By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher
NOV. 30, 2018 | Past GwinnettForum readers are familiar with Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill. She has diligently contributed ideas to this site for years, and has been long known as a prolific reader.
We bring this up today as Susan in this issue contributes her 100th recommendation, more submissions than any other reader. Here’s how it came about.
Susan says: “When I moved to Sugar Hill in mid-2010, I was somewhat distressed to see there was not much of an actual downtown here. I used to joke with people that our downtown consisted of a city hall and a cemetery.
“One day I came across the GwinnettForum. I asked you to have someone write a story about it so I could know what was going on. However, you turned the tables on me, asking ME to write the story! Bummer. I had not written for publication in 20 years, but my curiosity got the better of me. I interviewed Bob Hail, former Sugar Hill city manager, and wrote the story in 2012.
“After that, you asked if I would write some book recommendations. My first one was a British novel by Jeffrey Archer called Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. I think I submitted my first Mystery Photo shortly after that. I have really enjoyed sharing my book recommendations, and regret that I am so hard to please. I usually have to read seven or eight books before I find one I can actually recommend.”
McBrayer
Her busy mind regularly produces unique and distinctive thoughts. After all, Susan is such an active person, though private, enjoying reading and travel. She’s a member of at least two book clubs meeting monthly, yet finds time to read additional books each month.
She’s part of the GwinnettForum family of readers that makes my job here simple and most enjoyable. My position as an editor is one of merely taking in what the various contributors send, picking and choosing which to feature, usually giving the articles slight editing, and then publishing them. We seldom downright reject items by readers.
From 17 years of publishing, we have developed a cadre of contributors. Some write occasionally, and others write more often. We regular feature the ideas of George Wilson, Debra Houston and Jack Bernard. Little did we know when these people first contributed that they would become regulars. We would like to have more regular contributors.
Let me pause and say here that none of these people get any compensation for what they write. They do it voluntarily.
Perhaps the most popular feature is our Mystery Photo in each issue. We get regular material from a wide range of people. George Graf of Palmyra, Va., and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, usually get the mystery photos identified correctly. And they send us photos to use, too. We’ve never met either of these guys, though Allan once lived in Peachtree Corners.
Jerry Colley of Alpharetta (formerly Lilburn) is another regular contributor of photos. Other regulars that I know are Bob Foreman of Grayson; Ross Lenhart of Pawleys Island, S.C.; Elizabeth Neace of Dacula; Karen Garner of Dacula; Lou Camerio of Lilburn; Jim Savedelis of Duluth; Molly Titus of Peachtree Corners; Holly Moore of Suwanee; and several others I may catch the devil for omitting. And it does my heart good when I get answers from infrequent contributors. Makes my heart sing!
That’s a lot more than a salute to Susan McBrayer, for her 100th Recommendation to readers. Thank all you who make our life a little better for your contributions to GwinnettForum.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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