is she supposed to say goodbye?
Looking for clues, she takes a walk down memory lane. It all started with a “Testimony of the Living.” Not sure if anyone was listening, she had begun to tell her classmates and community the story of some shadows from the state of Washington and the living, breathing souls trying to escape their ghostly fate.
Then the story had moved on to a group of twenty-somethings in Chicago with strange abilities and confused hearts. “The Curse of Briar Michaels” might have sucked for him, but it had gotten her a cool headline graphic and another semester of content.
As time went on, the stories began jumping around more and more. She had written about girls and boys, men and women, young and old. Love stories, silly stories, spooky stories. Anything and everything she could think of — or that Pinterest could plant in her mind. Against all odds, the people at the newspaper stuck with her crazy wanderings through worlds past, present and future. They even made more cool graphics that turned her little stories into real life publications worthy of catching a readers’ eye.
And now she’s just supposed to say goodbye? Could this be more “End of Semester Hallucinations?”
Alas, it is real. But please, one last time, allow her to tell you a story.
—
Once upon a time, a nervous college freshman hiked across campus to a big building called Barnett Hall and tried to look confident as she walked into the Student Media Center. She listened to the editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper talk to everyone in the room about what the paper covered and what you could do if you joined the staff. There were people to talk to if you wanted to write news stories or sports stories or take photographs.
Feeling like a fool, the freshman walked up to the editor-in-chief and admitted to having no journalism experience whatsoever.
Then, without really thinking about how silly it probably sounded, she said, “But I can write fiction for the paper if you think that’d be okay.”
The editor-in-chief looked at the freshman with much more curiosity than she’d expected.
“What kind of fiction?”
The freshman described an old story stashed away on her computer about five teenagers living up in small-town Washington state surrounded by lifeless people they referred to as shadows.
To her amazement, the editor-in-chief wanted the story.
They didn’t ask her for a writing sample. They didn’t tell her newspapers were for real stories about real people. They just added her to the paper’s Google Drive.
Now three years and fifty-something stories later, she places one last document into that Google Drive with a grateful heart. She has two editors-in-chief, three features editors, a panel of editors, and an unknown number of readers to thank for helping her reach this moment in her life.
As she clicks submit, she prays that her stories have brought joy to her campus community and that someone might read this last one and remember that they can do anything, create anything, if they dare to walk into a room and ask for a seat at the table. If they dare to believe they have something to offer the world.
Originally published at https://tmn.truman.edu/blog/editorial/fiction-writer-shares-one-last-story/
Local Press Publishes Works of Truman Professors
It all began with Neal’s mother, Vivian, who had always enjoyed writing.
It all began with Neal’s mother, Vivian, who had always enjoyed writing. In 2004, Neal and his brothers decided to self-publish one of Vivian’s stories and give it to her as a gift. Little did they know they were sending Neal and Betsy Delmonico on a journey that would last over a decade. The retired college professors who had taught at Truman State University — Neal in the philosophy and religion department, and Betsy in the English and linguistics department — found a new passion for the publishing business that continues to this day.
After being introduced to the publishing process, Neal realized he could begin publishing his own research. Because his area of emphasis is Southern Asian religions and uses languages not commonly printed in the United States, he had often struggled to find American publishers who would produce the original scripts alongside his translations. Neal’s studies have been the inspiration for the press’s title, as well as its offshoots.
“Golden Antelope” pays homage to Vivian’s hometown of Golden, Colorado, and is also a character in an Indian epic that represents art and creativity.
“It seemed appropriate,” Neal said.
While Neal wrote various works to publish, he said Betsy is at the heart of the creative press. She prefers editing and helping others reach their goals to writing stories or articles herself.
Neal and Besty decided to publish works relating to South Asia and Neal’s studies under the imprint Blazing Sapphire, a title also based on Indian texts, saving the Golden Antelope brand for creative works. A few years later, their business grew after they were asked to publish the work of their friend and colleague, Arnie Preussner, a committed Truman English professor who continued teaching while undergoing cancer treatment. Beginning with Preussner’s work on Shakespeare, the Delmonicos created the third branch of their publishing company, Naciketas, for nonfiction works unrelated to South Asia. Neal explained that Naciketas is a character from an Indian story who is known for asking questions to the point of frustrating those around him; he compared him to Socrates from Western culture.
Since branching out, Golden Antelope Press and its imprints have published the works of six different Truman professors. One-quarter of all works the Delmonicos have published have been authored by people with Truman connections. They have even published work by Kirksville native Ruth Ann Musick, a folklorist who went to Truman when it was Northeast Missouri State Teachers College. Current faculty members who have published with Golden Antelope Press include Bob Mielke and Monica Barron. Still, a large portion of Golden Antelope authors are retirees who have finally found time to write the book they have always wanted to write. One of these authors is Linda Seidel, a former Truman professor. Her new book, “The Belinda Chronicles,” began as a series of Facebook posts and reimagines Seidel’s personal journey entries as moments in the life of the fictional Belinda.
While Golden Antelope has published many authors in later stages of life, they have also published younger authors who eventually moved on to contracts with bigger publishers. Because of the business partner they use to actually print the books, Golden Antelope books can be purchased internationally, and while physical copies are printed on-demand, readers can also buy e-book versions.
The small press is growing in prominence; last year, it received over 300 submissions from around the world. However, Betsy and Neal both acknowledged that they are not able to offer writers some of the advertising and marketing opportunities available when working with bigger presses. Small presses like Golden Antelope do not have the budget to put on the kind of events and campaigns that are often necessary to make a book stand out among the 300,000 new books published each year in the U.S. alone.
Knowing that Truman’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in creative writing attracts many aspiring writers who will traverse the publishing journey, Betsy and Neal gave some advice. First, Betsy said to remember that self-publishing can be a real option.
“It’s losing some of the stigma,” she said.
Since the Delmonicos run Golden Antelope as a home business, they can only handle so many projects at one time. They said they often suggest the self-publishing route to authors who have polished manuscripts but cannot be accepted by Golden Antelope at the time of submission.
Betsy’s second piece of advice was for people going through the editing process.
“If an editor says, ‘Change this to this,’ some change needs to happen there, but probably not the specific ‘this to this,’” Betsy explained.
She added that editors are good at seeing where changes need to be made, but that it is often the writer’s job to know exactly how to fix the problem.
The Delmonicos still live and work in Kirksville, and the press opens for submissions periodically. More information can be found on the Golden Antelope website.