Celebrate veterans' stories with Writers Read

FALLBROOK – Writers Read at Fallbrook Library, a free monthly author series, will feature members of the Veterans' Writing Group of San Diego County Tuesday, Nov. 12. The reading is from 6-7:45 p.m., in the library's community room.

The Veterans' Writing Group encourages and supports creative writing by military veterans of all conflicts. They meet monthly in North County to share their lives and stories that are "sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always ringing true."

Join the group for their annual Veteran's Day visit to Writers Read, as they share excerpts from their new collection, "Stories that Need to be Told," which will be release in December 2019. The reading will be followed by a panel discussion with the authors.

Veterans who will be reading include the following:

Joseph Ashby is a native Coloradoan. The military has been a part of his life since he enlisted in the U.S. Navy at the age of 17, during the Korean War.

Vernita Black, Ed.D., retired after serving 21 years in the U.S. Navy. Black served in the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm.

Shara French served 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring as a gunnery sergeant.

Garry G. Garretson received his Air Crew Wings and other Air Medals serving in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1969 as a second-class petty officer.

Luz Helena (Stacey) Thompson enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17. In 1999, she volunteered for her first overseas duty station to Okinawa, Japan.

Sara Noel served as a U.S. Army officer.

Capt. Ron Pickett is a retired naval aviator with over 250 combat missions and 500 carrier landings.

George Vandewater spent his early days on a small farm in upstate New York. He began flying in 1948 with his father and entered flight training as a naval aviation cadet in early 1954.

Charlie Wyatt served in the U.S. Navy from 1963 to 1967. He was deployed to Vietnam for a year as skipper of a swift boat.

Copies of the group's first two books, "Away for the Holidays" and "Listen Up! Things I Learned from the Military," will be available for sale, and advance orders for "Stories That Need to Be Told" will be accepted.

Fallbrook Library is located at 124 S. Mission Road, between Alvarado and Fig streets.

Writers Read does not meet in December, but the 2020 season will launch Tuesday, Jan. 14, with poet and spoken word artist Karla Cordero and her new poetry collection, "How to Pull Apart the Earth."

For more information, contact KB Gressitt at [email protected] or (760) 522-1064.

Submitted by Writers Read.