This month, I was invited to an awards banquet in Chicago hosted by the Society of Midland Authors, where my novel Beetle Boy was honored as a finalist for the SMA award in Children's Fiction. It was a wonderful night and very meaningful, because I was born in Chicago, travel there often to see my daughter Chloe and her family. There are other ties--the location of the banquet was the Cliff Dwellers Club on Michigan Avenue, overlooking Lake Michigan and the Chicago Art Institute, where my father was a student in the 1940s on the GI Bill. My parents met at the Art Institute, married, had three children and then moved to Michigan. My husband Richard Joanisse was educated at the University of Chicago, taught briefly at DePaul University, and then came to Michigan to help found William James College on the campus of Grand Valley State University. And one more tie--my granddaughter Beatrice was born in Chicago, same as her grandmother Margaret. It was my great joy to bring Chloe as my guest to the awards banquet. A great honor for Beetle Boy and also a beautiful convergence of my many ties with the Windy City.
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