Monday, October 9, 2017

13 Ways to Help Your Author Friends















Your author friends can really use your support! Here's how you can help:

1. Review/rate their books on Amazon and Goodreads.

2. Like and share their Facebook posts.

3. Follow their blogs and websites.

4. Buy their books as gifts.

5. Buy and donate their books to your local school.

6. Suggest their books to your local library.

7. Retweet them.

8. Buy their books.

9. Recommend their books to your friends and family.

10. Post about them and their books on Facebook.

11. Blog about them and their books.

12. Share their blog posts on Facebook. 

13. Share their website on Facebook.

Monday, July 3, 2017

Writing Wisdom


When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them --  then the rest will be valuable.     Mark Twain

Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.  Jules Renard

You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.    Saul Bellow

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.     
Jack Kerouac

If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.   Douglas Adams

Easy reading is damn hard writing.   Nathaniel Hawthorne

Write what should not be forgotten.   Isabel Allende

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.   Maya Angelou

















Thursday, March 23, 2017

Tolerance: How to Nurture It












Facing the challenges of racism, sexism, and other prejudices in our society can be overwhelming for us adults. For kids, intolerance is even more confusing and frightening. How can teachers create an atmosphere of acceptance in their classrooms? Read my post on the JCLUB blog for some suggestions.

Monday, December 19, 2016

The Last Real Christmas


              I was too old, I suppose ‑‑ especially by today's standards. Still, I believed. I ignored the other kids' claims about Santa Claus. I thought putting up the Christmas tree was a pleasure, not a chore. When I did have chores, I sang Christmas carols to pass the time. I refused to think of the holidays as anything less than magical.
On Christmas Eve, a sprinkling of snow dusted everything, proving me right. Snow for Christmas! Not so much that Grandma couldn't come over for Christmas dinner tomorrow ‑‑ just enough. Everything sparkled when the streetlights came on. Just before I went to bed, a flock of birds flew away north to give Santa one last report on good boys and girls.
That Christmas Eve, I wore my watch to bed, eager for it to read six o'clock, the earliest time we were allowed to get up. Long after my little sister fell asleep, I lay awake, dreaming. For a while, I knelt in my bed and looked out the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of reindeer in the sky. Then when it seemed it must be nearly morning, I pulled up my pajama sleeve and looked at my watch in the glow from the streetlights.
Nine o'clock!
It would be hours and hours till morning!
The watch was still ticking, so I decided it must be running slow. I set it ahead fifteen minutes to compensate, then tried to sleep again.
The next time I checked, it was only nine‑thirty! Obviously, something was seriously wrong with that watch. Again I set it ahead a bit to make up for its slowness.
I don't know how many times I reset my watch that night. Now and then, between my attempts to control time and make Christmas come faster, I nodded off. Once I woke to the sound of what I was sure had been prancing hooves. Another time, as I drifted out of sleep, I thought I caught a whiff of pipe smoke.
Finally, my watch read six o'clock. I slipped out of bed and into my robe and crept out to the living room to turn on the Christmas tree. The mounds of colorful packages, the sparkle of the tree, the quiet magic of the morning made the torture of waiting seem worthwhile.
My parents found me snuggled on the couch, just taking it all in. Of course, they shooed me back to bed since it was only three o'clock in the morning!
It didn't matter. I slept well till my sister pounced on my bed and shook me awake. She was right to be excited, I thought: something beautiful awaited her.
            I think that was the last of the real Christmases:  the Christmases where the tree was like something out of a fairy tale and the wrapping paper covered happiness and hints of magic were everywhere. Eventually, I could no longer deny the truths and practicalities of the holidays.
Still ‑‑ I love a Christmas tree, the secrets of packages, the gathering of family. There's still a bit of magic in every Christmas.
And I don't have to turn back the clock to capture it.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

You can disagree with me...














...but can't you do so thoughtfully and respectfully? 

I'm disturbed by the poorly reasoned and hateful way people "discuss" issues these days. I wrote about this problem last year in my (then) local newspaper, and I'm still concerned about the issue. So I'm re-sharing my opinion piece here. (Go to Page 7.) What do you think? Can we disagree civilly?

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

How Teachers Can Discourage Materialism



Materialism may seem like a huge problem that's beyond your control. You can't change our whole society! But you can take action in your classroom to discourage materialism. For suggestions, read my post on the JClub Blog.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Talking About Teens and Their Challenges



I was interviewed on An Engaging Faith on Breadbox Media. The wonderful host, Elizabeth Reardon, and I talked about my book Tackling Tough Topics with Faith and Fiction (a faith-based resource for caring adults who want to encourage young teens to live their faith when facing moral challenges) as well as a variety of other subjects! You can listen to the podcast of the interview here. Tune into An Engaging Faith at 4:00 EST weekdays here. And check out the other great programs on Breadbox Media here.