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About the Author

Patte Burgoon was born in Columbus, Ohio not far from the ancestral farm in Perry County. A year out of high school she married, migrated to Cleveland and then to Detroit area where she single parented seven children while teaching piano at Detroit Institute of Musical Arts. Her divorce and remarriage took her to the Pacific NW where she became a trained rape and incest counselor. Patte had been a member of Michigan Music Teachers Association and National Guild of Piano Teachers but hearing loss forced her to forsake the piano. Following two years in Seattle she moved to San Diego, California where she enrolled at Mesa Community College, then on to San Diego State University to earn a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling. She joined a rehabilitation firm in New Mexico where she worked as a counselor for injured workers. Her husband remained in California. Patte was unable to maintain a long distance marriage so she returned to Columbus, Ohio where she retired. She always felt she would write a book about Buckeye Lake, Ohio. It was now time to hone her writing skills by joining a writing group. She attended classes on memoir writing, retraced old familiar territory and was now encouraged to write her book. She won a prize in a national contest while in college writing about hearing loss. She entered two juried poems and three short humor based pieces and is published in an anthology: Works in Process: Women Over 50 Reflecting. Buckeye Lake Summer1949: Take Care of Paula for Me is a novel based on experiences of the main character, Paula Bradley who lives the summer with a newly divorced man, his 14 year old daughter, Annie, who is Paula's best friend and Annie's ten year old brother, Rusty. The book can be viewed as a story of first love, a coming of age piece, and one depicting hard decisions families make when life demands it. It is based on people she's known and loved. Patte follows the words of an old Appalachian hymn, Life is Like a Mountain Ra

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