2024 Author Debut

Marla Burke

Growing up, Marla often preferred to be outside exploring forests, fields, and streams rather than being inside. Early in life she developed an affinity and respect for nature as well as holding a special place in her heart for animals. She has volunteered for many years at animal shelters and has given numerous rescue animals their forever home. Marla also seems to have a knack for finding stray or abandoned pets and injured wildlife and getting them the help that they need.

In 1989, she married Michael and moved to Haycock Township. With over 50% of the township land mass preserved by open space, state and county parks, lakes and state game lands, Marla found herself surrounded by Mother Nature.

When her husband bought her a camera as a gift, she began an epic journey exploring her surroundings with it. Her keen eye and an abundance of patience worked in her favor to capture amazing images of the ever-changing landscape of Haycock Township.

She has gone on to garner awards in photography from various juried shows including the Invision Photo Festival at the Banana Factory, Lehigh Valley Camera Club’s Focus

Show at the Allentown Art Museum, and the Stover Mill Gallery in Upper Bucks County.

Her work has also been featured in Pennsylvania Magazine on numerous occasions, including the coveted magazine cover shot in the November/December 2022 issue.

With camera in hand, she does what she loves by immersing herself in nature with the possibility of capturing something incredible. Marla views the great outdoors like a treasure hunt, never knowing what is over the next hill or around the next bend, but occasionally, an extraordinary treasure presents itself. Cruising along the back roads, walking around her property, or visiting the nearby parks and waterways, she will take photos of beautiful or unusual subjects. It may be a stormy sunset on the lake, or an early morning encounter with a fox kit that piques her interest. It could be shards of ice, collecting on the banks of the lake or ice forming on weeds. All things, large and small are captured in the lens of her camera. She is hopeful with the publishing of this book that she can share and preserve those incredible images so that others can experience the amazing treasures that surround Haycock today.

Lynda Gene Rymond

LYNDA RYMOND is the author of two picture books published by Houghton Mifflin, The Village of Basketeers and Oscar and the Mooncats. She is a finalist for 2019 Bucks County Poet Laureate, a finalist for the 2018 Main Street Poetry competition, and her short story "IN Moonlight" was an honorable mention in the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable National Competition for paranormal tales.

She is the leader of Words Come Easy, a drop-in-writing workshop where beginning and experienced writers use ever-changing prompts and props to inspire poems, stories, and creative non-fiction in a supportive atmosphere. It meets at the Haycock Township Community Center Library every Tuesday evening from 7-9 pm.

Lynda Gene grew up in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, attended Bucks County Community College and received a B.F.A. from the California College of Arts, having studied drawing, ceramics, and book arts. Lynda Gene now lives on Goblin Farm in Applebachsville with her husband, painter Charles Browning, where they tend goats, chickens, honeybees, an enormous vegetable and fruit garden, two studios and no television.

Lynda Gene Rymond

Authors

Thomas Moll & Robert Leight

ROBERT L. LEIGHT graduated from Quakertown Junior-Senior High School. After service in the United States Air Force he prepared to teach at Kutztown State Teachers College. He was a classroom teacher at Palisades Junior-Senior High School and Pennridge Junior High School prior to completing graduate study at Lehigh University. He taught at Ursinus college and Lehigh University, where his main research interest was the history of education.

In 1979 Dr. Leight was elected to the Board of School Directors of the Quakertown Community School District, serving for 27 years, during six of which he was the school board President. Leight serves as the secretary of the Quakertown Community Education Foundation.

THOMAS MOLL, a native of Quakertown, is a graduate of Quakertown Community Senior High School. After graduating from American University with a degree in French and European studies, he earned his Master's from Lehigh University. Dr. Robert L. Leight served as his advisor.

After teaching French and social studies for ten years in the Souderton Area School district, Mr. Moll pursued a Master of Library Science at Kutztown University. He is now the librarian at Souderton Area High School. Since 2000 he has been involved with the historic Richland Library Company, Quakertown, and has served as its librarian since 2004.

Other Books by the authors

Richard Moore and the Underground Railroad at Quakertown (2019)

Brick Tavern: the Inn, the Village, and the People (2018)

Anniversary History of the QCSD: the Boroughs (2016)

Anniversary History of the QCSD: the Townships (2015)

A Pictorial History of Milford and Trumbauersville (2012)

Images of America: Richland Township and Richlandtown Boroughs (2011)

Robert Leight and Thomas Moll