Beth Bania

Life is complicated, an ever changing journey. Understanding events is the challenge, embracing life is the goal.

Where there is breath, there is life. Where there is life, there is hope. Where there is hope, there are dreams. ~~ Beth W. Bania (all rights reserved)

I grew up in Connecticut and moved to Virginia in 2002. I have been writing since I was a child. My first work is a pencil on linen poetry booklet, written when I was around 7-years old. My mother gifted me with the habit of writing things out when they were scary, bad or confusing.

I have an Associate Degree in Physical Therapy and a Bachelor of Arts with a major in History, a minor in Criminal Justice and a concentration in Philosophy. I was preparing for law school, got accepted and attended for a brief time. Somehow life always intervenes in what I think were best made plans. My ultimate goal has always been writing. Now I write about the interruptions in people's lives, because maybe the unexpected events are the most important parts of our lives.

2013: I met my writing coach and my world changed.

2014: Second Degree Adoption - Lost and Found.

A razor's edge memoir of my messy family in small town New England. There was great curiosity about the wealthy families who lived in the big houses in the Historic District. Little did anyone know the complexities of my family - or who I was in whole, not just "in half." I reconnected with lost family, opened my father's adoption record, found my genetic family, and struggled with losing my uncle in the last years of his life. A book filled with many life lessons (genealogical searches, the caution needed when deciding to open adoption records, and plans made [or lack thereof] for elder care.)

2015: I wrote "Black Lace from Paris" to rough draft, then my grandson's dog died unexpectedly. I put aside the novel and wrote: "My Doggie Just Died... Do pets go to Heaven?"

My Doggie Just Died... Do pets go to Heaven? is a children's book to explain where pets go when they die. A more authoritative source than a popular poem was needed. A Bible search yielded five scripture choices to take a child (and adults) to the understanding pets are part of God's lesser creatures, and after death await our arrival at Heaven's Gate, to bring them into Heaven with us.

2016: Black Lace from Paris A fiction based on historical facts about the year the United States entered World War I. Told from the perspective of Catherine Stacy (a high school senior in Springfield, MA) who wanted to ignore the war and have fun with her friends before graduation and going to college. The constant drum beat of the war in Europe got increasingly closer and louder until America is sucked into the battle. Catherine's brothers, male high school chums, and her best beau (Arthur) enlisted in the military. Arthur served in an Army unit which fought in an historic battle in France, which turned the tide of WWI. Arthur and his unit received France's Croix de Guerre, France's highest honor (never before given to foreigners.)

Planned release: September 2017; the centenary of when the boys/men left Springfield, MA to go to war.

May 2017: The Day All The Boys Were Gone (remembering WWI); A short story fiction based on historic facts and events. A heart breaking, soul strengthening account of an elderly woman's reminiscence of WWI, when over 3,000 young men left New England to form the Yankee Division. The Yankee Division's first combat was at Apremont, France; where their astounding bravery and courage under fire turned the tide of WWI. Life as a puzzle, and one piece was missing, a lost love. The story is told to her granddaughter 60-years later. A fast moving short story with original family photos. "War may have taken from her, but war never conquered her.”

I write about thorny and difficult things in life, death included, because I have been confronted by these events and survived the experiences, with a great deal of thought and faith. Sometimes, life's biggest challenges require courage.

My life objective is always to find a path of peace, and so far so good, even if the path looks like a child's scribbled maze.