About Bryna

Born:

5/5/32, in Linden, New Jersey.

Named:

Bryna Joan Levenberg.

Parents:

Isador, a dentist.

Rose, a homemaker.

Education:

Linden High School, Brandeis & Rutgers University, B.A. English, Cornell University: M.S. Education.

Career:

I thought I would become a great dancer. By age 4, I knew dancing wasn’t the right career choice. In first grade I discovered that I loved to splash paint all over the newsprint paper the teacher set up on the easel. “Aha!” I thought. “I will become an artist.” I tried to drip paint on the floor. My teacher was not pleased. I was under-appreciated

as an artist.

I began my career when I joined

the Girl Scouts! I volunteered to be the troop reporter. Each week I would report on any special event that our troop organized. I typed on an old clunky Underwood typewriter, and rushed downtown to the Linden Observer office.

One day the editor offered me a job! I was 12 years old. And by the time I left the office, I was a real reporter! I was named the Official Girl Scout Reporter. My job was to contact each Girl Scout troop in the city, and report the news. Yes! Not only did I have a weekly column with a byline, I got paid ten cents a column inch. Since a full column was 30 inches, I made sure to stretch that news.

When the Boy Scouts complained that they didn’t have a column, my editor gave me the job. I wrote that column under a nom de plume.

I Become a Syndicated Columnist

By the time I got to high school, I’d given up the scouts, but soon landed another newspaper job. The Linden Observer had added a new section to the paper. Some kid was writing a column called The Teenager Looks Around. “I can do better than that!” I said to myself. So I called that editor. What luck!. The other fellow had just quit. “Send me a column,” If I like it, you’ve got the job.” I did, and he did.

WOW! I was a syndicated columnist—in seven weekly newspapers. I could write about anything I wanted, and get paid-- $10.00 a week

A New Challenge

After high school my writing career tanked. I was off to college. Me and thousands of college students majored in English. So I trained as a teacher. First, second and third grades were my favorites. I moved to Greenwich Village and taught at P.S. 42.

Wife, Mom, Author

I met and married Harvey Fireside—after a whirlwind romance of just 10 weeks. Within a couple of years, we had two kids, Leela and Doug. It was mighty crowded in a one- bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village. When Harvey was offered a job teaching at Ithaca College in Ithaca New York, we moved to this beautiful small city. I decided to launch my writing career..

The Road Gets Bumpy

Well, now what was I going to write about? What did I know? I knew something about teaching. And being a parent. I knew something about kids. I started selling articles to teacher’s magazines. After a while, I ran out of things I knew.

Maybe I’ll write about what I don’t’ know! Here I was, living in a terrific college town—Cornell University on one hill and Ithaca College on the other. And all these experts around me. I took a chance and interviewed a famous scientist. He was working to save an important forest in Florida. And he loved to educate people like me.

Ranger Rick’s Nature Magazine sent me a check. I wrote another article for them on science experiments you can eat. And so it went. I loved interviewing people. I loved writing about new topics.

Not Everything I Wrote Got Published.

O.K. I wrote a book or two. Rejection letters followed. No one wanted to publish my books. I must be doing something wrong.

Fortune Smiles

I joined the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and started going to conferences. I met wonderful writers, illustrators, and editors. I kept writing, and then something wonderful happened. A new writing friend asked me to co-author a children’s book with her. It used my skill as an interviewer. Special Parents Special Children was

my first published book. Then the same publisher published my next book, Is There a Woman in the House or Senate?

I Decide to Write About Teenagers

Dan was born two years after we came to Ithaca. When Leela, Doug and Dan became teenagers, I started writing about them and their friends. They all went to the alternative schools. They were mighty independent. Some kids, I discovered went to college without graduating from high school. Others decided to take time between high school and college and work or travel or do other interesting things. Gosh, there were so many different ways to grow up!

After interviewing dozens of kids around the country, Choices for the High School Graduate,was published. Lots of people read it, and recom-mended it to others. The latest edition of Choices came out is 2009. New kids to interview, new ideas, new things to do.

And Other Things

I’ve also become very interested in Jewish life in America, and in February 2008 my first Jewish-themed book, Private Joel and the Sewell Mountain Seder, was published.

When I’m Not Writing

When I’m not writing, I love to swim. Women’ Swimmin’ –a stalwart group of women who, once a year in August, swim across Lake Cayuga to raise money for our local Hospice organization.

The year before, my husband Harvey had developed a deadly cancer. I was balancing caring for him, and writing. I practiced swimming a mile. The swim across the lake is 1.2 miles. It’s a great swim for a good cause.

Sad Things Happen

Sadly, my dearest friend and husband, Harvey Fireside, died on February 1, 2008. We had been married for 48 years, and were a great team—taking part in our community, helping refugees and immigrants, starting a new Reform Jewish Temple, and trying our best to live lightly on this earth of ours.

Our three children, are married, and having kids of their own, and have creative and worthwhile careers. We all miss Harvey’s sense of humor, his warm and loving heart, and his terrific sense of justice.

But Life Goes On

It’s true. Life does continue on. I am sitting in front of my computer, looking out into my garden where squirrels and chipmunks, and an occasional red fox, and all too often a herd of deer munch their way through. But the myriad birds that frequent my bird feeders and explore life in my garden, as I explore new things to write about.