Local author keeps plugging away

by Dan Holland

For Broadview Heights author Gregg Tomusko, the need to continue writing is a way to convey his thoughts and ideas to others.

His most recent book, “The Catholic Church and The Urantia Book,” published last year, was his eighth work. His writings include a diverse array of topics, including a collection of poems and essays, mathematics, literary criticism, historical fiction, religion and even a children’s picture book about dogs.

His books are all available on Kindle through Amazon.com.

A former Cleveland Public School math teacher and religion teacher at Church of the Assumption in Broadview Heights, Tomusko also worked for a time in the data processing field prior to retiring several years ago. He attended Borromeo Seminary from 1970 to 1972, at a time when he considered becoming a Catholic priest. He later married his wife, Barb, and they raised two children together.

One of his best-selling books, “College Math for Children,” came out in 2018. The book offers practical applications and techniques aimed at educating students on the magic of numbers. Tomusko has a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from Cleveland State University.

“That one got a lot of good traction,” said Tomusko. “I get a lot of good compliments on that one. It has helped a lot of students and parents as well.”

His poorest-selling selling book to date – a collection of original poems and essays entitled, “What You’d Buy Me?” – was actually one of his favorites to write.

Now a self-published author, Tomusko’s most recent book delves back into Christian themes. He previously published a book entitled, “Two Lessons of Jesus: Jesus Never Said That!”

“I’ve read a lot of great books, and the two I kept going back to are The Bible and The Urantia Book,” said Tomusko. “I’ve been reading both of those my entire life. And so, I wanted to outline the main lessons I got from them, and what I have learned. All of this is still evolving; physically, socially, spiritually and religiously.”

“That’s one of the main lessons of religion; that we’re still learning a lot of things,” he continued. “My topics are not the traditional ones, where they cover the main events of Jesus’ life. These are more lessons learned or main topics that I’ve been interested in and what those two books have to say about those things.”

Tomusko has kept busy in recent times writing essays for a non-profit group called The Center for Unity.

“They have an app called discoverjesus.com,” he said. “They seem to take the same approach that I do by simplifying it, and you can read parts of the life of Jesus. They have AI art, and they have an artist who tweaks it into beautiful paintings. This is the life of Jesus without having to attend or join a church, if you’re just interested in a biography.”

Tomusko encourages aspiring authors to put their works out there.

“There almost has to be a need that you have to do it – even if you need to make a living some other way – just go ahead and do it,” he said. “Keep at it, and sooner or later, you’ll get it done and be glad that you did.”

Much of the satisfaction he derives as an author is in knowing that he has reached others with his works.

“It’s just the self-satisfaction of writing something you think is worthwhile, and hopefully someone will pick it up,” he said. “I’ve had people tell me that some of my books really hit the spot for them, and that’s really my reward in all of this. It’s a great feeling.” ∞

Photo: Much of Broadview Heights author Gregg Tomusko’s works are centered on Christian themes. Photo submitted.