Helen Pike

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Writing Workshops

My most frequently
requested programs:

*DIY Publishing
It's either personal
or business.

*Jersey Chronicles
rites of passage.

*Red Hot Words
writing about
the new you.

*Travel Tales
sharpen your
powers of
observation!

*Tree of Life
how to recount
family history.

*Memories to Memoirs
how to get started,
keep going,
get finished!

*The Persuasive Opinion
from ranting blog to
hard-copy respectability:
how to write op-ed
essays.

*Teen Writing
finding the guts
to be original
instead of cut-paste-
and-plagiarize from
the Internet.
******************
Looking for
a writing coach?

Consider this
review about the
60 sidebars in
"Asbury Park's
Glory Days":


"Ms. Pike spares neither villain nor hero in her saga of her favorite resort. There are mobsters and stand-up clergymen; showgirls and shopkeepers; restaurateurs with class and the classy people who kept them in business. Most of all, there are the little stories told by just plain folks interspersed throughout Ms. Pike's historical narrative."

~ New York Times

*******************
Want your own
editorial
consultation?

Send e-mail:
helen@helenpike.com

**********************

Helen's most oft-requested lecture!

"How Jersey Are You?"

Ideal for all generations
and
for newcomers to New Jersey.

To book her:
908-489-1830.

Real Estate Bio

1976: spring semester of my sophmore year at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, a town that three years earlier received its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. I studied American cultural history with nationally noted preservation Dr. Charles Hosmer; topics included how the public used land for dwellings, to build local economies, and for leisure.

1976: summer college internship at the Asbury Park Press, working for Herb Nebel, editor of the Business/Real Estate section; turned press releases into news items, including notice of real estate transactions and opening of new businesses.

1978-1982: municipal reporter for the Asbury Park Press; covered local Planning and Zoning Boards of Adjustment in northern and coastal Monmouth County.

1983:wrote my master’s thesis at the Graduate School of Journalism/Columbia University on The Gentrification of Tompkins Square Park . Examined how different groups were using abandoned buildings and public spaces in the Lower East Side neighborhood known as Alphabet City.

1983-1984: covered a variety of land-use hearings about property conversion ~ potato farms to vacation homes; oyster sheds to condos ~ on the North Fork of Long Island for the "Suffolk Times" in Greenport. First by-lined article in the "New York Times" appeared in 1984 in which I profiled the struggles of Fishers Island, NY, to sustain a year-round community on an island of very-old money that only summered there.

1992-1997: international travel writer and photographer for the "Boston Herald"; wrote principally about how destinations were history to attract vacationers to boost their local economy.

1995 to present: researched and authored 7 books (currently working on 8th about economic development in New Jersey that includes an examination of real estate development).

1995: Images of America: Eatontown and Fort Monmouth published. First local book that traced how fields and farms were converted to suburban villages and a military base known for its electronics command.

1996: Images of Aemrica: West Long Branch. This first of a 2-volume set looked at "the town" which established its independence in 1908; West Long Branch Revisted looks as "the country" estates that now constitute most of Monmouth University, making this a "gown" community.

1997 Images of America: Asbury Park published. First independently researched book ever done on Asbury Park. Its 5 chapters lay out how the coastal city was developed as a series of neighborhoods we recognize today; Cha. 1 in “The Pioneers” includes a look at Springwood Avenue and how the original southwest neighborhood known as the West Side began.

2004-2005 lectured in the Geography of Tourism at Monmouth University. Students learned how to identify the conflicting relationships between residents and visitors in regions around the world where tourism is being used as an economic driver.

2005Asbury Park’s Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort 1890-1980.
Examines 90 years of development:
* real estate forces that shaped the East and West Sides of Main Street (Cha. 1 &2);
* amusements on and off the Boardwalk (Cha. 3);
* entertainment on both sides of Main Street (Cha. 4);
* hotels and restaurants on both sides of Main (Cha. 5);
* retail on and off Main (Cha. 6);
* racial and ethnic groups that comprised the year-round population and how they lived together in Asbury Park in the off-season.


Projects


Manasquan bungalows, circa 1920.
What happens in these summer cottages as Prohibition settles in for the long haul? Where did Kitty Dodd and her boys come from? Who knew them back in Ireland? What's the West Orange connection?

And most important of all, who wants to put them out of business?

This is Helen's new project. Her co-author is retired New Jersey State Senator Frank "Pat" Dodd. This narrative history is equal parts mystery and moxie as it uncovers a family secret of liquor and liberation during Prohibition.

Helen and Pat are curious to know: do you want its contents stirred or shaken? Post a comment on the 'Talk' section!
 


This page goes through bouts of re-construction. Thanks for understanding!
More Asbury Park Stories:
Ticket to Ride
Pitch Men
Movie Mystery
Something About Mary
Dark City/Light City
Asbury Park Back Story
and
Sand In Our Shorts
Jersey Shore Sketches
Sleeping With George
No Daddy, Not Today
Resort or Residential: What are we?
Whose Daughter Am I?
 

Is your PTA or church youth group interested in sponsoring a printing of this workbook for a fund raiser?

Greetings From New Jersey: A Workbook for Young Adventurers is Helen's second stint writing with families in mind.

For three years she produced a weekly column for "The Boston Herald" titled "Kids' Trips".

This fun-filled learning activities book is 68 pages.
Among the features in all 6 chapters:

* reading about history
* math word problems based on the state's most
popular assets
* journal writing
* puzzle pieces for the 21 counties
* drawing
* projects -- for independent or group work -- from
designing a model city using Paterson to writing a
restaurant menu using Jersey Fresh produce and a
nutrition chart
* a resource page for on-site discoveries

Retail price: $14.95.

Ask about the publishing plan that details how to adapt the New Jerse template to the other 49 states?

E-mail: helen@helenpike.com.
******************************************************


Selected Works

American Studies
Asbury Park’s Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort
"The collapse of American towns and cities is now so complete that our collective memory of why they existed and how they came to be is nearly lost. Helen-Chantal Pike's history of Asbury Park is a worthy, lively, and well-researched effort to correct this cultural amnesia." - James Howard Kunstler, author of "Geography of Nowhere".
Greetings From New Jersey: A Postcard Tour of the Garden State
“a Jerseyana journalist”
-The New York Times
Spiked Boots: Sketches of the North Country
“The new edition contains rare photographs and an insightful foreword by the author’s daughter.”
-Dr. Barbara Tomlinson, Princeton, N.J.
Tall Trees, Tough Men
This is basic history, geography, psychology, economics, and folklore all rolled into one top-quality volume.
-The New York Times
Business history
New Jersey: Crossroads of Commerce
An overview of how key industries evolved.
Local History
Images of America
Four volumes of illustrated history on the north Jersey shore.
Regional History for Children
Greetings From New Jersey: A Workbook for Young Adventurers
"What a welcome change from the mass-produced generic texts with minimal New Jersey content." - Bonita Craft Grant, New Jersey Bibliographer, Alexander Library, Rutgers University



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