Coming Home to Door

Vignettes & Recipes
Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of The Door County Literary Guild

by Kathleen Arnold, Ann Kurz Chambers, Ilse Dietsche, Justin Isherwood, DyAnne Korda, Jackie Langetieg, Mary "Casey" Martin, Edith Nash, Steve Raap, Mariann Ritzer, Barbara Fitz Vroman and Gloria Zager cover illustration by Holly Hebel

Softcover $15.95
ISBN 189160905x

Coming Home to Door - a fictional bookclub meets monthly at an international tourist destination, Door County. During the 100th anniversary year, each month the reader meets another member of the club as well as what they serve up -- their food and book selection of the month. Twelve writers created the twelve, very different, women of the club.

Winner of the 1999 Graphic Design:
USA "American Graphic Design Award for Excellence and Communication and Graphic Design"

Introduction by Mary "Casey" Martin

There was never any intention of resemblance to any living or deceased persons. While the towns and names of businesses may in some cases be real, anything that happens in a community or business is fictional.

This book is a collaboration with twelve writers for a fictional concept created be me, the editor.

The idea was going to be used for my first novel and it needed twelve main characters. Then it hit me.

What better way to get twelve different characters, then have twelve different writers create them.

I wrote a list of twelve main ingredients, along with the concept and solicited the writers. Each writer was given the core ingredients, but also creative license to reveal the personality of their invented club member.

MAIN INGREDIENTS: 1. Membership in the same fictional book club, The Door County Literary Guild. 2. Act as hostess for a monthly meeting. 3. Introduce the reader to their member's book selection and author for their monthly meeting. 4. Describe a Door County location where the meeting would be held and/or the personality of the guild member through journal entries, letters, reminiscence, etc. 5. Optional: provide a recipe that would be served to the guild members.

LOCATION: Being born and raised on the Door County peninsula, I knew it to be a popular U.S. tourist destination. Located on Wisconsin's East Coast, the Door peninsula has 250 miles of shoreline.

Growing up on "the Door" and working at my family's supperclub, I served Bob Hope dinner and met the actor, Jack Carson. June Allison was shopping in Ephraim. Charlton Heston is at Gordon Lodge. Sitings of the rich and famous always run rampant throughout "the County." But, I've always believed it is the local characters that make a place interesting.

I requested that the writers invent residents or transplants who live on the peninsula in the year 1998. Each writer wrote their chapter independent of the others, not seeing the entire book until months later. They had one opportunity for their own edit of their chapter. The pieces stand on their own and retain each writer's voice, but are connected through one concept-- their members belong to the same club.

CONCEPT: The fictional Door County Literary Guild is celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 1999. A Green Bay television reporter comes to interview the book club president during the day of the anniversary dinner. The other members of the guild are revealed month by month (from February through December 1998). The last chapter will bring the reader back to the anniversary month in the year 1999. Twelve, very different, women come together through their love of books and their experiences and become lifelong friends.

Get ready for an interesting, fun read! I hope you enjoy meeting the members of the oldest club in Door County and I encourage you to try the recipes at the back of the book the next time you have to host a meeting or an event for your club or organization.

Within these pages are references to numerous titles and authors. The Guild's Reading List is provided at the back of the book, after the recipes. So, if you don't know what to read next, read on.

Mary 'Casey' Martin
Publisher/Writer