16
July 2015
Gilbert author’s book focuses on Gen-Xers, a snake BY MEGHAN MCCOY
Gilbert author Dr. Steven Dahl has a rule when he pens books—do not include adult language and themes. “My criteria is, ‘Can I read this out loud in front of my teenager kids without being embarrassed?’” Dahl said of his action-adventures and murder mystery novels. Dahl’s fifth novel, “Rattlesnake,” was published in March and is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle and Nook. The 400-page book follows a trio of Generation X biking enthusiasts who encounter a wealthy stranger, his “lady friend” and a rattlesnake. The story slithers through Colorado, the Far East and Eastern Europe. “It’s about ordinary people who get caught up on vacation riding their mountain bikes and get caught up in this big adventure,” he said.
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A doctor by trade, Dahl grew up in Mesa and Gilbert. After working in the emergency room, he opened a private OB-GYN office in Mesa, where he worked for 25 years. He retired eight years ago. During his quarter-century career, he delivered about 7,000 babies. He has also done humanitarian work, traveling to places like the Pacific Islands, Europe and Liberia. “It is very rewarding and I can use my medical knowledge and put it to use instead of growing old and growing cobwebs,” he said. Although his first book, “Chicken Fried Steak,” was published in 2010, he began writing in 2006. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of creating it and seeing it going down in text and reading it later and saying, ‘Wow, I wrote that,’” he said. For more information about Dahl’s books, visit www.authorstevendahl.com.
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Gilbert veteran’s coat chosen for art show BY MEGHAN MCCOY
Looking for a purpose in life, U.S. Navy veteran Lucy Wong turned to arts and crafts after a diagnosis of scleroderma. Scleroderma is an autoimmune disease that causes chronic hardening and tightening of the skin and collective tissues. For Wong, it makes speaking difficult because her vocal cords tighten. Two years ago, she began attending creating arts therapy classes at the VA in Phoenix. The class helps her continue a love she found 14 years ago, when she purchased her first sewing machine. During the class, she made a “Civil War Frock Coat” from a pattern using denim and leather, blue corduroy and silver buttons. Thanks to her hobby, Wong and the “Civil War Frock Coat” received second place in the category of Fabric Art Kit in the Art Division of the 2015 National Veterans Creative Arts Competition. Competition results were announced in late June. War veteran Wong was raised behind her family’s Chinese laundromat in Los Angeles. Her parents emigrated from China after World War II to raise their seven children.
“They can’t get regular government jobs because of racial profiling,” Wong recalled. “They created their own jobs and they did cleaners and people’s dirty laundry. Gilbert resident Lucy There is no money in Wong, a U.S. Navy it. We had to live in veteran, created a the back area of the Civil War coat that has moved to the business.” next stage of the VA Wong enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1984, Creative Art Show contest. GSN photo by serving primarily Kimberly Carrillo during Operation Desert Storm until heading into the reserves in 1990. “We didn’t have any money,” she said. “I thought this would be a good way to travel, get education and get some experience.” Now on veterans disability, Wong said she can’t keep up with a job. “I couldn’t manage and I didn’t know why,” she said about the days leading up to her scleroderma diagnosis. “I had gone through graduate school, led troops... through arts and crafts it didn’t make me feel like a failure.”
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