DHS alumni: Wendy Corsi Staub

I am very pleased to say that another famous person with whom I went to high school is best selling author Wendy Corsi Staub. Like myself, Wendy grew up in the small town of Dunkirk, NY. She was a year ahead of me in school, and both of our families went to the same church. I recall that she was very friendly to everyone in school and that helped make her popular. After high school she went to the State University of New York (SUNY) in Fredonia, the next town over. However, that was just the beginning of the journey that would take her to becoming a New York Times bestseller.

She writes suspense and mystery novels under her married name. She also writes romance novels under the name "Wendy Markham". She has also written a number of novels that would fall in the young adult/teen category. In total, she has gotten published more than 60 books which is just amazing.

I have actually purchased a few of her suspense novels in paperback and found them to be very enjoyable (even if this isn't a genre I read as often as others). Besides Fade To Black and All The Way Home, my favorite of hers would have to be In The Blink Of An Eye. The later book takes place in Lilydale, NY, a place not far from where we grew up. Lilydale is a renowned center for psychics and such, and the locale makes an intriguing backdrop for the novel. I am certain Wendy gathered a lot of details from the setting first hand - and the book is peppered with other references of nearby communities and locales, including the Book Nook which is the small bookstore in Dunkirk that I am sure Wendy (like myself) spent a lot of time perusing the shelves for that certain title to read.

I have to give it to Wendy - she is actually doing something I always dreamed of as a youth: making a living as a writer. I like too that she doesn't forget her smalltown roots even though she lives much closer to New York City these days. Often her book tours will take her back through western New York, and I hear she often makes the Book Nook one of her stops for signings.