Local authors share their literary journeys
LAKE COUNTY >> Lake County has its very own poet laureate, several writing groups, a library that supports authors and quite a few authors.
Six Sigma Ranch and Winery in Lower Lake has its own resident author, Christian Ahlmann, who has written a children’s book titled ‘The Silver Coin.’
The Record-Bee’s criminal court reporter, Lori Armstrong, is an author of a children’s book series, the first one titled ‘The Adventures of Bubbly Jock Jack and the Thanksgiving Fallacy.’ The beloved wild turkey, Bubbly Jock, lives on the Cluck Cluck Farm. He freaks out when he overhears the Thanksgiving plans of two young girls while in the farm’s corn maze. He devises a plan to stay out of the oven that leads to entertaining adventures.
Armstrong said, “My inspiration for ‘The Adventures of Bubbly Jock Jack’ arose from our very own Lake County turkeys that roam our quaint country town. I also needed to balance the crime in my brain after all the years of working at the district attorney’s office and then writing criminal court stories for the Lake County Record-Bee. The colorful and comical Bubbly Jock Jack stories bring balance to my brain. After all, don’t we need to laugh a bit? Humor has become my therapy and I am grateful to be able to smile doing these trying times. One sweet day at a time.”
When asked how Armstrong came up with the name for her main character, she said that since children seem to love fun pronunciations of words, I did some research on my main character, who happened to be a male turkey,” According to the Merriam Webster dictionary that turkeys in Scotland are called bubbly jocks.
Armstrong’s website (https://www.authorloriarmstrong.com) describes the book; “Six to 10-yearold fans will be introduced to the topic of kindness to animals and plant-based options. This book is in no way preachy or driven by a right or wrong way to live your life. This book is more about options our children can be introduced to, allowing them to understand and appreciate the differences of the human race. Most important of all is to know their self-worth.”
Last year Armstrong’s book won first place in the Humor Category for children and second place in the Animal/Pet Category for children through Dragonfly Book Awards (https://www.dragonflybookawards.com)
“There will be a total of four children’s books within the series and each will cover a topic that matters to children and I am hoping will matter to parents, too,” said Armstrong.
Christian Ahlmann, president of Six Sigma Ranch and Winery, who manages the daily operations wrote ‘The Silver Coin,’ which is an adventure story about two boys who find a treasure map and then look for the treasure. “I wrote the book for my kids. I wrote it for fun. It began with a few chapters that I read out loud for story time, but I didn’t tell the kids who wrote it. They were surprisingly engaged, and insisted I read on. That wasn’t possible (because I hadn’t written any more chapters yet!) so I promised them to “download” more of the story and read it to them in a few days.”
“In that way,” Ahlmann said, “I continued to write a bit each week until the book was complete. I was able to integrate their input to develop the story, but I didn’t tell them I was the author until the end. And when I did, they didn’t believe me. I actually had to convince them by explaining which parts of the story tied to what they know of my childhood and their Uncle Michael, my brother, the supporting character in the book.”
The hill in the book and on the cover, tells Ahlmann, is a real hill north of Copenhagen, Denmark where he grew up. “My brother and I played on it when we were kids,” he said. “The woods, the house, the beach and our bedroom are all real places from my childhood. The neighbors are based on real characters. The tree still exists, and you really can see the ocean from the top. My parents still own the hill, and in fact they can’t
“... This book is in no way preachy or driven by a right or wrong way to live your life. This book is more about options our children can be introduced to, allowing them to understand and appreciate the differences of the human race. Most important of all is to know their self-worth.”
— Lori Armstrong
sell it because the Danish government has declared it an ancient burial mound to be preserved as a site of historical interest. The details of the lever and what we found inside are blurry 30 years later, so I filled in the gaps in my memory as well as I can remember.”
“I’ve been surprised at how many people have purchased it. A number of teachers have even used it in class.”
Sheri Cobb, a former first grade teacher at Pomo Elementary who is now teaching in Florida, said her own eight children loved ‘The Silver Coin’. Her 11-year-old son said, “I love that book and I think everyone under 100 should read it.”
Cobb plans to read the book to her students. “I think read-a-louds are vitally important especially for primary students. They need to hear language and anything that paints a visual picture keeps them actively engaged. My students like to hear about adventures. I choose my reada-louds carefully because I want a story that is wholesome and fun. The Silver Coin is all of these things.”
Ahlmann’s book can be purchased online and Armstrong’s book can be purchased on Amazon.com and at Infinity Consignment and Watershed Books in Lakeport.