'Pequan's imagination fires up book on teen issues

Local author Monica Gold Weiner Massapequa boasts a finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. Massapequa resident and former Massapequa Post reporter Monica Arlene Gold blended her memoriies of childhood with a spark of reality to complete the novel, Looking for Shelter.

Monica Arlene Gold, now Monica Weiner, graduated Oceanside High School in 1967 and began student teaching as a English teacher at Grand Avenue Junior High School in Belmore. It was there Gold met her future husband Harvey Weiner, who was a young science teacher at the same school.

"It was a Junior High School romance," she said. "We were across the hall from each other." The couple have been married since 1975.

Her teaching career continued at Roslyn High School for six years, and then Gold decided to stay at home to raise her two children. In 1985 reentered the work force and put her teaching roots down at the Seaford High School. Later, she taught college English as an adjunct professor at Hofstra University and as a news reporter for Massapequa Post.

She grew up in Oceanside and used the historic elements of real life to give life to the main character in her book, Walter. He developed in her mind after an incident in the late 1990s when the Massapequa High School field was set ablaze. "That incident captured my imagination," she said.

The second character, Jan, grew out of an incident in New Jersey in which some teenaged boys taunted and raped a mentally disabled girl who sought their friendship. "It came to light for me," Gold said. "I had a very strong reaction to that; it was that out of that kind of injustice that the character Jan was created." she said.

Gold subtly mixes fiction and reality in her book. The story focuses on a troubled boy who likes fire, and his sister, who has not moved forward from her troubling past. The sister entangles a high school teacher in her world.

Since Gold lives by the water, she became familiar with the word "Necker," which is used to describe a clamdigger who lives in shacks near the water. In her book, "Necker" is used as a word of degradation.

With all of that coming together in her head, Gold found the perfect opportunity to put it all on paper. She sustained a severe back injury, which forced her to be bedridden for a significant part of the day.

"I was unable to live my normal life," said Gold said. "So this became the perfect time to begin writing." Working with a laptop in her bedroom which her son hooked up to the internet, she was ready to write. By then, Gold had the time to focus on chunks of information she had written down and was able to organize them and build her characters and her story line. "I didn't know how the chunks were going to fit together and I didn't know how the characters would relate to each other," she said, "but eventually all came together." The time she was alotted in bed gave her the opportunity to finish her book. "It took

four years to complete," she said. "I had a lot of time, an active imagination and a boring life."

Gold's book can be found at Amazon.com or the Borders Book Store in Farmingdale, Barnes & Noble online. Readers can also visit Gold's website at monicagoldbooks.com