Whitko High School graduate Amy McVay Abbott has published her second collection of essays. “A Piece of Her Mind” is a compilation of her newspaper column, which runs in multiple Indiana newspapers, and is available as a trade paperback on Amazon and an eBook on Kindle. Abbott is a 1975 graduate of Whitko High School and the daughter of William McVay, former Whitko agriculture teacher, and the late Marilyn Enz McVay. Abbott’s editor is a Whitley County resident Ruth Stanley, who is a professional manuscript editor and a long-time friend of Abbott. “A Piece of Her Mind” is a humorous book about Hoosier life, from Abbott’s childhood in northeastern Indiana to raising her own child in southwestern Indiana. Abbott’s essays look at neighbors involved in the new trend of suburban chicken ranching in her Warrick County home to a look back at the South Whitley Lions Club annual Easter Egg hunt, circa 1960s and 1990s. Several other essays look at life in northeastern Indiana in the 1960s, including “Home Cooking,” which reveals the highly desired potato salad recipe. Abbott has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in journalism from Ball State University and is also the author of “The Luxury of Daydreams” (2011), which is also available on Amazon. She has been published at Salon, OUR USA, Talking Writing, Alter-Net, Fictionique, Erma Bombeck’s Writer’s Workshop Blog, Does This Make Sense, Mamapedia and multiple local and regional newspapers and magazines. She is a featured contributor to the online The Broad Side and also blogs at Open Salon and Red Room as well as her own site, www.amyabbottwrites.com The book is available on Amazon, both as a trade paperback and a Kindle e-book. “A Piece of Her Mind” can be ordered through bookstores. Abbott is working with the staff of the South Whitley Public Library to schedule a reading sometime this fall.
