Join Bill Miller and Elizabeth Rodenz for an evening discussing the allure of historical Pittsburgh in fiction.
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Steel City is the story of the 1890’s golden age of Pittsburgh when its technological innovations and wealth creation made it the Silicon Valley of its day. Amid this fevered atmosphere Jamie Dalton, a recent Yale graduate and son of a corporate lawyer, must decide whether to accede to his father’s wishes and pursue a career in law or the steel business, or follow his own instincts and become a newspaperman.
William J. Miller, Jr. grew up in Pittsburgh and was always fascinated by the living connections to its storied past: the Carnegie Library and Museum, the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and, in his own neighborhood, the Frick mansion, where Henry Frick’s daughter, Helen, still lived. Mr. Miller spent his entire career in journalistic enterprises as reporter, publisher, blogger, and Time Inc. consumer marketing veteran. He graduated from the Hotchkiss School and Trinity College, Hartford, CT and lives in Watch Hill, RI with his wife, Warren, and Havanese, Jake. Steel City is his first novel.
Elizabeth Rodenz was born in a coal patch near Irwin, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. She grew up listening to her parents tell stories about their lives in a similar coal patch and that of coal miners and their families. Since she left that coal patch, she has traveled many roads—that of an educator, editor, executive coach, workshop facilitator, management consultant, entrepreneur, and writer/author. Yet, she has never forgotten those stories and how that time in her life helped ease her many journeys. Her books include Josephine: A Woman of Indomitable Spirit, inspired by the life of her great-grandmother, and Samson and Delilah: My Two Loves, the heart-warming story of two beagles Elizabeth and her husband rescued hours before being euthanized. Elizabeth currently writes memoir, poetry, and fiction and helps people build bridges in their lives through her workshops and classes based on the body of work of Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung.
Steel City is the story of the 1890s golden age of Pittsburgh when its technological innovations and wealth creation made it the Silicon Valley of its day. Pittsburgh was first in steel, food processing, and electricity, and the leaders of those industries--Carnegie, Frick, Heinz, and Westinghouse--are names we still know today.
Josephine is a saga about greed, power, servitude, and survival, balanced against the misery of living in a western Pennsylvania coal patch. Timeless, poignant with flawed, unforgettable characters and set during a most prosperous time for the few, Josephine's efforts to shape a life that sets her afire are thwarted time and time again by forces around her.
Dogs are forever. They are not to be tossed aside because they don't fit our version of a perfect dog. They kiss away our tears, cuddle next to us when we are sad, greet us with excitement and high spirits, even if we are in a bad mood, and stay by our side in times of trouble and tears. They know very well the meaning of the words, "till death do us part."
Dogs are forever. They are not to be tossed aside because they don't fit our version of a perfect dog. They kiss away our tears, cuddle next to us when we are sad, greet us with excitement and high spirits, even if we are in a bad mood, and stay by our side in times of trouble and tears. They know very well the meaning of the words, "till death do us part."
