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Dear friends and followers,   Like all of you, I’m happy that spring will soon be upon us, one filled with hope and new beginnings.  I’m also happy to announce that my new author website will be posted in the next few weeks.  It will provide all who are interested an opportunity to be included in our new mailing list detailing our upcoming new books to be published in 2027.     One, as yet untitled, is an historical novel in our FRED series.  The story is set on Buffalo’s West Side in the early 1950s, a decade marked by the post WWII baby boom, the Korean War and the Civil Rights Movement.  FRED is a collection of stories told by Fred’s tenants, some free standing, others interrelated. The stories deal with human life experiences, among them love, tragedy, ambition and revenge.    Another book to be included is my first inspirational, illustrated gift book titled HEARTSTRINGS: First Aid for the Soul.   Updates will be shared along the way to publication.   UPCOMING AUTHOR EVENTS   Thursday, April 2, 2026, @ BURCHFIELD PENNY ART CENTER.  6:30 – 7:30  Book Club Guest:  Frances Schmidt, Author of FOREVER VIOLET: From Stony Hill to Broadway.     SUNY Buffalo State University 1300 Elmwood AvenueBuffalo, New York 14222(716) 878-6011   March 7, 2026, @CAZENOVIA LIBRARY.  6:30 – 8:30 Author panelist Frances Schmidt.  FRED II: Buffalo West Side Stories, set in the 1930s-1940s.  Co-authored by James Costa.  Also co-authored ACCIDENTAL VIRGIN, a psychological romance novel set in Buffalo, N.Y. 100 Albany StreetCazenovia, New York 13035(71) 655-9322   Tuesday, April 7, 2026, @ BRIGHTON PLACE LIBRARY Author Talk:  2:00 – 3:00 p.m.999 Brighton RoadTonawanda, New York 14150(716) 332-4375   Best,   Fran

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1941: America is Forever Changed Benedict (Benny) Farley and Bianca Martucci were a young couple who lived in separate apartments in my building. They were on a date at the Marlowe Theatre on December 7, 1941 when their lives and the lives of all Americans were forever changed. I wasn’t physically with them at the theatre but heard the shocking news as soon as they came home. Yes, you probably already know what I’m talking about – it was the day the Japanese Army bombed Pearl Harbor and the start of World War II. My tenants were scared – truly panic-stricken. All many could do was stand up and volunteer in the War effort, while their hearts and souls prayed for peace. When you read my upcoming novel, you’ll learn more about these troubling times – about V-mail (Victory Mail), Production Soldiers, Ration Stamps, victory gardens, and the meaning of The Blue Stars of America. Benedict and Bianca’s story however involves a hasty marriage and a monumental goodbye. I’ll share more details later, but here’s a little bit of insight about this couple. Shortly after they started dating, Bianca invited Benny in to have a cup of coffee and a piece of homemade chocolate cake. This is when I overheard them talking about their childhoods. It was a serious conversation and I was listening intently as Bianca wiped a tear from Benedict’s eye. When Benny was only thirteen years old, he became one of thousands of children put into the Orphan Train Movement. He was suddenly taken from his orphanage and put on a train with other children ranging from five to thirteen years of age. All that Benny and the other children were told was that they were going on a long train ride, but they were really headed to the Midwest to join farm families – some in the US and others to Canada. Benny’s story may shock you when you read more about what happened. Bianca too unfortunately became an orphan at the age of seven, although she was sent to the Saint Vincent DePaul Female Orphanage Asylum in Buffalo New York. Here she grew into a young woman before heading out on her own. Their remarkable tale and the tales of all my tenants helped me understand life’s twists and turns and in turn made me stronger. Each decade of my life has been filled with a rich history, and the life lessons I’ve learned from my tenants who came to live with me – special people from all over the world. I hope when you read this historical novel, you’re inspired in the 21st century, by stories of the past.

My Suffragettes, World War II, and the Right-to-Vote By Benjamin Moran Dale (1889–1951), for the National American Women’s Suffrage Association – Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24024303 I have many memories that are waiting in line to tell their tales but wanted to share this highlight as it has been on my mind of late. I was watching three men working recently on my kitchen renovations when I heard them talking about the 75th Anniversary of D-Day and World War II. This took me back to the 1900’s when two young, female, Irish college students, Patricia and Kathleen, moved into one of my apartments. It was around this time they became Suffragettes – women fighting for the right-to-vote. Why these smart women didn’t have that right all along, I don’t fully understand, but it was an honor to watch them work hard for this deserved cause. Their struggles in this fight often made me feel helpless, mainly because I couldn’t do anything to help them, except to provide shelter and the freedom to hold their weekly, secret Suffragette meetings. The twins and many other supporters marched in the first national Suffrage Parade in the nation’s Capital on March 3, 1913. Later, when you read my full story, you will experience first-hand what happened prior to their arrival in Washington D.C. Little did the twins know how I lived so vicariously through their lives and for the right to vote in America. And oh, how I wished I could have joined them in the march! I also felt their anxiety, anguish, pain, tears, and shock when their friends were drafted into World War II. What these two, fine women, among many others, did to help the War effort was heartwarming. I wanted to cry for the troops and families left behind on the home front, instead I suffered in silence. Readers will also be able to find out how this experience too, influenced my twins’ lives. Patricia’s and Kathleen’s immigrant family history goes back generations and coming to America indeed saved them from poverty and despair. I discovered how difficult life can be and realize that I have an important role as a cornerstone of all my tenants and their families’ lives. I know they need me, as much as I need them. I too have had my share of my ups and downs – suffered abandonment, survived auctions and the destruction of my apartment building in the middle of the night, and in recent times harbored the overwhelming fear of being torn down. But I am a survivor and my full story will be told in the early Spring of 2021 with the publication of FRED: Building of Dreams. There are more memories waiting to be told.

Hungarian Freedom Fighters Move In by Frances R. Schmidt Two Hungarian brothers, twenty-eight year old Zoltan and twenty-nine year old Lazlo Popp, moved into my building in 1965. It was eight years after they immigrated to Buffalo, NY from Kabesca, a city in The Communist Hungary, a year after the Hungarian Revolution ended. As protesters and fighters in their home country, to fleeing as refugees, they eventually found their way to freedom in the United States.When they first arrived, they lived with their deceased father’s older brother, their Uncle Istvan (Stephan) Popp and his family, who were already settled in the U.S. Istvan had previously come under The Displaced Persons Act of 1948, which allowed certain people displaced by World War II, to qualify for Permanent Residence. The day the brothers moved into my building, I thought they were flying up the stairs to their new living quarters! I didn’t know it right then, but it was a momentous time in their lives. How proud Zoltan and Laszlo were to be able to afford their own apartment together. The reason this was possible, is because they were both hired at The Mentholatum Company located at 1360 Niagara St., only a short distance away.The Mentholatum Company was an 80,000 sq. ft. factory built in 1919 that manufactured a product of menthol, camphor and petrolatum, used to alleviate muscle aches and to relieve congestion. Zoltan and Laszlo felt lucky to be hired as two of the seventy-five employees. When you read their full story in my book, Fred: Building of Dreams, you’ll learn more about how Mentholatum was made.The brothers flight to freedom is an unbelievable tale. Thousands of Hungarians were killed, but the young men were fortunate enough to be among the youngest group of about 40,000 refugees who arrived in America with the help of the Hungarian Freedom Fund. There’s not enough time to share more details now, but their story will touch your heart and shows the power of hope, survival, and freedom.

A Tribute to Sicilian Immigrants by Frances Schmidt, author. Never underestimate anyone’s history, especially mine.  I’m one of millions of buildings with untold stories to tell.  I can’t tell you all of them only the ones that influenced me.  Life was good in the 1900’s when I was built on the corner of Niagara and Potomac Street on Buffalo’s West Side. My name is FRED.  In 1922, two of my most colorful and brave Sicilian tenants moved into my apartment building from the Hooks in the Canal District.  When their key opened the door to their second floor apartment, Anthony Consiglio, and his son Sammy, embraced each other and cried.  “My son let’s say a prayer for my Maria, your Momma, and all my babies.  We promised her and Saint Joseph we’d live for them and make our family proud.” “Papa, we’ll buy a home someday in memory of our family.”  Then they looked around their small apartment, got on their knees, and continued praying.  It was overwhelming and hard to listen to their story of love and loss. If after reading their story, you can empathize and feel their pain, then the Consiglios’ legacy of love will be meaningful.  I’m learning no one escapes personal tragedy. Sharing my observations helps me understand what it’s like to be alive. Anthony and Sammy arrived in Buffalo in 1914, from Palermo, Italy.  Maria, his wife, and two younger children stayed in Italy waiting for them to earn enough money to send for them.  The father and son left home to start a new life in America because of Sicily’s crop failure, high taxes, and unstable Italian government. Soon after they arrived in the Canal District they found a place to live in an overcrowded tenement house on Dante Place.  They both continued working many part time jobs.  Anthony as a carpenter, and Sammy a plasterer, mainly at the Welcome Hall Settlement House until 1923.  During that time they also searched for fulltime jobs closer to the Westside because it was getting harder and harder to go back to where their hearts were broken.  Although they continued attending Saint Anthony’s Church on Court Street each Sunday it was a constant reminder of their family’s loss. When Anthony’s wife Maria, and their two youngest children, first arrived in Buffalo in 1917, she carried a small statute of Saint Joseph in her baggage, along with a fava bean in her purse for good luck.  It was a tradition that Maria learned from her grandparents in Messina, Sicily.  Her family was peasant farmers and the fava bean was fodder for the cattle during a famine.  When they had no food to eat they prepared the fava beans to feed their family. In 1918, the Consiglio’s youngest daughters, five year old Rose, and six year old Sophia, became sick with influenza.  They tried to protect them from the other sick children in the tenement house only no matter what they did it was in vain.  Both girls got sick with the illness, were hospitalized and died unexpectedly of complications.  Maria cried, sobbed, and wailed, in shock while Anthony and Sammy were numb with grief. Weeks later Maria became sick with influenza and had a terrible time breathing. She was hospitalized and the prognosis was poor.  Anthony and Sammy spent every moment they could with her. Mrs. Consiglio died along with her younger children and unborn child a month before the influenza epidemic ended on November 3, 1919.  Her husband Anthony was grateful for the caskets that were given free to his family from the City of Buffalo and vowed to help other families someday.  They were now getting support from Welcome Hall’s new Italian Men’s Club.  Both father and son joined the club in early 1914 when they first arrived in Buffalo; it had less than ten members and everyone paid twenty five cents per month.  They joined because it made they feel safe and supported because the clubs goal was to promote their best interests.  Now in their time of need, all the men and their families gave them comfort when they needed it the most. “Anthony, promisa me that you and Sammy will save money and someday buy a home with another family in honor of me and our babies. Sammy, you promisa me to have a family too.” I know this to be true because they talked about their promise to Maria all the time, mostly when they prayed to Saint Joseph. Anthony’s treasured statute of Saint Joseph and Maria’s lucky fava bean were kept wrapped in her favorite handkerchief placed, on a small table in their living room. Each night father and son promised Saint Joseph they would work hard to save enough money to buy a home.  They were grateful to the city for four free coffins for their family and to the Welcome Hall Italian Society who provided a wake for their loved ones friends.  Both men vowed to buy a special gravestone for Maria and the children right after they kept their promise to buy a home. Mr. Consiglio’s prized possession was a battered Mandolin that was given to him by his dear friend Giuseppe for repairing his storm damaged barn.  It was a Sicilian twelve string modeland had been in the family for years.  “Take it to America” he said. “You learn how to play it for me and make us Sicilians proud.”  It was an offer Anthony couldn’t refuse. “I promise I’ll learn to play” he said, kissing his friend on both checks and saying goodbye forever.  Anthony loved the Mandolin and named it after his friend.  Here in America he hoped someday to find someone who would teach him how to play an entire song.

HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON to our friends and supporters. We hope you enjoy these brief excerpts from our two new novels, as well as excerpts from our two previous novels:  “FOREVER VIOLET: from Stony Hill to Broadway,” and “FRED: Buffalo Building of Dreams.”                                                                NOVEL EXCERPTS From “FRED II:  Timeless Tenant Tales:  Buffalo West Side Stories:      In a sense my tenants have become my children.  Together we’re a family.  I’ve been there for them through the best and worst of times.  Like all families, each has experienced its joys and sorrows, and each has a story to tell.  If you would indulge me, I’d like to relate several to you.  In most cases, I will let you hear them in their own words, exactly as I heard them.        Except for the occasional echo of slamming doors in my hallways, things had been quiet since the drummer and the accordion player moved out.  I suppose it was early afternoon three days after Catherine arrived when I heard sobbing coming from her apartment.  When I looked inside, I saw her reclining on the couch with her arm folded over her eyes.  The lights were low and the radio was playing soft music.  Of course I couldn’t know what her trouble was and could only wait until circumstances changed. ACCIDENTAL VIRGIN:  a psychological novel.      “I gave Bryan my address and said goodbye three different times before he finally let me go.  I stood a moment beside the phone, feeling an odd sense of excitement I hadn’t known before.  Or did I just forget?  Sometimes it’s hard to remember the past, especially when you spend so much time trying to forget it.  The sound of Bryan’s voice, warm and intimate, still lingered in my memory.  The way— How foolish I am!  Lisa’s right, I barely know him.  I should have broken it off right then and there, ended it before—”      “Driving home, I felt elated as I relived the afternoon with Carly.  I passed over the uncomfortable memory of our little confrontation and concentrated on our kiss, not that I could really think of anything else.  She didn’t resist me, not for a second.  Sure, at the end, she had to break away; we couldn’t stand there all evening looking at each other.  But the way her arms encircled me— well, that told me she was not only willing to kiss me, but she welcomed it, as well, unplanned as it was.  Now the icy wall she put between us was shattered forever.  That single kiss thawed the miles of frozen tundra separating us.  I could still taste the sweetness of her breath, feel the moist warmth of her lips.  I only wished I knew how deeply she’d been affected.” FRED:  Buffalo Building of Dreams (2021)      “Death knocks at everyone’s door sometime during a lifetime.  I’m a building that can listen, observe, and become emotionally attached to my tenants.  They taught me over and over what it’s like to be human.  They are all survivors, and I am, too.  I’ll never have the right to vote, but my twin suffragettes will.”      On September 4, 1944, at about 11:39 p.m., my building shook from top to bottom, and I thought I’d come crashing down.  My tenants’ walls were shaking, and everything hanging on the walls either crashed to the floor or hung crookedly.  Everyone ran out onto the street.  We thought we were being attacked.  For a moment I worried about Benedict being killed in the war.  I wondered if he had the time to feel the fear of impending death.  FOREVER VIOLET:  From Stony Hill to Broadway (2023)      “Annie was Cowboy’s wife and my mother, but you couldn’t prove it by me.  Whenever my friends mentioned their mothers, I always ducked away from them.  I was ashamed to admit that this woman everyone in town knew as Crazy Annie was my mother.  I felt the same about Cowboy, my father, the town drunk.  I don’t remember when they first began going at it together, the two of them, but I know that it was often and awful.  The neighbors could hear their screaming matches a mile away.”      The car weaved and jerked, slowed down and sped up as he kept hitting the gas and the brake.  He steered the car with one hand while the other fingered the knife on his lap.  I knew I had to get out, and do it before this nut killed me.  I felt for the door handle behind me.  If I had to jump I would, even if the car was going fifty.      All novels are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and additional online sites, located on francesrschmidt.com Best, Frances Schmidt James A. Costa, Jr.

Dear friends and followers, This is the latest update for the publication of both FRED II; Timeless Tenant Tales; Buffalo West Side Stories, and Accidental Virgin, a psychological novel by James A. Costa and me. August 2025 is the confirmed publication date for both novels.  I’ll provide you with a definite date when the books become available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, on-line and all other on-line sites.   Best Fran Schmidt

Keeping Track of Time As the author of FRED, my first historical novel, it was necessary to allot an enormous amount of time researching the material needed to begin the writing project itself.    Calling ourselves the ‘Orphan Building Research Team,’ three of us spent months visiting various local sites, interviewing people who grew up on the west side of Buffalo, and coordinating our efforts to collect the information necessary for the foundation of the novel.  Time became a priority for all of us.  Weeks and months passed quickly as we worked feverishly to gather the material to be collated, organized chronologically and verified for its accuracy.   We often wondered if we could save FRED’s history before evidence of his existence was gone.  This fear stimulated all of us to greater urgency. FRED had to be described as accurately as possible from the time he was built in 1900 to the present day.  More months were spent reading and rereading handwritten notes, while multiple characters waited on the sidelines waiting to emerge on the pages of the book.  Chapters were written, revised and rewritten until I deemed the book successfully completed. Time was both a friend and foe.  It was then that I realized Time is a writer’s constant companion. Best, Frances R. Schmidt, Author

VIOLET’S VIEW OF POSITIVITY Can we cope with our problems and challenges in life without positivity?   It’s a question I’ve often asked myself.  Sometimes we lose when we face a crisis or a major problem because it’s beyond our power to control.  Nevertheless, I say ‘yes,’ we can cope as long as we can keep positivity alive deep within our minds. Personally, I keep mine alive using hope as an aid to overcome negative thinking.   When life becomes difficult I remember the field of violets I used to lie in when I was a young girl filled with fear and uncertainty of what would become of me during that time of the Great Depression. Seeing the beautiful blue skies and fluffy white clouds above comforted me, providing me with a sense of inner peace and a feeling of positivity. Today, whenever I’m faced with a situation I can’t change, I stop what I’m doing and visualize my violets and relive the sensation of feeling positive and hopeful. The Oxford English Dictionary describes positivity as a practice, a skill, not something we’re born with.  Quote: “It’s not something you are, it’s something you do.”  I agree and believe it’s a personal choice in the face of fear and anxiety.  Like FRED, I couldn’t have survived without it. Positivity helps all of us to survive, to adapt and overcome all of life’s challenges with determination and courage.  It is our greatest strength in the face of adversity. Best, Violet