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AAB Article: Hope and A Future
AAB Newsletter: Ethics
Peninsula Gateway Article: Searching for Identity
Key Peninsula News Article: Author Soars
Business Examiner Article: Columnist Samara Claudia Kezele Fritchman
- See below this article for DEAR CLAUDIA Advice Column
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AAB Article: Hope and A Future

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AAB Newsletter: Ethics

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Peninsula Gateway Article: Searching for Identity

Searching for Identity

Author fights and takes flight to help others and herself learn about life.

Samara C. Kezele Fritchman has experienced
growth through writing her two books.

Soon after her mother died, Samara found
this note and picture in here mother’s house
that she had written when she was eight years old.

My name is Claudia Baker. I am eight years old. I live here. I am hiding this note for someone to find it and know that I lived.

Thirty-five years, six name changes later, the woman now known as Samara C. Kezele Fritchman found her own note, tightly curled inside a glass Coke bottle. The bottle was behind an air vent in her mother’s house. Her mother had just passed away. Fritchman had completely forgotten about the note, written on lined school paper, and the small black and white picture she had put with it. But, even before she read it, all the memories of that time came flooding back. She sat down on the stairs and cried deeply. “It’s like I came full circle,” Fritchman said. “I was talking to myself. It was one of the most important events of my life. But what does it say about my life that an eight year old wrote this?”

There’s much more to the story. Fritchman, a Gig Harbor resident for many years, proves this with the release of her two new fiction books she wrote, The Tale of Three Minds, and Joshua Worthington Eagle.

Both books are about the search for worth. And identity. Particularly Joshua, which has one main message; “Don’t spend your life in a barnyard as a chicken when you are an eagle and meant to soar.”

Childhood

Fritchman today stands at six feet, one inche tall. As a child she usually stood taller than the rest, physically anyway. Not so emotionally. She said her childhood at home was “difficult.” At fourteen and six feet, one inch she was taller than anyone else at her Middle School in Tacoma, boys included. At the time, it was a problem. But it was the least of the difficulties in what has been euphemistically speaking, a colorful life. “It’s said, people who get into psychology go for counseling and stay for the duration.” Fritchman said, “How much confidence to people have when they hear that? Well I’ve been there.” Her first name occurred soon after she was adopted. First know only as Baby Bubnich, she became Claudia Baker. Fritchman has not spent the majority of her life under the name Baker. Claudia Kezele is the name she has held longest. It stuck. She received many of her qualifications under this name and her life experiences. For the last nine years she has been married to George Fritchman. They now have a four year old son, Kyle, who, Samara said, has brought another transformation to her life. Samara is a single mom.

Career Mirrors Life

Today, Fritchman is an employee assistance professional and a mental health counselor. Her dress is bright colors, her hair long and blonde. She’s slim. As well as seeing individual clients, she leads seminars and discussions for companies with titles like: Working with Jerks, Communication Skills, and Motivational Topics. In her thirst for knowledge through the years she has added business, psychology and law degrees to the alphabet bisque after her name further confusing the issue of identity. In the mid 1970s, the found a great advantage to her height. And was given another persona, “Foxy Lady.” Fritchman became the spokeswoman for the Bruce Cannon morning radio show on KTAC in then Tacoma-based KTAC radio. She went to events, handed out free stickers, T-shirts and baseball caps. Her big, easy smile, and loud laughter now may be a throwback to that high-flying time in her life. Her first taste of writing came as a columnist for the Pierce County Business Journal, now the Business Examiner. People wrote to “Dear Claudia, ” with their own concerns about life and business relationships. Fritchman, 45, has worked on her books for over 10 years. “But it’s not like I really sat down and said, ‘my gosh, I am going to write this book.’ It’s a collection of thoughts and ideas I’ve been using in my work,” she said. Once she had them written the process of getting them edited, designed and bound was relatively simple. Seminar participants suggested she try publishing her ideas. She saw some design work in the Peninsula Gateway real estate section, that showed different elements merged together. She called the paper and got Sean Bonsell, who agreed to do the book covers. She said she was “very fortunate.”

Last Monday she showed her two slim novels to Borders and Barnes & Noble but she wants to stay local for the debut and will soon have a book signing at Mostly Books in Gig Harbor.

The Books

Fritchman says the title of Joshua Worthington Eagle was not intentionally similar to the more well-known book Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. The golden eagle of the book is on a journey of discovery. Don’t spend your life in the barnyard as a chicken when you are an eagle and meant to soar. It’s a story of worth, transformation and balance in his realizing his potential. The Tale of Three Minds-The Chronicles of Will, Soul and Heart is her second book. Both have been released at the same time. “It’s unusual to do it that way, but it’s exciting,” she said. “I want people to enjoy these books, and learn something too.” Her words, and Joshua’s story are meant to be inspiring. As well as the journeys of Will, Soul and Heart. Although she didn’t know it when she started them, both books are about her. “Joshua was almost prophetic,” she said. “Soon after I wrote most of it, I had a great downfall. It was hard,” she said. “Now I feel better about myself and what’s happening in my life.” The Tale of Three Minds is even more of a self-help book, but presented through the lives of living, breathing characters called Will, Soul and Heart. “Though it has universal appeal,” she said, “the book was specifically aimed at Christians who try to live up to the quality they perceive in Jesus’ life. It is the divine reality applied to the human psyche,” she said. She said people come to her in her role as a mental health counselor, but sometimes they feel guilty about needing help.

One book is about flying high towards potential and the other book is about staying grounded.

What About Those Names

Fritchman met her birth mother a couple of years ago. She stays in touch with her and occasionally sees a sibling or two. From Baby Bubnich she became Claudia Baker. Then “Foxy Lady.” Over the years she’s changed to Claudia Lee Kezele, Claudia Samara Kezele, Samara Claudia Kezele, then Samara C. Kezele Fritchman. And now author.

Story by Tempel A. Stark, Living Section Editor. The Peninsula Gateway.

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Key Peninsula News Article, Author Soars:

Vol. 27 Issue 4
MAY 2000

Key Peninsula Author Soars

by Hugh McMillan

Almost anyone has to look up to Samara. Not only is she a stately, attractive six foot two inch energy-charged blond lady whose mere presence grabs your attention, she is, to the best of my knowledge, the only author – let alone, Key Peninsula author – simultaneously to publish two books receiving national attention. She is Samara C. Kezele Fritchman, CEAP, CMHC, NCC, JD, and her books are Joshua Worthington Eagle – A Story of Worth, Transformation and Balance and The Tale of Three Minds – The Chronicles of Will, Soul and Heart. The books debuted at a book signing at Mostly Books in Gig Harbor March 3. Both will be released nationwide May 1 and Samara will have another book signing at Borders Books on 38th St. near the Tacoma Mall on May 21st at 4:00 PM. “There will be more,” Fritchman said.

The February 23rd issue of the Peninsula Gateway noted that Samara was born “Baby-Bubnich” at Tacoma General Hospital and was adopted by the Bakers then living at Tacoma’s Titlow Beach. Right out of high school, she married Phil Kezele, older brother of Key Peninsula Historical Society’s Tim Kezele. The marriage didn’t last but the ‘Kezele’ name did. She was known as Claudia during her childhood, which became her, “early training ground for human potential,” she said. “Life is full of tragedies and opportunities,” and, “Everyone has defining moments in their life that help see things differently and learn to make different choices.” In 1990 she became Samara, “and that,” she says, “is a whole other story.” In 1991 she added ‘Fritchman’ when she married George. And has retained the name Fritchman as a single mom, as it’s her son’s family name.

She has worked in the Employee Assistance Profession for almost twenty years with experience in business consultations, counseling, interventions and adult education. She is a public speaker with workshop leadership skills.

“Inspirational books are a doorway for many;” she says, “the beginning of a personal journey; a glimpse into a life viewed differently.” She adds, “Inspirational books are the fastest growing sector of the publishing industry with literally millions buying books on the theme.” Fritchman feels Joshua Worthington Eagle will endear himself to a new generation of readers who will walk with him, soar with him, and see their own lives with a new vision. And, The Tale of Three Minds provides the reader with thought-provoking concepts to the co-existence of opposing natures within.

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Business Examiner Article: Columnist, Samara Claudia Kezele Fritchman

See below this article for copies of the DEAR CLAUDIA Advice Column for career professionals


By Jeff Rounce Business Examiner Staff
One of the most popular features with the Business Examiner readers in our early years was “Dear Claudia,” a regular column on career communications that we first published in April 1987. This was an advice type series dealing with workplace interpersonal relationships and was written by Claudia Kezele, an employee-training professional. Accepting her invitation to ask about problems on the job, more than forty readers wrote to “Dear Claudia” in the week after it’s first appearance. Advertisers quickly became aware of the column’s high readership and asked to appear on the same page.It was, in short, a publisher’s prize—then Claudia took some time off to regroup in her own life. Now some ten years later, she reappears as the author of the soon-to-be-published Joshua Worthington Eagle, the story of a journey reflecting poetically the human struggle for worth,	transformation and balance—to alter misguided thinking and to see things differently. The author hopes it will be a baby-boomer best seller. Samara C. Kezele Fritchman has continued work in employee assistance programs as she created this new tome and another, The Tale of Three Minds—The Chronicles of Will, Soul and Heart. Also available soon. She reports enduring a tumultuous, yet wonderful decade, which included divorce, remarriage, and the birth of a child as well as relocation to a little part of Nirvana on Gig Harbor’s Key Peninsula. Holder of a BA in business, MA in psychology and Jurist Doctorate in Law, Samara is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional who still enjoys working with all levels of human relation’s challenges. You can catch up with her on her web site: www.balancinglife.com.”

Note: www.balancinglife.com is no longer active. Active site is www.samdia.com.