Patricia Hustus Banker has always loved to write – stories, poems, and songs. She had a poem published in a religious magazine many years ago. Recently, she got her first book published. The Church at Farewell’s Corner is a story set in the late 1800s in a rural town. Many people who are native to this area may see a connection to Thorndike.

Steven Burt, former pastor of Thorndike Congregational Church, published author and friend, approached Patty at Christmastime about getting a story published that she had written almost 40 years ago. He remembered reading the story when he was pastoring in Thorndike. The following is a quote from his blog:

Patty risked handing me her novel-in-progress. I took it home (her only copy) and went through it quickly. It had promise. I suggested a couple of revisions and gave her a few agents and publishing houses to query. I told her that her chances were slim – not because it was a bad book, but because there were many good books competing for limited space in the market and on shelves. She got involved in other things – “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans” – and never got around to shopping the manuscript around.

Dr. Burt moved away from Maine in 1983 and pastored some other churches before moving to Florida, where he started teaching a course at the Lifelong Learning College – Publish Your Book Free (using the CreateSpace online software system).

I helped a few dozen senior learners get their first books into print. My wife Jolyn and I developed an instruction manual (same name as the course) that won a Florida Book Festival Award in the How-to category. My classes and our guidebook had helped make it easy for beginners to publish their work – novels, collections, cookbooks, memoirs, children’s picture books, and more.

Forty years later, he writes:

Then I remember Patty Banker’s novel manuscript from 1980. I knew that she still wasn’t much into computers and wouldn’t easily get into converting her work into a Word document that could be used as a CreateSpace interior. And I knew she’d be daunted by the Cover Creator program. So I contacted her younger sister, Jacquie Ludden, who has secretarial skills. Jacquie agreed to type the manuscript as a Microsoft Word document, which she sent to me as an email attachment. I did some basic editing, reformatted it from 8 1/2 x 11 to 6 x 9 and changed to “mirror margins.” I had Jacquie email me a photo of Patty for the Author Page, a photo of Patty’s late husband Dick for the Dedication Page, and an historic photo of the Thorndike Congregational Church for the cover. I uploaded the manuscript in its new iteration into the Create Space program.

The following is the bio from her book:

Patty was born in Brooks, Maine, the 4th of 5 siblings. At the age of four, the family moved to a farm in Thorndike, ME, where she grew up. Her first eight years of education was acquired in a little one-room schoolhouse named Roosevelt. She graduated from high school at Morse Memorial, in Brooks. At the age of 21, she married the love of her life, Richard, and they have one son, Chris. Patty has been a deaconess in the Thorndike Congregational Church for 37 continuous years. She’s also president of the Helping Hands Ladies’ group and treasurer of the Sunday School. She was a member of the Harvest Moon Grange for many years holding several different offices until it closed in 2014.

She and her husband of 53 years enjoyed traveling and have visited each of the contiguous 48 states.

Patty has written poetry, songs, short stories, and children’s stories over the years. She also likes to dabble in art, painting scenery and portraits. But her first love is the written word. Sadly, Richard, who constantly encouraged her to get published, passed away in 2013. She lives with her two cats, Cuddles and Melody.

The book is now available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Sometimes good things take time. – Rev. Dr. Steve Burt, 10-time New England Book Festival Award winner.

Hunter Williams, of Jefferson, who was recently named to the fall 2016 dean’s list at Keene State College, in Keene, New Hampshire. Williams was among 1,400 students who were honored for academic excellence in the fall 2016 semester.