By Denise M. Baran-Unland
Cherie Gimbel is in the business of planting seeds.
Seeds of knowledge. Seeds of dreams.
So when this eighth-grade teacher at St. Joseph School in Joliet was asked
if a parent could invite an author friend and former Joliet resident to talk
to her students, Gimbel was quick to say yes.
"Sometimes kids don't get a chance to see all that there is as far as career
choices go," Gimbel said. "A lot of times, they just don't dream big enough."
Mark Masek, a Joliet native who now lives in Pasadena, Calif., is the author
of Hollywood Remains to be Seen: A Guide to the Movie Stars' Final Homes.
For 15 years, Masek, 44, worked as a reporter and editor for several Chicago-area
newspapers and now freelances for several business and trade magazines.
Yet his love for writing has its roots in his youth.
Masek -- son of Glenn and Helen, who still live here -- graduated from Taft
Elementary School, Hufford Junior High School and Joliet West High School.
He loved to read, a passion instilled in him by the many hours that his
own parents spent reading to him. While still in grade school, Masek began
burning also with a desire to write, which vented itself in a school newsletter
of his own creation.
"I typed it up at home on my own little typewriter and passed it around,"
Masek said. "I got a good response for that, but I never thought that I could
make a living from writing."
It didn't take Masek too long to realize that he much preferred the time he
spent working on the school newspaper, as opposed to the time he spent in his
pre-med classes (Masek thought he wanted to become a pharmacist). "I liked that
people knew things filtered through me," he said.
"It felt really good that I could educate people, explain things to people
in a way they'd understand. I liked to be able to tell a story and put a face
on that story." During school breaks, Masek would cover board meetings for
The Herald News.
Masek learned firsthand that written communication can be used to persuade,
as well as educate. He, along with many other dedicated people, believed so
strongly that Joliet should have a curbside recycling program that he wrote
many letters to city officials to get his idea across.
"I had thought that the city should be doing this, but nobody was,"
Masek said. "But I could write and present my ideas in a way that people
could understand. Eventually, I helped to change what the city did." In the
early 1990s, Masek wrote a column about recycling for The Herald News.
Three years ago, Masek and his wife, Theresa, decided to pack up and
move to California, where he began freelancing for magazines while
looking for a full-time job, hopefully as a script writer.
No scripts have been published, but Masek doesn't knock the experience
he learned from writing in another style.
"It was good training for me, and I think that every one of them got
better," he said. "However, nobody will probably ever see them."
Masek also appeared as an extra in a pilot for a show that never aired, "Celebrity,"
and as an extra in a show that did, "ER."
Since he wasn't working full time, but didn't always have the cash
to visit the usual California tourist attractions, Masek, who said he
always had an interest in cemeteries, began checking out some of the
local offerings.
"At least there was plenty of parking, which is hard to find in
California," Masek said.
The first movie star gravesite that Masek found was Marilyn Monroe's,
where he was surprised to see the attention that fans still give her -- flowers,
letters, pictures, balloons -- even though she died 35 years ago.
That discovery led Masek on to another and still another, until he
realized that movie star fans might like to have a guidebook on where
to visit a favorite actor's grave and pay his or her respects.
Masek answered numerous questions and commiserated with the
class about the necessity of writing first, and often more, drafts
before a writer can view with pride the completed project.
"They say that writing is not really writing, but rewriting,"
he said. Even now, with his book published and sitting on bookshelves,
Masek notices things he would like to change. Maybe in the revised
edition, he said.
Perhaps someday Masek will write the works of either Jorge Guerrero
or Elizabeth Moreno, both 13, and both eighth-graders in Gimbel's class.
Jorge likes to write fiction and poems -- he had two poems published
in Young Americans Poetry -- while Elizabeth much prefers to write
biographies: She once won a Young Authors contest.
Although neither one wants to pursue writing as a primary career -- Jorge
wants to become an electrician, and Elizabeth wants to become a
fashion designer -- both know that writing will always be a part of their lives.
"I like to write intricate things about people's lives and use
vocabulary that nobody has ever heard of," Elizabeth said.
"I like to use my imagination and write about things that nobody
else writes about," Jorge said.
Then he added: "I think that it would be nice to have someone
read a book that you wrote and say: 'Cool. He made one of his dreams
possible. He got his book published.'"
The Joliet (IL) Herald-News, Nov. 14, 2001:
Author, Joliet native sparks dreams:
Mark Masek visits St. Joseph School