cballan

You know you’re on the edge of menopause when: ~you’re fanning yourself with the telephone book while everyone else is wearing Snuggies and teeth-chattering sounds like a symphony ~you wake up in the middle of the night thinking you were dreaming about snorkeling in Hawaii, but no…it’s just another episode of the night sweats ~you carry a personal fan, the kind that sprays a mist, and you tell the first person who complains that the fan’s actually a Transformer and will morph into a... Read Full Story

I’ve been teaching in public high schools for over twenty-two years. I’d like to tell you that every year, there is more money to fund needs than there are needs to fund. But then that wouldn’t be the truth. And this year, more than ever, schools are experiencing the same budge issues are most American families. In our district, positions lost due to attrition were not refilled, more teachers are needed to relieve overcrowded classrooms, and supplies? Well, there’s a shallow well and too... Read Full Story

To help teachers, students and parents entering the “Our School Needs…” Contest we did a quick tutorial on what makes a great submission. The Bing “Our School Needs…” Contest: How-to-… , posted with vodpod   Filed under: bing , BLOG TOUR , classrooms , education , education-funding , educational , ej-oo-key-shuhn , ourschoolneeds , schools , students , teachers Read Full Story

Things You Should Know About Book Promotion 1.   It won’t be done for you . Whether you are self-published or have a contract with a Simon and Schuster imprint, you can’t expect that your promotion will be done for you. It takes time and often takes personal cash expenditure as well. Sure, if you’re James Patterson, you may be assured a virtually unlimited marketing budget. For the rest of us debut authors, figure out in advance what you can afford, and devise a detailed marketing plan... Read Full Story

Mike and Maggie Davidson, parents of two sons in high school, lead-if not the perfect life-certainly one close to it.  Brian, a senior, plays on the school’s baseball team and hopes for a scholarship. Jamie, a junior, is a member of the drama club. Of course what seems to be perfect from the outside, is -like most families-not so perfect on the inside.  Even before Jamie’s surprising announcement, Maggie and Mike were experiencing a tug-of-war rooted not so much in whether or not they... Read Full Story

Thanks to Fictionary for inviting me to post on your blog.  First, let me introduce myself and my new book. I’m Kathryn Shay and I’ve been published by Harlequin and The Berkley Publishing Group for the last fifteen years. The Perfect Family , released from Bold Strokes Books this month, is my thirty-seventh book. NOTE FROM CHRISTA: Tune in tomorrow when I review Kathryn’s  novel, The Perfect Family. Definitely a breakout book! The Perfect Family follows the Davidsons, an average American... Read Full Story

Some people rema rk about the heart-wrenching moments in my books, how they grip them and even put them in tears, and ask how I come up with these ideas.  Well, before I set out to write BEYOND JUSTICE , I asked many of my friends to share their greatest dreams and fears with me.  I got a good variety of answers.  Then I asked myself those very questions. Finally, as I decided on what my worst nightmare was, and combined them with some of those detailed by my friends, I decided to put my... Read Full Story

Submitting a manuscript to a publisher pushes the rejection button from every grade school essay, red penned, D I ever feared. What kind of punishment will I get if I don’t get an A in English? Funny thing, my Georgetown roommate was an English major. My side of the room was filled with fruit flies and slides, his side had books, Monarch notes, and a typewriter, which we shared. My first publication was co authored with my professor. Betrayals of Hippocrates: Crimes Against Innocence... Read Full Story

Long ago and far away when all my little dumplings were still home, the only way for me to have started or return to college would have been to pay for daycare, drive an hour in one direction, back again, and hope to be able to repeat the performance. Even now, though they’re all on their own, I have a full time job and couldn’t maintain sanity to attend a university for additional degrees. So, what a difference the American Public University System can make. American Public University (APU... Read Full Story

Even at my age (over 50, less than 75), I still anticipate the arrival of the mail…the mail the post office delivers, not Google. It’s archaic and perhaps even silly because I’m old enough to know that, in addition to the useless and often shiny junk mail, I’ll find bills. Even so, there’s just something about the promise of the unexpected that intrigues me as I trot out to the end of the driveway after the mail lady has lowered our little red flag. Naturally, before I even met her, the... Read Full Story