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Gail L. Winfree

Goodreads Author

Born

in Nashville, Tennessee, The United States

Website

http://www.winfree-writes.com

Member Since

October 2012

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I was born on February 13, 1952, in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating high school, I wandered through life, taking numerous jobs, until finally settling into an assistant engineer job in a Nashville recording studio. When the studio went out of business, I joined the Army and was sent to the Defense Information School where I studied journalism. The training and experience I received in the Army has been invaluable to my writing. As military journalists, we were prepared to go anywhere in the world and use whatever was available to us to get the news out. Writing was simple and clean, no gimmicks, no computer, no Internet, just a pad and pencil, a typewriter, and a 35mm camera. We learned to do it all.

In 1974, I was transferred to Germ I was born on February 13, 1952, in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating high school, I wandered through life, taking numerous jobs, until finally settling into an assistant engineer job in a Nashville recording studio. When the studio went out of business, I joined the Army and was sent to the Defense Information School where I studied journalism. The training and experience I received in the Army has been invaluable to my writing. As military journalists, we were prepared to go anywhere in the world and use whatever was available to us to get the news out. Writing was simple and clean, no gimmicks, no computer, no Internet, just a pad and pencil, a typewriter, and a 35mm camera. We learned to do it all.

In 1974, I was transferred to Germany where I met Monika, and we married in 1976. I separated from the Army in 1982, stayed in Germany, did some freelance and consulting work, and then took a government job. After a couple of years, I got tired of being a bureaucrat, so I quit my government job and, again, did some freelancing and consulting. I spent 8 years teaching college part-time, 15 years tour guiding part-time, and 6 years working for the Red Cross part-time. During that time, I managed to complete my BA in English, BS in Journalism, and MS in Public Administration.

I wrote and published K-town: A City Guide in 1987. It was the first English language book about Kaiserslautern (a city in southwestern Germany with a large U.S. military population) and sold very well locally. Since the book was a local guide, I self-published it and sold it locally. That was quite a feat in those pre-electronic, pre-digital days. Again, my Army training paid off.

In 1994, I went to work for the USO in Kaiserslautern where I’m currently the tours and marketing manager and publish the monthly USO magazine, Kaiserslautern Kabel, for the English language community here. I also write books

Several years ago, Monika and I bought an old (built in 1875) farm house in a small village in the Palatinate Forest area. We spend a lot of time working on the house and in the garden. We share our home with nine dogs and a farmyard full of cats, hedgehogs, fish, birds, and other assorted creatures that come around for a handout. We’re also active in animal rescue.

I’ve spent most of my life writing nonfiction professionally. Though I’ve always enjoyed poetry and fiction, I never seriously considered publishing my work until Recently.

I published my first book of poetry and short stories, Things I Remember, in 2010; my first novel, Finding What’s Lost, in 2012; and my second novel, The Reality of Being Lovers, in 2013. I’m currently working on a few other writing projects.

Visit me at my website www.winfree-writes.com or on my Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/GailLWinfree.
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54 posts
Gail L. Winfree's Blog

Obscenities

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“In these days of verbal inflation, when words fall out of fashion as fast as our clothes, we have only grubby obscenities rendered meaningless by constant repetition.” Benoite Groult “Salt on Our Skin”

When I hear the language of casual conversation spoken today, I think about this passage from Benoite Groult’s novel, “Salt on Our Skin,” published in 1988. It seems to me that ob

Combine Editions
Gail L. Winfree’s books

Average rating: 3.95 · 61 ratings · 30 reviews · 4 distinct works

	Finding What's Lost 3.89 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Reality of Being Lovers really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Things I Remember really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	K-town: A City Guide 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1987	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

Gail’s Quotes

“A power of Butterfly must be -
The Aptitude to fly
Meadows of Majesty concedes
And easy Sweeps of Sky -”
― Emily Dickinson

tags: butterflies, flying

77 likes

“No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

tags: beauty, inner-beauty, inspirational

2367 likes

“People are much like those stars up there. Some burn faintly for millions of years, barely visible to us on earth. They're there, but you'd hardly know it. They blend in, like a speck on a canvas. But others blaze with such intensity, they light up the sky. You can't help but notice them, marvel at them. Those are the ones that never last long. They can't. They use up all their energy quickly”
― Sarah Jio, The Last Camellia

14 likes

“A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book."

[Letters of Note; Troy (MI, USA) Public Library, 1971]”
― E.B. White

tags: books, comfort, company, encouragement, libraries, reading, solace

803 likes

“If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree. ”
― Michael Crichton

tags: history

3017 likes

More of Gail’s quotes…

Gail’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-15) post a comment »

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message 15: by Gail

May 18, 2014 04:17AM

I know how Hemingway felt when Hadley (his first wife) lost a suitcase filled with his manuscripts at the Gare de Lyon as she was traveling to Geneva to meet him on that day in December 1922. The suitcase contained original and carbon copies of the early Nick Adams stories about Michigan and short stories he had been working on for months.

In “A Moveable Feast,” Hemingway describes the encounter:
“I had never seen anyone hurt by a thing other than death or unbearable suffering except Hadley when she told me about the things being gone. She had cried and cried and could not tell me. I told her that no matter what the dreadful thing was that had happened nothing could be that bad, and whatever it was, it was all right and not to worry. We could work it out. Then, finally, she told me. I was sure she could not have brought the carbons too and I hired someone to cover for me on my newspaper job. I was making good money then at journalism, and took the train for Paris. It was true alright and I remember what I did in the night after I let myself into the flat and found it was true.”
The suitcase and manuscripts were never found.

Yes, I know how Ernest must have felt. This morning at 4 a.m., I lost a Word file of “Random Notes,” which I’ve kept for many years. I tried everything possible to retrieve the file, but it’s gone.

So I did what any self-respecting author would do: I had a beer and cried. Then I wrote this post.

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message 14: by Gail

May 09, 2014 04:18PM

Just what we need, another blog. I would like to invite my Goodread friends to visit my blog at www.winfree66.wordpress.com. You might enjoy it.

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message 13: by Gail

Mar 17, 2014 01:49PM

Thanks, Kim. It's nice to know you. I've already enjoyed some of your reviews and look forward to others. Take care. Gail

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message 12: by Kim

Mar 17, 2014 01:06AM

Thanks for the friendship request, Gail. I look forward to reading your reviews and chatting about books.

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message 11: by Gail

Feb 20, 2014 02:27PM

It's my pleasure Christine. Have a great day.

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message 10: by Christine

Feb 20, 2014 12:41PM

Thanks for being my friend

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message 9: by Gail

Jan 18, 2014 02:39PM

There is no reason to run out of story ideas. You can find a good story just about everywhere, especially in the classified section of newspapers. This ad appeared in the Personal Ads in the Indiana Evening Gazette in 1957.
“Bachelor with 40 acres of excellent land would like to make acquaintance of lady with tractor; matrimony in mind. Please send picture of tractor.”
The ad was printed in the book “Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor: The Best and Worst Personal Ads of All Time” by Laura Schaefer.

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message 8: by Gail

Dec 31, 2013 03:18PM

It's officially January 1, 2014, in Germany. I've had my champagne, now some coffee and get in at least 500 words before bed. Happy New Year to all. Gail

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message 7: by Gail

Dec 10, 2013 04:33PM

FREE KINDLE BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS!

Add my books for free to your Kindle collection this holiday season. To show my appreciation for the support you’ve given me in my writing and publishing endeavors, I’m offering free Kindle downloads of all three of my books this holiday season through Dec. 14. Just follow the links below. Feel free to share this offer with your family and friends. I want to introduce my books to as many people as I can with the hope that more people will read them.

Again wishing you all a joyful, safe holiday season. Gail

Things I Remember
http://www.amazon.com/Things-Remember...

Finding What’s Lost
http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Whats-L...

The Reality of Being Lovers
http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Being-L...

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message 6: by Gail

Dec 07, 2013 05:53PM

FREE KINDLE BOOKS FOR CHIRSTMAS!

To show my appreciation for the support you’ve given me in my writing and publishing endeavors, I’m offering free Kindle downloads of all three of my books this holiday season. They will be available for free download from Dec. 10-14. Just follow the links below. Feel free to share this offer with your family and friends. I want to introduce my books to as many people as I can with the hope that more people will read them. And when you share this, don’t forget to send your family and friends to my author page at http://www.facebook.com/GailLWinfree and ask them to like it. I also welcome friends and fans here on Goodreads.

I wish you all a joyful, safe holiday season. Gail

Things I Remember
http://www.amazon.com/Things-Remember...

Finding What’s Lost
http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Whats-L...

The Reality of Being Lovers
http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Being-L...

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message 5: by Gail

Nov 17, 2013 03:52PM

I received a review of "Finding What's Lost" on Amazon yesterday. Something the reviewer said disturbed me and I had to comment on it. Below is my comment to the reviewer:

Thank you, Fred, for your honest review of my book, “Finding What’s :Lost.” I appreciate any review, even the unfavorable ones, if I can learn something from it. Though you don’t appear to like my book or writing style, I respect your opinion and even agree with you on a couple of points. But I’m not here to discuss or argue the merits of my book. I’m commenting for one reason.

I’m offended by this statement: “Now that his friends and family and free book winners (and the author himself with 5 stars) have weighed in with their 4 and 5 stars I have to rain on the parade with the 2 star award.”
First, none of my family members have ever rated or reviewed my books. I don’t have much family left and have little contact with those who are. They know I write and that’s about it.

Second, none of these reviews originated from giveaways or contests. I have given books away, but very few result in reviews. I don’t participate in these “a review for a review” activities that are common on social media sites. Again, I prefer honest reviews and never want anybody to feel obligated to give me a review.

Third, I have never met two of these reviewers. The others are friends from high school, most of whom I haven’t seen in 40 years, and folks I have worked with in the past. I have no current personal contact with these people. They have nothing to gain by giving me good ratings and reviews.

Fourth, yes, I have rated all of my books. The first time I saw an author rate and review her book, I was surprised. I thought that was not an ethical thing to do, but I asked around and learned that many authors do this to raise their rankings. I was told it’s very common. Though I felt uncomfortable doing it, I went ahead and rated my books. Besides, who can’t use a boost in ratings?

I know what you mean by your comment, “Now that his friends and family and free book winners (and the author himself with 5 stars) have weighed in with their 4 and 5 stars I have to rain on the parade with the 2 star award.” However, I can assure you that my book’s ratings and reviews were not “coerced” or “bought.” They are honest reviews by people who bought my book, read it, and liked it. Though you may think their ratings and reviews are puffery, they are just as honest and sincere as you are with your review.

Fred, I see that you are a top reviewer at Amazon. I’m not a book reviewer so please tell me: Is it common for a book reviewer to belittle other reviewers who don’t have the same opinion about a book being reviewed?

Again, Fred, thanks for taking the time to read and review my book.

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message 4: by Gail

Oct 18, 2013 04:56PM

I just discovered that I can post my writing on Goodreads, so look out! I just posted four short unpublished pieces and plan to post more here. I invite you all over to give them a good read. Thanks. Gail

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message 3: by Gail

Oct 14, 2013 05:43PM

I'm currently running an event on Facebook to promote my new book "The Reality of Being Lovers." I've added it to Goodreads events and have invited my Goodreads friends. Please visit my page and see what the event is all about. And join me in celebrating the book and Meet Miriam and Josh. The link to the event is https://www.facebook.com/events/52445.... Thanks, Gail

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message 2: by Gail

Oct 08, 2013 03:54PM

I just want to remind everybody that I'm having a giveaway here for three copies of "The Reality of Being Lovers." The giveaway ends Oct. 15. Go enter and good luck. Gail

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message 1: by Gail

Oct 07, 2013 05:04PM

I apologize if I've done something wrong. In working my way around Goodreads and trying to figure it all out, I decided to write a comment here and see what happens to it. I believe in the trial and error method of learning, especially when it comes to learning Goodreads. So let me hit post and see what happens.

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