POUHGKEEPSIE JOURNAL
Friday, August 19, 2005
Writer looks back on little town's big
story
Book covers same-sex marriages
By John W. Barry
Author Erin Quinn will be at a booksigning Saturday at Ariel
Booksellers in New Paltz.
Many in the Hudson Valley have their own memories of watching
the Village of New Paltz and Mayor Jason West make international
news in February 2004 when he married same-sex couples.
To revisit the experience through the eyes, ears, pen and
notebook of New Paltz Times reporter Erin Quinn, check out "Pride & Politics,
The Tale of a Big Story in a Small Town." This book offers
insight from a 35-year-old mother of three who has worked for
The New Paltz Times for eight years and whose beat is the town
and village of New Paltz.
Quinn's first book signing will be 7 p.m. Saturday at Ariel
Booksellers in New Paltz.
Deal fell through
The path to "Pride & Politics" began for Quinn
with a phone call from a publisher who wanted her to write
a book with West. But, Quinn said, an arrangement couldn't
be worked out and the deal fell through.
But the publishing back-and-forth got Quinn thinking about
the story she had covered and its potential without West, so
she began working with another publisher.
"I said, 'This is a great book when I think about it.
... It's a great story and I'm pretty well-positioned to sell
it.' I said, 'I can do this and I did it.' "
Quinn's book offers a front-row seat for the same-sex marriage
madness that swept through New Paltz, but she also writes about
the community in which she works and lives. Quinn offers context
for the story she tells about West and New Paltz, knowledge
that would likely come naturally for a reporter working in
a small town, of which she is a native.
"I'm curious to see what her perspective is on what's
happened," West said. "Being on the inside, I have
a bit of a different perspective."
Andrew Mironchik, 22, who was born and raised in New Paltz,
said he would consider purchasing and reading Quinn's book,
especially since the author is a long-time local resident like
him.
Saw it on TV
"It's good to get personal perspectives on certain viewpoints," said
Mironchik, a specialist in the New York National Guard who
first learned of the same-sex marriages in his hometown while
watching Fox News at a forward operating base in Samarra, Iraq. "She
knows what she's talking about. It's from her perspective of
growing up here."
With the time demands of her kids and working at a newspaper,
Quinn said she burned the midnight oil while writing the book.
"I wrote very late at night, when the brood was fast
asleep," she said. "So I haven't slept in a year.
I went back to an old college schedule."
The book-writing process — she has written one other
book, the unpublished fictional "Midnight Mud" — lets
Quinn uncover new aspects about herself.
About herself as a person, she learned that she has "a
staying power and a passion. There was a story to tell and
come hell or high water, I wanted to tell that story, which
is really a celebration of New Paltz."
As a writer, she learned "how to write creative nonfiction.
I've written fiction and I've done journalism. Creative nonfiction
is a whole other animal."
John W. Barry can be reached at jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com
If you go
What: New Paltz resident and New Paltz Times reporter Erin
Quinn holds a booksigning to celebrate the release of "Pride & Politics:
The Tale of a Big Story in a Small Town."
Where: Ariel Booksellers, 3 Plattekill Ave., New Paltz.
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Information: Visit www.arielbooksellers.com
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