Dorothy Hemmings

Piano Searching for Illustrator

Dorothy Hemmings

Dorothy Hemmings is a Cape Cod transplant who moved from Fairfield County, Connecticut, back in the 1960s. She and her husband David Bassett, a published poet and a native of Harwich, bought a home in The Villages in Florida in January 2010; they spend the summer months on Cape Cod. Dorothy has worked in high-level administrative positions in the banking, insurance, and public education fields and as the legislative aide for a state representative.

As a writer and publicist, she broadcast local news on a Cape Cod radio station and developed effective media relations for The Harwich Junior Theatre, a nationally known award-winning theatre. As a freelance writer, Dot reported the local news in The Oracle, a weekly Cape Cod newspaper. She earned a degree in English Literature from Skidmore College through University Without Walls just before her 50th birthday. YourWriters.com lists her on their staff of writers.

Dot is also a free-lance piano accompanist, plays Orchestra Bells in The Harwich Town Band, and in The Villages is a member of “Bach With A Beat,” a 30-voice singing group. Captivated by the news of the piano found in the woods of Harwich, which received a day of national attention, Dot is working on “The Lost Piano”. The story of the piano’s abandonment, discovery, and ultimate location to the Brooks Academy Museum is the inspiration for her 1,000-word young children’s picture book.

Dot (and the piano) is looking for an illustrator!  You can contact Dot at dotcapecod@gmail.com.

Police Officers examines abandoned pianor

EXCERPT FROM "THE LOST PIANO":
Penelope Piano first meets Gregory Gull when she finds herself in the Herring River marsh.
" . . . I don't know how I got here.  I'm so sad.  I came from a cozy cottage, and I had a window view of roses twined around a white picket fence.  Where am I?  I don't remember the journey!"  Gregory hears plaintive plunks from Penelope's lower keys. . . . The next day . . . Pine needle branchlets and cones have fallen and cover her.  "I remember the room I came from and windows with the white curtains billowing in the breeze."  Some treble tones peal down the scale, like a sigh.
During the story Penelope and Gregory become friends and help each other.  And of course Penelope's journey takes her to a fine new "home."