Hello Everyone: Below is a wonderful column (West Extra) by Caurie Putnam for the West Towns section of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle today:

Author writes from a unique perspective
West Extra
Caurie Putnam

The west side of Rochester is home to a plethora
of fine authors, and recently, I had the pleasure
of sitting down with one for coffee. David Seaburn of
Spencerport is a novelist whose careers prior to
writing give him an incredibly unique perspective
and voice.

For more than two decades, Seaburn was a
pillar of Rochester's family therapy community.
He served as the director of the University of Rochester's Family Therapy Training Program and director of the Spencerport Central School District's Family Support Center. Prior to his work in family therapy, Seaburn was an ordained Presbyterian
minister. "My theological training and experience as a
psychotherapist clearly makes its way into my
writing," Seaburn said. "I learned from both professions
that we make meaning out of our experiences through the telling of our stories."

An incredible story Seaburn recently told is that of a young couple and their deceased preschooler in his newly published fourth novel,Chimney Bluffs. The book is a fictionalized account of a true story that Seaburn read in a newspaper article about a couple that jumped to their death with some sacred things in their backpacks. The original tragedy happened out of state,
but Seaburn's novel is set at Chimney Bluffs State
Park in Wayne County. And, unlike the true story,
in Seaburn's novel, the wife survives. The ensuing story is one of great loss, grief, pain - and, ultimately, hope.

"In each of my novels, there is some experience of loss," Seaburn said. "I think all of us are always
dealing with loss of some kind and how we deal with losses."

As a mother of two young boys, I rarely have
time to read for pleasure at this point in my life.
But since I knew I was writing this column on Seaburn, I forced myself to ignore the dishes in the sink once the boys went to sleep one night and open the book. The dishes never got done. I devoured the entire book in a night. It is a powerful tour de - force of the human
spirit and something only a writer with Seaburn's
unique background could pull off.

If I've piqued your interest in Seaburn and his work, there is an upcoming opportunity to hear him read in Brockport, from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 13, at A Different Path Gallery, 27 Market St.