As the editor and manager of local publishing concern, Heritage Press, I am winding down operations after 30 years of providing regional authors with a path to publication. As a compliment to a lifelong career in education, though local publishing is typically never a lucrative business, helping to shape stories and produce books has been most satisfying. As a result much of my adult life has been spent in the serene environment of various coffee shops working on these projects. I wanted to share some of the details of my last three books because I feel they can inspire others to pursue their dreams to tell their stories, no matter their age. Currently, I have either finished or am in the process of completing the editing and production of three books written by authors still sharing stories in their 90s. 

 

The first book, Journeying Toward Justice, was written by Sister Lois Aceto, her first edition came out when she returned from missionary service as a Dominican Nun from Bolivia in 2008. Last summer she was honored in a Journal Times article on her 91st birthday for her service to the Racine Criminal Justice Community. When I noticed that the book mentioned in the article was out of print I contacted her for permission to edit and produce a Second Edition for her, which I did. Oh, by the way Sister Lois I first knew as Sister Giovanni, my beloved 4th Grade teacher at St. Mary's Catholic School in downtown Racine. 

 

Next, Dolores Foster Williams, formerly a Milwaukee Catholic boarding school student at St. Benedict the Moor, now living in Chicago, contacted me in her 80s to produce her first book. Now, 94, we are completing her sequel, both books encouraging the Catholic Church to organize more diverse parishes. She is currently attending a model diverse Catholic parish, St. Benedict the African, and credits her pastor priest, Father David Alan Jones, for working well with their diverse parishioners. 

 

Finally, John C. Ellis is an inventor who has written a memoir, The Faraday Twins, telling the story of how he came to develop a new form of water with remarkable healing and other physical properties. I am in the final stages of completing the editing and production of his Second Edition. Now 93, John continues to spread the good life-saving news of his groundbreaking accomplishment in print.

 

And so, as I wind down Heritage Press operations after many years of service to our community, let me encourage anyone reading this who has a story to tell and a message to share...no matter your age get out there...It's Not Over Till It's Over!