Marmaduke Writing Factory Hosts First Book Reading

In the late 1700s, the stone wall basement of Pleasantville's Marmaduke Foster House was a place to keep small farm animals warm in cold winter months. Now, writers gather in the slightly updated, pseudo clubhouse to share ideas, offer encouragements or simply to write.

"Writers sometimes need a quiet place to get away from the daily distractions, because we happen to be very easily distracted," Mount Kisco's Warren Berger, an organizing member of the Marmaduke Writing Factory, explained about his group's space. "This is a place where you come and all you do is sit down and write. We try to make sure that most of the time there isn't wine and cheese to distract the writers, but on nights like this you throw out the rules."

On Wednesday night, celebratory distractions, journalists, and the public were invited down the narrow staircase into the basement to share in the factory's first ever author event. Berger, Mary Murphy (Ossining), Ben Cheever (Pleasantville), Gary Sledge (Pleasantville) and Joe Wallace (Pleasantville), were among the factory workers excited to lend support to two of their fellow writers currently in the middle of the high-pressure publishing phase.

Yonkers resident Kate Buford, whose novel Burt Lancaster: An American Life was a New York Times Editor's Choice and Best Book of 2000, read from her newest novel, Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe.

The audience's cozy demeanor, sitting cross legged on the floor and comfortably on the staircase, was perfectly in line with New Castle's Bob Sullivan's reading from his reissued book Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Clause and His Christmas Mission.

According to Sullivan, the only reason that he was featured at the event was because he is just one of the authors with new work on the shelves. At any time, any factory worker can be highlighted. As evidenced by the factor worker-authored pieces scattered throughout the fireplace warmed room, Sullivan was not overestimating his peers.

While the Marmaduke Writing Factory has only been together for a few months, and it already has garnered press attention from multiple media outlets, including The New York Times.

It also has several unique attributes. Traditional writing groups are academic-style workshops and the factory is a collective of successful equals who share their specialties. Some writers donate talent for proposal writing, while others are masters of social media marketing. Multiple authors have experienced some sort of publisher-related letdown and lesson to discuss.

"Everybody in the group has something that they are particularly good at, and my hope is that we'll be able to tap into everybody's strengths in some way or another," Berger stated.

The group also hopes to further its community aspect. By getting involved in the schools and libraries, the writers want to extend their community outreach on behalf of literacy. One idea is to host a student writing competition.

Events such as discussions about Factory Workers' and non-Factory Workers' books, are open to the public and will be held regularly.