With a turn of the key and a pull of the latch, Craig Strohm unlocked more than just a gymnasium door.

The former coach of Nevada Union's storied girls basketball program stepped inside the darkness of Nevada Union High School's West Gym, known simply as "The House of Pain" in his day, and led one of his former players on a trip back through time.

Kim Culbertson had returned to the gym since her playing days - in fact, she had even taught drama at NU for a time - but now everything seemed so different.

All of the championship banners had been removed and relocated to Ali Gymnasium, the retired jerseys hung high no more and the bright blue-and-gold logo that had long let opponents know they had entered "The House of Pain" had been painted over.

Yet even amidst the whitewashed walls, the memories remain.

And so, the former coach and player sat down to relive some of the highlights of the high school basketball careers they shared and then, eventually, the two turned the talk to their other shared passion.

"She was one of the more literary ones on the bench," Strohm said. "Kim was a voracious reader just like I am. And I think all readers become writers at some point."

Culbertson knew she wanted to be a writer when she was just 7 years old. It occurred to her one day in Mrs. Rose's second-grade class at Nevada City Elementary.

"We were talking about careers and she mentioned something about writers or authors, you know, people who wrote books," Culbertson said. "And then we were going over our spelling words or something and it hit me. I want to do that. I want to write a book.

"Everyone who knows me, knows it's been what I wanted for a long time."

And now with the debut of her first novel "Songs for a Teenage Nomad" Culbertson's still getting used to the idea that, yes, she is a writer. On June 1, Nevada City's Hip Pocket Press released the book, for which she'll host a reading at 2 p.m. Saturday at The Center for the Arts in Grass Valley.

While the book is geared to a teenage audience, Culbertson has already heard talk of her work crossing over well with an adult audience. The story follows 14-year-old Calle Smith and her drifting mother, as the two traipse around the state of California. Each chapter of the book opens with a song title, and a memory the song evokes from the teen, which leads young Calle to consider the songs as the soundtrack to her life.

She wrote the book while she and her husband, Peter Sagebiel, were living and teaching in the Bay Area, but the publishing process finally culminated after the couple moved back to Culbertson's hometown, where they now live with their 3-year-old daughter, Anabella.

"You sort of expect there to be a band and fireworks or something," Culbertson said of finally having her book released. "I think there's a great myth that writing a book is an isolated experience. So many people put out a book. It's really been a communal experience, with the editors and publishers, friends and my poor husband who has had to read so many drafts of this novel."

Bringing a book to light can also be brow beating, especially in the beginning when faced with relentless rounds of rejection, another experience shared by Culbertson and Strohm. But, as Strohm said, their background in basketball might have helped them deal with those early "defeats."

"One thing you've got to be able to handle in writing a book is rejection," said Strohm, whose first novel "Comeback" was released in 2001 by Pelican Publishing Company. His latest work "Ghost Songs" will be released soon. "When you're looking for a publisher, you are rejected everywhere."

"And," Culbertson added, "there are actually tiers in the level of rejection. It's like 'Did I get a person rejecting me with anything positive to say or just a letter saying no.'"

Although they said dealing with losses in basketball might have helped them bounce back from such rejection, the truth is there weren't all that many losses that the player and coach had to deal with during the pinnacle of Lady Miners basketball.

Though she's spent the better part of the past decade teaching English and drama courses - and now serving as the college and career counselor at Forest Charter School - many western Nevada County basketball fans likely remember Culbertson as a member of the Miners' Sac-Joaquin Section three-peat.

"Kim was tough - a maniac," Strohm said. "Like any other level of (sports), if you have a defensive stopper, you have an advantage. She was guarding girls on their way to the WNBA, like (Del Campo's) Danielle Viglione, you know, big-city girls. We had to put our mountain girl on her."

"By the last year of the three-peat, it was Kellie Cook and four other blue-collar girls. Kellie had to score 47 points for us to win the section championship game, and we only won by (three). She hit seven 3-pointers, which I think is still a section record.

"That was Kim's job, shut down their best player and get Kellie open."

Culbertson smiles and laughs as her old coach relives some of the memories they made together inside "The House of Pain." She knows she learned more from him than the correct way to set a pick or the importance of being in the right defensive position.

"Strohm is a storyteller. He's always been a storyteller," she said. "I've always been influenced by him."

And the coach knows his player's passion for writing is every bit as intense as the desire he saw in her on the court.

"Writing is art. It fulfills life. It fulfills a kind of need," Strohm said. "If Kim's book was a huge success, she wouldn't stop writing. And if it wasn't, she wouldn't stop writing."

In fact, she's already started her next work, which she said will take a long hard look at the role sports plays in a small community.

"It's scary and exciting," she said. "I haven't done any new writing in, like, six months.

"The idea of starting the next book is really exciting to me."

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To contact Sports Editor Brian Hamilton, e-mail brianh@theunion.com or call 477-4240.



What: Book release party for "Songs for a Teenage Nomad" by Kim Culbertson, a former Nevada Union basketball player

When: 2-4 p.m. Saturday

Where: The Center for the Arts, 314 Main St., Grass Valley

Tickets: $10 (tickets available at The Book Seller, Harmony Books and The Record Connection).