The 2024 Fogle Author Series will bring three Ohio authors to Rodman Public Library this fall.
DEAN AND ROSALEEN WAGGENSPACK
The series will begin at 6:30 p.m. on September 9 with Alliance native Dean Waggenspack, whose near-death experience in 2022 led him to write his second book, which he co-authored with his wife, Rosaleen.
The Ledge and The Abyss: Near Death, Rescue and the Search for Meaning was released earlier this year and details the accident that led Dean Waggenspack to be swept into an underwater cave with water chest deep while on a trip to St. Croix, the courageous people who saved him, and his recovery.
Born and raised in Alliance, Dean graduated from high school in 1974 and from Mount Union in 1978. He finished his MBA at Duke in North Carolina and was hired in 1980 to work in Dayton for NCR as a financial analyst.
After a 30-year career, he taught personal finance and business-related courses at the high school level before he became a career/life coach, speaker, and blogger.
Waggenspack describes himself as a storyfinder and has completed 15 marathons.
Prior to writing The Ledge and the Abyss, Waggenspack released Doable Change: Practices for Making Incremental, Achievable Improvements in Your Career and Life and was a TedxDayton 2019 speaker.
SCOTT LONGERT
Scott H. Longert has combined his love of baseball, history and writing into a 30-year career in which he has written scores of newspaper articles and six books about America’s pastime in Cleveland.
His latest work, a biography about Ray Chapman, who played for the Cleveland Indians and was the only player in Major League baseball to ever die on the field after being hit by a ball.
Love and Loss: The Short Life of Ray Chapman, set for release by the end of July, covers Chapman's life from a child to the Major Leagues and his tragic death in 1920 and its aftermath. Learn about Ray's closest friends, Jack Graney, Tris Speaker and Steve O'Neill and his marriage to socialite Katy Daly.
Longert will appear at Rodman Public Library on Monday, October 7 at 6:30 p.m.
Longert has an undergraduate degree from the Ohio State University and an M.A. degree in American History from Cleveland State University. He has spent many years in the history field serving as the sports archivist for the Western Reserve Historical Society and site manager for Shandy Hall, an 1815 home in northeast Ohio. Scott was a park ranger for the National Park Service, stationed at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site until his recent retirement.
Longert has also been a freelance writer for thirty years, publishing news articles on baseball history for The Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine, The National Pastime, The Baseball Research Journal and TimeLine Magazine.
His other books include Cy Young: An American Baseball Hero, which is aimed for younger readers in the third through seventh grades. His Cleveland baseball works in order of publication are Addie Joss: King of the Pitchers (1999); The Best They Could Be: How the Cleveland Indians Became the Kings of Baseball, 1916-1920 (2013); No Money, No Beer, No Pennants: The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Great Depression (2016); Bad Boys, Bad Times: The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Prewar Years, 1937–1941 (2019); and Victory on Two Fronts: The Cleveland Indians and Baseball During the World War II Years (2022).
In addition to writing, Longert is an accomplished speaker, presenting talks on Cleveland baseball history and League Park. He spoke at the 100th anniversary ceremony of Addie Joss's perfect game, held on the grounds of historic League Park. In August of 2022 Scott achieved his dream by speaking at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
CASSANDRA J. KELLY
Cassandra J. Kelly describes herself as a professional marketer, storyteller, and changemaker.
As of earlier this spring, she also added author to her resume with the publication of her first novel, The Clearing.
Kelly holds a degree in Journalism Communications from Ohio University and began her career with a brief stint as a journalist in New York. However, Kelly soon moved back to her home in Columbus to serve her community as a nonprofit communicator. She has worked with multiple nonprofits to achieve visibility, and now runs her own marketing consulting agency.
She also continues to write for national publications, including Mechanical Engineering Magazine, and is working on several new books following the publication of The Clearing.
Kelly will appear at Rodman Library on Wednesday, November 13 at 6:30 p.m.
Set in rural Ohio, The Clearing tells the story of twelve-year-old Sadie Watkins, whose world is being uprooted by her mother's disease: a severe form of multiple sclerosis.
As Sadie seeks solace in the woods behind her house, where she processes her overwhelming home life through traditional Appalachian herbology, pressing and cataloging flowers and plants like a budding scientist, she meets Cali, a barefoot wild child who seems to come from nowhere. The two become instant friends and Cali re-introduces Sadie to the wonders of the forest and gives her the courage she needs to face the future - the one without her mom.
The novel intertwines grief, love, nature, and wonder. It also acts as a time capsule of the healthcare crisis in the early 2000s, and the many American families like Sadie's who had to make great sacrifices when illness struck.