Many residents might not know it, but there are some accomplished authors in Laguna Woods Village.

Peggy Edwards, though, knows it well: She’s the founder and president of the Village Publishing Club, a 54-member group of writers. Some have published their works, and all have been or will be published in the club’s annual “Village Stories,” whose eighth edition comes out this year.

On Wednesday, March 16, the Publishing Club will hold its first Author Forum, at Clubhouse 2. A second one is planned for Oct. 19.

About a dozen of the club’s authors will be at the forum talking about their creations. Visitors can also buy the authors’ works at the forum (cash or check preferred).

“My vision is to give our authors a venue to promote their works, making their membership valuable to them as well as to our Village,” says Edwards, who founded the Publishing Club in 2013.

In this issue of the Globe, readers can meet the authors who will be presenting their works at the forum.

They include novelists, poets, memoirists, humor writers, a “biblical storyteller” and more. They come from all walks of life – education, banking, the military, business and other fields. Many didn’t start writing until retirement.

One thing many of the authors have in common is the tenet “write what you know.”

Peggy Edwards

As president of the Publishing Club, Edwards compiles the annual “Village Stories” series.

She’s also a published author with two children’s books in her name: “Alfabeto Crossover Alphabet” – which she describes as a “crossover from English to Spanish using cognates, for example: A for Angel / Ángel or U for Unicorn / Unicornio” – and “Lalalandia,” a bilingual book of fairy tales. (She notes the book was published before the movie “Lalaland” came out in 2016.)

The 18-year Village resident is working on a book about the beginnings of soccer (futbol) in Mexico, showcasing her grandmother’s brother, Alfred C. Crowle.

Edwards is originally from Mexico City and was raised bilingually. Language was a big part of her career – she taught dual immersion, Spanish and English as a Second Language, from preschool to university students.

In fact, she was inspired to write her first book when she was teaching dual immersion at a preschool: “It occurred to me that when we teach the English sound system using its alphabet, the sounds of the letter do not sound like many of the examples used – such as A for Apple, C for Cat or U for umbrella.”

Douglas Sainsbury

It was a job in the military that put Douglas Sainsbury on the path to becoming a writer.

“In Vietnam, I was the public information officer for my battalion (news reporter and photographer) among other jobs,” he says. “I enjoyed the PIO job the most.”

But Sainsbury didn’t start writing until he retired from a career in banking; work and family took up his time.

A Village resident since 2012, he’s originally from the Chicago suburbs of Oak Park and River Forest. “I attended the same high school as Ernest Hemingway, but not in the same years,” he says.

Sainsbury was an English major in college and says he always wanted to write novels, like the many great authors he read. His latest is a mystery/adventure thriller titled “Trillion$.”

It “centers on a young man in Chicago who goes to work one day at a medical group. He is an accounting manager and discovers someone has deposited almost $2 trillion in his checking account. He is … temporarily frozen out of the U.S. financial system. He and his fiancee have several adventures as a mysterious woman named Maria attempts to steal David from Natalie.”

In recent years, Sainsbury has been branching out from writing novels: He’s been learning how to write screenplays. His script, titled “The Hole in One,” was selected by the Video Club to be produced into a 20-minute movie.

Norma Sadler

Norma Sadler writes both fiction and poetry.

“Stories express how we live our lives, and writing fiction is a way to make sense of the world around us,” she says. “Poetry requires a different facility with language, like sound and imagery, a great challenge each time I work on a poem.”

Her latest work is titled “Krystal’s Notebook: Not A Romance.”

“Krystal Ferraro’s boyfriend left her for her best friend. A high school junior, Krystal wants a boyfriend who cares about her, but is she willing to settle instead for physical involvement with a senior who says that he loves her? In her notebook, she covers her own experiences as well as what she discovers about teachers and other students.”

Sadler seemingly can find inspiration everywhere and will write anywhere.

“Some of my ideas came from hearing friends talk and incorporating those ideas into a story,” she says.  “In ‘Krystal’s Notebook,’ Krystal’s father builds part of a plane in his backyard. A friend of mine built a plane, and I saw it go down the street on a flatbed truck in pieces.”

Her short story “Shadows of Children” “came together with three brief scenes written on an airplane napkin,” and “Dead Goat in the Water Hole” was born out of her knowledge of endurance riders in the West. Seeing a rug in her sister’s home from Aunt Elsie became “Aunt Elsie’s Rug.”

“Ideas become clues and writing is following the clues you give yourself,” Sadler says.

A Village resident since 2010 and originally from Ohio, Sadler began writing in Idaho, where she taught at Boise State University. “One of my courses was Creative Writing for Teachers, a course designed so that teachers would have the experience of writing in different genres before they asked their students to do the same.”

Jim Gibson

Jim Gibson had a specific reason for writing his first published book, “Not Paid Eleven Cents an Hour to Think.”

“I have written it for people to better understand what can happen to us,” he says. “If we are not careful, the wrong people and forces can take control and wreak horrible consequences. This book is especially intended for young minds who might want to know about these things; most importantly, the Vietnam War.”

The memoir covers a 30-year period, from 1963 to 1993. It starts with Gibson’s childhood growing up in Orange County until the Vietnam War started. It moves on to his experiences of the war while in the Army. It then delves into his life as a Vietnam veteran, his eventual return to Vietnam, and his recovery from the war.

“I began writing the book several years ago after I discovered a dust-covered shoebox in my garage filled with the letters that I had written home to my mom and dad while in the war,” he says. “My mother, who passed away several years ago, had saved these. I wanted my children to know about my experiences to hopefully give them a better understanding of their father. So, I started writing.”

Gibson had served as an Army medical corpsman during the war, so he was able to find employment as a civilian corpsman after he returned home. He worked in the ICU of the burn center at USC Medical Center for eight years. Then he switched careers and entered the printing and graphic arts industry until his retirement. The Santa Barbara native moved to the Village in 2004.

Ellyn Maybe

Ellyn Maybe appears to have been suddenly struck by the desire to create poetry.

“I lived in New York City at age 20 and saw a mannequin in a window, which sparked a poem,” she says.

Poetry became a “tremendous outlet for a shy girl,” Maybe says, and she eventually ended up working at a literary art center in Venice called Beyond Baroque.

Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a Village resident since 2014, Maybe says she loves working with music and imagery. Her latest project is “creating poems to go along with photographs.”

Marcia Hackett

Marcia Hackett bases her writing on her extensive travel: She’s visited 62 countries, she says, and taught conversational English in five of those countries.

The title of her only book, a memoir, perhaps best describes her: “A Full Life: Still Going Strong,” published in June 2020.

It was, in fact, a harrowing journey to a faraway land that sparked the writing bug in Hackett.

“I got started writing about 12 years ago when I had a big story to tell,” she says. “My sister and I were caught in the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami while vacationing in Sri Lanka. We survived being washed ashore by the wave.

“My story was submitted to the Los Angeles Times Travel Section and was published in January 2019 under my byline on how a travel experience changed my life. I went on to write other memoirs, which I compiled into my book.”

Hackett has not only traveled far and wide, she’s also lived in at least eight states after her birth in North Dakota. She taught English as a Second Language in the adult program at Santa Ana College for 17 years and retired in 2015, moving to the Village around six years ago.

Alan Dale Dickinson

Alan Dale Dickinson is an eclectic writer indeed.

“I write crime-fiction, white-collar crime/mystery genre, mostly,” he says. “I do, however, also write self-help, children and humorist books and poems.”

Dickinson’s stories come from what he calls the “far reaches” of his head: “I simply open the barn door in my little brain, and let the horses run wild.”

He says he’s always been a fan of noir mysteries and suspense movies, books and novels, and private eye stories set in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Dickinson took early retirement from a banking career, he says, so that he could have the time to write. “That is my passion, my hobby as well as my therapy.”

The Los Angeles native and five-year Village resident started writing and publishing his works in 2010.

Maureen McCabe

Maureen McCabe began writing when she started listening to the voice inside her – or rather to the voices of the “snippets” she would jot down.

“I’ve always enjoyed writing short snippets, before becoming enthralled with a few stories, that spoke to me that ‘they’ wanted to be a book, not just a snippet,” she says.

That has led to three diverse books: one about her father’s vaudeville career in the 1930s; the second – a book for girls ages 4-8 – about two Christmas ornaments that fall in love; and the third about a once sought-after Broadway photographer in the late 1920s through 1961.

That third book, of which she is a co-author, is titled “Vintage Babes of Broadway: Through the 20th Century Lens of Murray Korman.” It will be released in May.

The Orange County native moved to the Village during the pandemic after a career that she describes as just as eclectic as her writing – “everything from managing retirement homes to selling real estate.” But, she says with a “wink, wink,” she’s in her favorite career right now – retirement.

Daneen Pysz

Daneen Pysz describes herself as a “biblical storyteller.” She writes first-person dramas about women in the Bible “who have done brave and courageous deeds for the glory of God.”

“I think it is important for us to see the feminist perspective of Scripture and how God has a plan for everyone,” she says.

Her book “Royalty and Loyalty” is about four princesses/queens from the Old Testament and four princesses/queens from the New Testament who “show us how God used them for his plan for salvation.”

The Dana Point resident, who is originally from Dearborn, Michigan, says she began writing 10 years ago when she felt called to do the kind of writing she does. Pysz is in candidacy to become a deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

William Scott Galasso

It was a desire, at a young age, to do his own thing that put William Scott Galasso on the path to writing.

“I started writing poetry in the eighth grade, when, having been assigned a homework assignment, I decided instead to write a poem about the sea,” he says.

That turned into a career in poetry, though he held a variety of jobs while living in New York, San Diego and, mostly recently, Seattle. These include construction worker, proofreader, administrative assistant, systems and procedures analyst, salesman and security/gate captain for pro sports teams, and a few commercial acting gigs.

He also was a guest teacher for elementary students on writing and the American Civil War, and has mentored aspiring writers. He’s currently on the editorial staff of The California Quarterly.

The seven-year Village resident writes in free verse and a variety of Japanese forms, including haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun. His latest book, published in 2020, is “Legacy: Thirty Years of Haiku.” He has a collection of new poems under his belt and expects to be publishing poetry books this year and next.

Sunshine Lutey

Sunshine Lutey’s three autobiographical books grew out of her personal journals and bits of paper, all stored in boxes.

“When I express my thoughts on paper, it helps to clarify them; perhaps see past a problem, and focus on the beauty that I can see in my mind, even if I don’t see the beauty around me,” she says.

After working  25 years writing business computer programs for large computer systems in California and Nevada, Terri Lutey, as she was then named, moved to the Village in 1995, taking the name Sunshine (and legalizing it in 2016) and devoting herself to making music.

Lutey eventually joined the Publishing Club and had three stories and one poem published in the club’s “Village Stories 2015.” Three years later, encouraged to publish her personal stories, Lutey released her first book, “Journey to Joy,” the story of her life through 2018.

Lutey’s books are filled with musical memories, she says, memories that started in Stanley, Wisconsin, where she was born.

Nancy Brown

Nancy Brown was writing her own memoir about 10 years ago when she discovered a treasure: a century-old manuscript written by her great-grandmother.

The manuscript detailed how “she mothered 168 babies in a 13-year time period, never accepting one penny for her work, feeling directed by God to do her baby work, and dedicating her baby nursery to her son, Kenzie, who died at the age of 17 of black diphtheria,” Brown says.

She put her own memoir on hold and published her great-grandmother’s story in June 2021.

Like her relative, Brown has had a connection with children for much of her life: She was a special education teacher for almost 38 years – “teaching every level from preschool through university teacher training courses and students with every type of disability: physical, mental, emotional and learning.”

Born and raised in California – with many years spent in Alaska and Illinois – Brown moved to the Village just over six years ago.

Phil Silverman

Phil Silverman enjoys writing humor, “leaning towards dark farce,” as well as short plays, song lyrics, poems and musings. His latest in a series of nostalgic “Boomer” books in “scrapbook format” is “The Boomer Sings Again.”

A new one, “The Uncollected Boomer,” is due out in April, he says.

The former labor specialist for the state of New Jersey and producer/host at an NPR-associated radio lives in Lake Forest. He says he started writing at age 6 and began publishing his works in 1972.

The Publishing Club’s Author Forum is Wednesday, March 16, from 2 to 5 p.m. on the Clubhouse 2 veranda. For information, visit PubClubLW.org or call club President Peggy P. Edwards at 949-707-5156.

So you wanna be a writer? Here’s advice from those who do it

No matter what genre you write, its is essential that you read a good deal. This may seem obvious, but it isn’t. Each genre has its own way of engaging people. There is a certain way to tell a story, whether writing a mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, biography or fiction. It’s also important to write something virtually every day to keep in the habit. If you sit and wait to be struck by a bolt of inspiration, you may “waste” a lot of time just waiting for something to happen. Most fine writers must write — it’s in the blood like music. dance, painting or any other kind of art.

– William Scott Galasso

Start simple — take a simple passing thought and expand on it. For instance, while I was doing a balancing exercise, through the open window blinds I saw a tree — the trunk looked so firm, so strong. It had two branches on each side. It looked as though they helped keep the tree in balance. I mimicked the angle of the branches with my arms, and suddenly my balancing exercise became easier. I smiled and said, “Hey Balance Tree; thank you!” So perhaps my next short piece will be about this lovely tree; I might title it, “Ode to My Balance Tree.” Just pay attention to your observations, your thoughts, and let them lead you into a paragraph or so expanding the concept. It can be fun start.

— Sunshine Lutey

You can get a lot of inspiration from the other art forms. Don’t pressure yourself, let it come naturally.

– Ellyn Maybe

I would recommend that people who would like to try their hand in writing to take classes in writing, which could be poetry, fiction or memoir, and join a writers group for critique and feedback on writing.  Most importantly, writers need to spend time on their craft each day, whether as beginners or successful authors.

– Norma Sadler

I recommend they figure out what kind of genre they prefer to read — fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, science fiction, memoirs, children’s stories, etc. Or if the person has had an interesting life, maybe he or she would like to write memoirs. In any event, all my writing instructors have recommended that one read, read, read all kinds of literature. Also, it’s important to figure out for whom you are writing. Then, just get started. There’s also lots of help available for new writers. I’ve taken most of my writing classes through Saddleback Emeritus classes.

– Marcia  Hackett

My advice for people who want to try their hand at writing is to just go for it! For me, it has to be personal, which is why I am writing my own memoir after publishing my first book, my great-grandmother’s memoir.

– Nancy Brown

A) Start with a diary, write for 10 to 20 minutes every day. B) Write one sentence to start with. C) Then make that one sentence into a paragraph. D) Then make that paragraph into a chapter, and, E) then make seven to 10 chapters. And viola, they shall have their first novel and/or autobiography

– Alan Dale Dickinson

Publishing a book is very doable today; join us and learn how. Only you can write your legacy. We will publish your story. We are our stories.

– Peggy Edwards