Published: July 21, 2008 10:37 am         

WRITERS: Three local writers 'Get it 2gether'

They have had the courage to transform an idea into fiction, a memoir and music.

David Brown, Janeen DeGolier Noetling and Roosevelt Mitchell are three local personalities who dream only of making a difference.

Brown’s first attempt at fiction began with the desire to spread a Christian message. Noetling desires to bring hope to others in her shoes. And Mitchell aims to inspire youth and teenagers to choose the path less chosen — towards success, not drugs and violence.

The Journal-Register caught up with each of them to learn more.



The Elusive Chauffeur

Set in Western New York and Southern Ontario, David Brown's suspense thriller "The Elusive Chauffeur" follows a pair of detectives, mathematician Samuel Mohlar and play boy Kenneth Gray, as they seek to find the murderer of heiress and businesswoman Krista Clark.

When they realize the missing variable is the victim's personal chauffeur, they must solve the mystery before a powerful gangster, determined to see them to their graves, finds them first.

Brown and his wife, Kay, both math instructors at Niagara Community College, have been busy this summer promoting the book at local shops. They will appear at The Book Shoppe in Medina, 519 Main Street, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 23.

Published by Tate Publishing & Enterprises out of Oklahoma, "The Elusive Chauffeur" is a quick pool side read with an inspirational message, Brown said.

As the author of four previous books, all relating to math, writing fiction was a new venture for Brown. His wife, Kay, said he started talking about the plot five years ago. Piqued by his ideas, she encouraged him to put pen to paper.

"I wanted to write a good mystery novel," David Brown said.

The first version of the story was ready for an editor's expert eye in Dec. 2004, he said. It took at least another two years thereafter to get Tate Publishing to pick it up.

"They've involved us in every process," Brown said. "The editor spent a ton of time on this. She went through every word."

"It's been exciting," Kay Brown said.

The book is now available online at barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, target.com or directly from the publisher at orders@tatepublishing.com. Locally, copies are available at The Book Shoppe, Life Resources in Amherst, the Niagara Emporium at the Summit Park Mall and the Book Corner in Niagara Falls. An audio version has been released, as well.

Brown earned a bachelor's and master's degree in mathematics from SUNY Buffalo. He taught at NCCC for 33 years and now serves as professor emeritus.

He and his wife reside in Sanborn. The two were married in Niagara Falls near Goat Island 36 years ago after being introduced by friends.



Entombed in Silence

It took an entire lifetime and the writing of "Entombed in Silence" for Janeen Brenda DeGolier Noetling to find peace. With the book's spring release, she has discovered true happiness for the very first time, she says.

"Entombed in Silence" is what Noetling affectionately calls a "scrapbook memoir" of more than 60 poems, pictures, short stories, journal entries and prose. The first of what she intends to be a series of books, the collection tells the story of Noetling's life growing up in Brocton, NY as the youngest of 20 children and the pain she endured overcoming a childhood filled with physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

The book was written this past winter in her sister's home in Albion. It was the first time she had returned to the state in nearly 30 years, she said. She somehow found the strength and courage, bringing her journey full circle as she reunited with the siblings who have been suffering as much as she has.

"When I came back to New York in 2006, I didn't know my siblings," Noetling said. "Now we are healing together."

"I was silent for 50 years. Now I am completely open and I have no secrets. My life ... is better for it."

Noetling's major theme is not about blame, but about breaking the silence. Freedom from one's own demons — recovery — requires the decision to get up every morning and put one foot forward, she said.

"I spent a lot of years not wanting to get up ever again," she said. "You can stay down, or you can get up. ... I chose to get up and just keep doing whatever came next. It was kind of the place where I had to start."

Research on her second book, "Putting the Pieces Together," is currently underway. First though, she will travel to North Carolina to visit her four children and 12 grandchildren. After years of misunderstandings and miscommunications, they are healing, too, she said.

With the flushing away of bad memories, the good emerged, as well. In 1956, when Noetling was only 3, her family was awarded a bus trip to New York City by the American Toy Fair for being the largest family in the United States with all members living, she said. She remembers holidays around the six-leaf mahogany table, sledding, making snowmen and curling up by the old wood fire on Tuesday nights to watch Red Skelton. They lived on a 27-acre farm that produced well.

Noetling will host a book signing at 7 p.m. July 31 at Albion's Swan Library. Her story has prompted her to become a motivational speaker, she said.

The book was self-published and is available online at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and target.com. Learn more at her Web site, entombedinsilencebook.com.

"If you are a predator, GET HELP; if you are a victim, STOP, speak out; if you are a bystander, DON'T; open your eyes; open your ears; open your heart; reach out, make a difference," Noetling writes.





Get it 2gether

Reaching one’s life dream is like going fishing, Roosevelt Mitchell says. You have to bait up.

“Don’t give that dream any slack,” he said. “Just wheel it in.”

The son of migrant workers who spent his youth beside his mother and siblings in fruit orchards and rows of vegetables, Mitchell moved to Medina as a teenager to live with his father. He spent 12 years working at Fisher’s Fruit Farm on Route 104, graduating from Iroquois Job Corps in Shelby trained to become a chef.

The people around him, primarily his teachers, encouraged him to pursue his passions. Their belief in him provided him with the fortitude he needed to self-publish his first book, “Life is a Merry-Go-Round,” in 1993 at the age of 28. About his personal observations on such topics as relationships, drugs, high school drop-outs and runaways, it was well received by the community, motivating him to become a youth minister the next year.

He eventually moved to Florida and then Jackson, Mississippi, where he resides now, and recently developed the program “Get it 2gether.” He travels to schools across the country with his original gospel / hip-hop CD, T-shirts and inspirational message inspiring youth to break free of their past — no matter how difficult — to embrace the future.

By day, he has worked as a substitute teacher and school bus driver. While living in Medina, he worked in the dietary department at Medina Memorial Hospital. He often volunteers with Habitat for Humanity and is father to four girls, four boys and four grandchildren. His daughter, Natasha Herring, recently graduated from SUNY Brockport. His son, Roosevelt Mitchell, Jr., lives in Albion.

It was one of Mitchell’s sons who helped him coin the phrase. He came into a room one day with his pants drooping around his knees and Mitchell yelled at him to “Get it together.” The saying stuck and it blossomed from there.

“When you’re young, your life is full of first times. As you get older your life is full of last times,” the title song states. “Don’t build your life on good times, build your life on a solid foundation. Get Get Get it, Get it together.”

To schedule a speaking engagement or to learn more, contact Mitchell at P.O. Box 1206, Brandon, MS 39043 or at gadson96@bellsouth.net.

“You have to set your life up to be successful,” he advises his students. They, also, have control over how they are treated, he says. “The outcome is in their hands.”

Contact reporter Nicole Coleman at 798-1400, ext. 8227.