Author Joins Local History and Humor To Tell His Stories
Author Joseph Yakel has his own unique approach to booksmithing. Blending humor with local history, and using his hometown surroundings as a backdrop, he's taken fiction and fact to another literary level. Armed with three recent book publications, Yakel said its the right time to spotlight his local area and its people.
(PRWEB) May 5, 2005 -- Joseph Yakel was born and raised in New York's Capital
region, and calls this place home. His travels have taken him far and wide, but
it’s his hometown surroundings that serve as a backdrop for his writing. With
three books recently published, Yakel thinks his blend of history and humor
shine a bright spotlight on the local area and its people.
Yakel began,
"My roots to the Capital District have been a major influence on my writing. I
split my youth growing up in Albany and Loudonville, and summers were spent at
our camp in Westerlo. As an adult, I've traveled fairly extensively across
America, and spent two years in Belgium, Germany, and other European countries
with the US military. So, I am fortunate to have a mix of local city, town and
country exposure, in combination with this broader range of exposure to draw
from."
He went on, "I began writing my first book when I was about seven
years old. Although I didn’t publish that book, I still have it, and I'm proud
of what I did at such a young age. Looking back on it now, I think it probably
marked the starting point where writing would have some longstanding place in my
life."
While Yakel's desire to write has been with him since childhood,
he says that it has emerged in a more public way over the last decade. "Over the
years, I've penned quite a lot, but it wasn't until 1998 that I submitted my
first article for mainstream publication. It was a technical piece on cable
television system operations. Since then, I’ve written a number of other
articles, on genealogy and military subject matter, published in both trade
magazines and on organizational websites."
It’s his latest writing
efforts, however, that Yakel says are his best works yet. Between December 2004
and March 2005, he completed and released three books. "Writing the material was
the easy part", Yakel quipped, and with a slightly more serious tone, he added,
“but putting it all together was a huge undertaking. Sure, the research was
tough, but developing, and formatting each book, creating the cover designs,
marketing and promotion...all of that has been a tremendous effort. I'm very
pleased with the end result for each book."
As for the books themselves,
Yakel said he's got something of value for everyone. Two of his books are
genealogy references that also contain quite a bit of New York's Capital region
history in them as well. "The Autograph Memories of Mary Yakel" is the 19th
century memoir of his grand aunt. Yakel explained, "Mary was born in the South
End 1879 and passed away in 1940. She had an autograph book, which was filled
with entries from family and friends along the Second Avenue corridor. I took
the small book of hers, a family heirloom, and rewrote it. In addition to the
original book entries, I supplemented it with details and comments about the
people and families mentioned within her little book. I never knew Mary Yakel,
of course, but working on this memoir has helped me to understand her in ways
that I couldn't otherwise."
"The JACKEL, JECKEL, JAECKEL, IEKEL, YAKEL
Family History Book" is a mouthful of a title, but Yakel says the title is
dwarfed by the book’s content. He went on, "Without a doubt, this has been my
most intensive writing effort, ever. It's a 464-page family chronology, tracing
350 years of my Rheinish ancestry. Our original surname was JACKEL and JECKEL,
but changed more than 50 times after the family came to America. In Albany, the
spelling settled on YAKEL in the 1870’s, while in Milwaukee, it settled on
JAECKEL, and in Iowa, the name was changed slightly to IEKEL. This book is first
and foremost a genealogy reference, but it's also jammed packed full of really
intriguing local and German history as well, and that's why this book and the
Mary Yakel autograph book have a wider audience appeal than most
references."
His third and most recent book is a complete departure from
the first two, and clearly one that Yakel enjoyed writing. "The Legend of Juggin
Joe" is an over-the-top fictional humor story that takes place in and around the
Town of Westerlo, NY, and centers around the life and times of a hillboy dubbed
'Juggin Joe', for his uncanny musical abilities with the jug. Yakel added, "I
have a pretty good sense of humor, which went a long way as far as crafting the
situations that develop over the course of the storyline. What you've got in
'Juggin Joe' is a country boy comedy/melodrama...somethig of a different twist
for a fiction book. I also wrote the entire story in ‘country speak’, which I
think makes the story that much more fun to read. It’s a light-hearted, clean,
fun adventure, suitable for all ages and audiences. I'd like people to give
'Juggin Joe' a read and share the laughter it gives them with
others."
“The Legend of Juggin Joe"
* ISBN 1-4116-2588-9 * Pub
date: March 2005 * $9.00 paperback * 123 pages *
“The Autograph Memories
of Mary Yakel”
* ISBN 1-4116-2101-8 * Pub date: December 2004 * $9.00
paperback * 75 pages *
“The JACKEL, JECKEL, JAECKEL, IEKEL, YAKEL Family
History Book”
* ISBN 1-4116-2715-6 * Pub date: March 2005 * $26.50 paperback
* 464 pages *
Joseph Yakel is a freelance writer and author of three
books. His articles have appeared in publications such as Communications
Technology, The Pipeline, and Army Reserve Magazine, and have been highlighted
on USAWOA Online, USAR Online, and other Internet websites. For great humor, or
genealogy and family history resources, visit his bookstore at http://www.lulu.com/yakel
where Joe offers free book previews and more. Joseph Yakel is available for
interviews, and accepts e-mail correspondence at e-mail protected from spam
bots
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/5/prweb236702.htm