Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Trailblazer: First American Woman into Space: Astronaut Sally Ride

Ride-s.jpg
Astronaut Sally Ride
NASA Photo
May 26 is Astronaut Sally Ride's birthday. Accepted into the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) training program, she was the first American woman to fly in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Her first flight in 1983 she was a mission specialist and helped deploy satellites and worked other projects. She made another trip on the Challenger the next year. She was scheduled to fly again in the Challenger, but unfortunately the shuttle crashed in 1986. She was appointed to the presidential committee to investigate the explosion. 

Sally continued her work at NASA until 1987 when according to the bio site, she "became the director of the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego, as well as a professor of physics at the school in 1989. In 2001, she started her own company to create educational programs and products known as Sally Ride Science to help inspire girls and young women to pursue their interests in science and math. Ride served as president and CEO."

VIDEO:

Listen to Sally talk about her experience on her first flight into space.

You Tube Video: Astronaut Sally Ride's First Flight into Space on the Challenger Shuttle
1983
Would you like to fly in space? Leave a comment below and tell us if you are interested in exploring space.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Memorial Day 2015: Remembering Women in Military Service


Monday, May 25, is Memorial Day in the USA. Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day began with the practice of remembering those who died during the Civil War in the 1860's. Women decorated the graves of the Confederate and Union soldiers. In the 1900's all of those in service to our country were remembered with flowers on their graves. 
Tribute to Women in the USA MilitaryForces
You may be surprised to learn that women began serving on the battlefield as far back in history as the American Revolution, the war for independence from England, as nurses, water bearers, cooks, laundresses, and saboteurs. Check out the highlights of the history of women in the military in this informative article. 

A memorial for these brave women is in Arlington Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. 

Women in Military Service for America Memorial
located at the Ceremonial Gate to Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington, VA
The Women In Military Service For America Memorial honors the more than two million women who have served or are serving in or with the US Armed Forces starting with the American Revolution.

The Memorial houses an Exhibit Gallery,Hall of HonorGift ShopTheaterUpper TerraceCourt of Valor and, the heart of the Memorial, a computerized Register containing 250,000 women's stories. Admission to the Memorial is absolutely free. 

On Memorial Day, I hope you will take some time at your picnics and get-togethers to  remember those men and women who served so that we can enjoy the Freedom we have in the USA.
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More blog posts on the Girls Succeed blog featuring women in the military:




Friday, May 15, 2015

Author Barbara Ehrentreu: Using Stories from My Life, YA Romance After

YA contemporary romance, After by Barbara Ehrentrau
Give a hardy welcome to one of Girl Succeed's favorite authors, Barbara Ehrentreu. Barbara recently released a touching story that will resonate with readers. She used her own life experiences in writing this emotion-packed book, After.
Using Stories from My Life by Barbara Ehrentreu

In my own case I started After during NaNoWriMo (a challenge for writers to complete a 50,000 word novel in 30 days in November) and didn’t finish it, because I was visiting my husband every day in the hospital and his condition got a little worse. So I wasn’t thinking about my writing at that time. But a few years later I picked it up again and decided to rewrite it. This book has gone through many rewrites mainly to get the emotional impact right. Since it is about my own husband, who passed away in May of this year, and I was in the middle of editing it at the time, the editing was very difficult for me. However, as I kept working on it I was able to distance myself from this experience. Also having written it made me realize how it helped me to go back over those events and in some ways it was a way to help myself during that time. 

I hope you will decide to read After, because anyone who has dealt with someone in the hospital no matter your age has gone through what Lauren experiences here. Plus, and I don’t want to give away anything, but there is a beautiful love story here and of course a mean girl.
It shows how despite a life changing experience, someone can be helped by it and go on to succeed in her life. 

You may read the entire article, Writing About Your Own Life, on the J.Q. Rose blog
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After, YA Romance
After is a story about the struggles Lauren Walstein, a fifteen-year-old girl, has to go through when her father suddenly has a heart attack and undergoes bypass surgery. In one phone call her life changes completely. Lauren is a character with whom most teens will relate. Her best friend since kindergarten, Joey, is going out with her enemy and they have grown apart. Before the phone call all she thought about was getting a scholarship for softball, and the Mets. Suddenly she must deal with both her father’s illness and being in school. The demands on her from both ends complicate the story. In the middle of all this, she finds she is developing feelings for her best friend that are more than friendly. Is he feeling the same or is he just comforting her? In addition there is Joey’s mean girl friend Amber, who doesn’t appreciate Lauren being in the picture. Will Lauren’s father recover? How will Lauren cope with her new feelings for Joey?

Buy Links for After - MuseItUp Publishing,  AmazonNook

About Barbara:


Barbara Ehrentreu grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Queens. She has lived and taught in Long Island, Buffalo, NY and Westchester, NY as well as a year in Los Angeles, CA. She has a Masters Degree in Reading and Writing. Currently she is retired from
YA author, Barbara Ehrentreu
 teaching and living in Stamford, CT with her family. If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor won second prize in Preditors & Editors as Best Young Adult Book for 2011. It was inspired by Paula Danziger for her children's writing workshop at Manhattanville College. Her second book, After, considers what can happen to a teen when her father becomes ill with a heart attack. It is based on her own experiences when her husband had a heart attack and the aftermath of what she and her family experienced. She is preparing the sequel to If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor. Barbara also writes poetry and several of her poems are published in the anthologies, Prompted: An International Collection of Poetry, Beyond the Dark Room, Storm Cycle and Backlit Barbell. She has a blog, Barbara's Meanderings, and she hosts a radio show on Blog Talk Radio, Red River Radio Tales from the Pages once a month.
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Saturday, May 9, 2015

Mother's Day Reminder


Mother's Day is Sunday, May 10th.
Wish your mom or that special lady in your life a
Happy Mother's Day with a big hug and kiss!
Do you do anything special for her on Mother's Day? Breakfast in bed? Take her out for lunch or dinner? Leave a comment below to tell us how you honor her.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Happy Birthday Trailblazing Journalist Nellie Bly!



Google is wishing a Happy Birthday to Nellie Bly. Count out 151 candles to put on her cake.


"Nellie Bly3" by Unknown - corbis. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons 
Nellie Bly, her pen name, was born Elizabeth Cochrane on May 5, 1864. She deserves the recognition from Google. Here are just a few things this feisty investigative journalist accomplished. Found on Wikipedia. 

  • She uncovered the horrors in the mentally insane asylums of the 19th century  by posing as an insane woman When she was involuntarily committed, she endured the filth, the humiliation, the long days of just sitting on a bench with people who she discovered were not  insane either. She wrote that the abusive nurses and horrible conditions would cause any person to go insane after staying there.
  • Nellie wrote an article in a popular New York newspaper exposing the conditions which prompted the state to set aside $850,000 to correct this inhumane treatment.
  • She also took a trip around the world in 1889. Now remember in the 19th century there was no easy way to do this. She had to take steamships to cross the oceans and railroad trains to traverse the countries. She reported her experiences in her newspaper, the New York World and later compiled her articles into a book,
  • How long do you think it would take her to circumnavigate the world? 72 days!! Nellie set a new record for circling the globe. In this modern day and age, her world record does not stand and has been improved many times.
  • Nellie reported stories on the movement for gaining the right to vote for women which finally passed in 1920.
Here's Google's entertaining  video with highlights of her life.



Do you wish to break a world record? What would that be? Are you interested in becoming a journalist?
Please leave a comment below and let us know.

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