Vada M. Gipson, author of The Quests

Vada M. Gipson, author of a novel, The Quests, speaking to the Klamath River Writers Club at JavaBob's Bigfoot Deli in Happy Camp. The lovely patchwork jacket she wore was the subject of her first article sale in 1984, to "The Homemaker" magazine.

Author Speaks To
Local Writer's Club

Vada M. Gipson, author of The Quests, was in Happy Camp to speak to the Klamath River Writer's Club on Friday, October 22 at JavaBob's Bigfoot Deli. The Quests, which is Gipson's first novel, is the first of a series set in biblical times.

Gipson had her novel published through 1st Books, a print-on-demand publisher of quality paperbacks. 1st Books has been recently renamed AuthorHouse. She explained to the writer's club the process she went through to be published, and offered autographed copies of her book for sale.

Philip and John the Baptist are familiar biblical names. However Gipson gives them new life. Only brief acquaintances, Philip and John are on their own separate quests as they make their ways through life.

As the story begins, Philip is utterly depressed. Wallowing in guilt after the death of his dearly loved wife, who lost her life while giving birth to their daughter, Philip goes to a religious commune called Qumran for a change of scenery. At Qumran, he meets John, a “cave mate” and Y’shua, a visitor. His depression soon turns into paralysis and his quest becomes a search for healing.

John leaves the “shelter of his brotherhood” remaining devoted to his vow to “eat no food not prepared by our priests.” He survives on only honey and locusts. His quest is to “prepare the way of the Lord.”

Y’shua is not a focus character. Although he rarely appears, he plays an important role in both men’s lives. “There would be no story without him.” Gipson says.

Set in the area of the area of the Sea of Galilee, Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and Machaerus in the Holy Land, The Quests is unique in that its focus location, Qumran, is the settlement that was on the mesa above where the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1947, Gipson notes.

Gipson lives in Fort Jones, California, near Yreka. She was born in Nebraska and was the youngest of nine children. She is a retired accountant and is currently a member of the United Methodist Church. She began writing after retirement.

As a freelance writer, Gipson has had several articles published in magazines such as Home Education Magazine, Pioneer Press, World Radio, The Homemaker, Mature Years and The United Methodist Review. However, The Quests is her first novel.

Vada moved to Scott Valley in 1972 from the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. She was born in Western Nebraska and came to California in 1941, after graduating from high school in Laramie, Wyoming.

Accounting was her field of employment. After working for a chain of supermarkets and a bank, she wound up in the Corporate Office of McDonnell Douglas Corporation in Santa Monica. When that office was moved to St. Louis, she opted for lay-off, and came to Siskiyou County with her husband, who had just retired from the Douglas Aircraft Division of McDonnell Douglas.

Among her hobbies are amateur radio, photography, genealogy, and drawing with colored pencils. She is active in the Fort Jones United Methodist Church as Lay Leader, church organist, and president of the United Methodist Women’s unit at Fort Jones.

What people are saying about Vada M. Gipson's first novel,
The Quests:

I got into your book last night and didn't want to put it down. Very good. You have used the bible stories with great sensitivity. I especially like the way you told the story of John the Baptist. Well done. It is one of those books that you just have to read until it is finished and then you wish it could continue. Perhaps you are writing a sequel already? Your characters are believable.
Love,
Carol Maplesden
Greenview, CA

We read the book all the way through aloud. It's a story that really makes you think about it after you have finished reading it…. It was as though you were right there witnessing the events as they took place, and you take your readers right along with you visualizing all the way.
Phil and Margaret Kousch
Hesperia, CA

(I) just got through reading (couldn't put it down!) 'The Quest' -- it's a must read for everyone!!! Thank you, Vada, for writing it! I'll have to get you to sign my copy!
Liebe,
33, Caroll Massie, NV7YL, Dayton, NV
Editor – YLHarmonics

I loved reading this. You are an excellent writer. I couldn’t stop reading & I loved the warmth & love that was expressed throughout.
Virginia George
Fort Jones, CA

I congratulate you on your immense amount of reading and research to gain the historical background knowledge required for such a book. … Your idea that Philip was a member of the Qumran community, and that John the Baptist also was, is intriguing and adds interest to the book.
Roland Seboldt, Consulting Editor, former Editor at Harper SanFrancisco, and former Director of Book Publishing Department at Augsburg Publishing House in Minneapolis.

My wife and I both like your book very much. Once a person starts to read it, how can one put it down? That’s the real test of good writing. We both consider it to be a well-researched, well-written, worthwhile book. … The world needs your book.
William J. Diehm, PhD Psychology
retired Professor of Psychology at Loyola University, Los Angeles
practicing psychologist, and author.

I love the style and the characters! I especially like the way you flesh out the people in scripture so that I like them as people. I know their stories, now I know the people, too.
Sherry Reynolds
Thousand Oaks, CA

The book made me in total sympathy with the characters & their lives. (Also, having “lived there,” I know the type of people & happenings are true.) Fine job.
Martha Edwards
President, Women’s Aglow
Twentynine Palms, CA

Vada M. Gipson, author of The Quests

Vada M. Gipson of Ft. Jones, author of The Quests.


This may be happening on the other end of the state, but thanks to the internet, we're aware of it:

Los Angeles County Seal

June 12, 2004 - Take a good look at the tiny gold cross on the Los Angeles County Seal. The ACLU decided it is not politically correct so to avoid a lawsuit LA County supervisors voted to have the seal's cross removed. According to their website, "The cross represents the influence of the church and the missions of California." Well, no more. Protesters in LA held signs reading “Jews for the Seal,” “Anti-Christian Liberties Union” and “Stop the Cultural Cleansing. Stop the ACLU.”

Jewish radio talk host Dennis Prager said, "They used to say in the Soviet Union, `The future is known; it’s the past which is always changing.’ Totalitarianism is not possible, unless you erase the past. That is what you did. That is why there are so many people here and thousands outside."

Still, it seems that the cross is soon to be a thing of the past. the ACLU maintains that inclusion of a cross on a county seal is a violation of the separation of church and state. Apparently to the ACLU it is unimportant that Los Angeles was founded by Christian missionaries.

History - watch as it is once again revised.


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Check out local musician Brad Burn's performance history and new CD release on the Entertainment page.


On the Columns page:
Zionist Stooge by Dennis Day
and the editor's response to anti-'anti-Zionist'
letters received here recently.


On the Letters page:
A letter from Mike Miller, plus
two anti-'anti-Zionist' letters of outrage
regarding Dennis Day's latest column.


Happy Camp Residents
Prepare
To Write Novels
During November

Happy Campers, you've been challenged to write an entire novel of 50,000 words or more in the month of November.

Think you're up to the challenge? Come to NaNoWriMo and prove it!

So far three Happy Campers have accepted the challenge: Linda Martin, Judy Bushy, and Pete Winslow.

Linda Martin, the Happy Camp News editor, is about to write with NaNoWriMo novelists for the fourth year in a row. Her first novel, The Scribe of Irohila, was written in only 17 days during November 2001, right here in Happy Camp. The novel is a middle-grade children's adventure story of a boy living in the Klamath River Valley in very ancient times, prior to the settlement of Karuks. In other words, its a bit of a fantasy, but uses the beautiful and unique Klamath terrain as a background.

Her second NaNoWriMo novel was written in November 2002, again in 17 days. "I like to write at least 2500 words daily, which would produce a 50,000-word novel in only twenty days," she said, "but I always go slightly over that number so I get done sooner." Her 2002 novel, The Seagull Rebellion, is another middle-grade children's adventure written about the same ancient civilization, however this time she used a supporting character from the first novel and transported her to the imaginary city of Valeka on the Pacific coast, which was supposedly where San Francisco is now.

Martin's third NaNoWriMo novel was written for adults. We all have to grow up sometime and for Martin, that was in 2003. It is a 130,000+ word portrait of life for a fictional homeschooling family living in Happy Camp during the early 1990's when the mill here closed. The fictional family, Ilyse and Walker O’Callaghan and their four children, Brianna, Mariah, Micah and Chantal, lived in a house not far from Elk Creek Road, on the south side of the river. The title of that novel is A Curious Woman Wants To Know.

This will be the first NaNoWriMo for Judy Bushy and Pete Winslow, both members of the Klamath River Writers Club here in Happy Camp.

Everyone knows Judy Bushy from her wonderful, home-spun "Down River" column in the Pioneer Press, a weekly paper that serves the county from its home in Ft. Jones. Her novel is to be set here in Happy Camp. If you want to know more details, you will have to ask her. Happy Camp News cannot be responsible for divulging what may be top secret plotting ideas. Her working title is Klamath Encounter.

Pete Winslow, a long-time volunteer for the Happy Camp Fire Department and owner of the Angelic Healing Center, has written several articles for Happy Camp News. His NaNoWriMo novel will be somewhat autobiographical and spiritually relevant to modern-day life. Every year during NaNoWriMo there are writers working on quality autobiographies along with those writing totally fictional drivel that may never be worth revising.

For this year Linda Martin plans to write a somewhat contemporary novel starting with a 10-chapter section about teenagers living in the sixties. She intends for one of her characters to get into a lot of trouble following the Berkeley demonstrations and riots. That character will be followed into adulthood as she goes through many attempts to set her life straight again. The working title is Far Out... The Journey To Oblivion.

Anyone else who feels up to the challenge can register for NaNoWriMo at any time up until November 25, the "hope springs eternal" cut-off date. The fun officially starts on November 1 but many wannabe novelists are preparing during October by writing outlines or wasting a lot of time getting to know people and playing silly procrastination games on the site's message forums.

NaNoWriMo started in 1999 as the brainchild of Chris Baty, an aspiring novelist in Oakland, California. It is still, after all these years, Baty's pet project. Because of his mind-boggling inspiration to challenge his friends to a month of novel-writing, thousands of writers worldwide have succumbed to succeeded in writing novels for the first time.


"First they laugh at you, then they fear you, then they fight you, then you win."
--Ghandi

Community Calendar

November 19 - Writer's Club, 2pm, call Pete Winslow for location: 493-2778. All writers are welcome. Each writer is requested to bring something they've written on the topic of "spelunking".

Gold Prospecting: See events planned by the New 49'ers at their website.

Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce: Events Schedule.

To add your event to the Community Calendar, email , or call Linda at (530) 493-2099, or send announcements and press releases to Happy Camp News, P.O. Box 603, Happy Camp, CA 96039.


Notable Sites

Toren Van Beren - this can be fun.

Top 15 Biblical Ways To Acquire A Wife - how did they do it?



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Web Design and Hosting
Klamath Design now offers five low-cost web hosting plans starting at only $3.50 per month.


Gun Control?

With Friends Like This ...
NRA endorses Bush; Badnarik "not surprised"

October 17, 2004 - Phoenix, AZ - On Wednesday, the National Rifle Association shed its alleged neutrality and endorsed President George W. Bush for re-election. Few, least of all Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, expressed surprise.

"No, I'm not a big surprised," said Badnarik on Sunday as he was traveling to the battleground state of Oregon for three days of campaign events. "It's par for the course."

"There's a reason author L. Neil Smith, a friend of mine, calls the NRA 'the nation's oldest, largest gun control organization,'" said Badnarik. "These are the people who wrote the 1968 Gun Control Act 'so it wouldn't be worse.' They've never met a victim disarmament law they weren't willing to capitulate to, accommodate and eventually defend."

Bush was elected in 2000 on a platform that included renewal of the 1994 "Assault Weapons Ban." The renewal failed in Congress despite his continued support.

"Republicans, including now-Attorney General John Ashcroft, have become progressively more anti-gun since becoming a majority in Congress," says Thomas Knapp, Badnarik's media coordinator. "Under Ashcroft, the Department of Justice has aggressively expanded the enforcement of Clinton-era anti-gun laws, while Ashcroft himself has pushed to expand the jurisdiction of those laws into gun shows and other areas not previously covered by them."

So why would the NRA endorse Bush, instead of a candidate who, like Badnarik, advocates repeal of the more than 20,000 unconstitutional federal gun laws?

"If you have to ask why," says Badnarik, "the answer is usually 'money.' The NRA's agenda isn't about protecting gun owners' rights. It's about getting into gun owners' wallets. And what they sell those gun owners is not real change, but the nebulous concept of 'access' to politicians already in power."

The NRA expects to spend $20 million promoting its anti-gun presidential candidate. But gun owners in 48 states and the District of Columbia will have the opportunity to vote for a pro-gun candidate, Michael Badnarik, and for other pro-gun Libertarian candidates, on November 2nd.