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!