Career: Barbara Chiles, Teacher and Coach

It's that time of year when many of us are back to school
and hitting the books (or laptops or e-readers).
I bet there are teachers who have influenced your life in a good way.

Barbara Chiles, after a grueling climb, reached the top of Long's Peak in Colorado

Barbara Chiles, also known as "Chili," certainly was determined to become a teacher because she admired her innovative physical education (P.E.) teacher, Mrs. Kreiter.  Due to Mrs. K’s encouragement Barbara became a gym teacher and developed her own resourceful ideas and creative teaching methods.

Chili, wearing the hat, at a girls residence camp when she was a girl.

At her school in Illinois, very little money was available to purchase new equipment and to repair the old. Barbara thought of a way to repair the broken strings in the badminton racquets at no cost to the school.  She asked the kids to bring in their moms’ old panty hose.  She showed the students how to pull a leg of the panty hose tightly over the badminton racquet head and duct tape it down to the handle. It worked.  The badminton birdies bounced beautifully off the panty hose!

It was this “get ‘er done” attitude that helped Barbara become the school’s athletic director. She was the first female high school athletic director in Illinois in charge of both boys and girls athletics.

Barbara loved her job as athletic director scheduling games and overseeing the athletic programs. She developed the physical education program for her school and for the State of Illinois. She created one of the first wilderness survival programs in the country.

The idea to establish the Challenges Unlimited Club for her students came to Barbara while she was sitting on top of Long’s Peak, a 14,000 foot mountain in the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.  Climbing that difficult mountain terrain was a challenge for her. After reaching the top, she felt the excitement of the achievement.  Barbara decided she wanted her students to have that same feeling of accomplishment. When she returned to school, she asked the students to choose big goals to challenge them.  Some decided to train to do 10,000 cartwheels or bike one hundred miles in a day.  Some worked toward goals in swimming, dancing, and more. When the kids achieved their objectives, they were thrilled and ready to set new challenges for the next school year.

“Success is a journey, not a destination,” said Barbara.  “Get all the experience you can.  No one starts on top.  Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.”

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Do you have a teacher who influenced your life? Please take a minute to tell us about her in the comment area below. Thank you.

Find out more about this trailblazing and influential teacher in the e-book for girls, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women.

Inspiring and empowering girls to achieve the career of their dreams.

Here are the links to download a sample and contents or to buy a copy:

Smashwords Link http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/241825

Amazon Link  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NY6ZAS

Kobo Link http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=girls+succeed%3A+stories+behind+the+careers+of+successful+women

Barnes and Noble Link http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/girls-succeed-jq-rose/1114041658?ean=2940045118033

Sony Link https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/j-q-rose/girls-succeed-stories-behind-the-careers-of-successful-women/_/R-400000000000000883970

Study Guide is also available to accompany the book.

Study guide Smashwords Link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/275371

Study guide Amazon Link http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B27S4H6

 

Career: Author Katie L. Carroll Shares How She Became a Writer and Giveaway

Please welcome children's author Katie L. Carroll today. Katie shares the story behind how she became a writer. Please enter the contest below to win her book and other prizes during her tour. 

Katie and I are swapping blogs, so take another hop over to Katie's website to discover what sparked the penning of my non-fiction e-book for girls, Girls Succeed, and leave a comment to enter the drawing for a copy of Girls Succeed.

Let me tell you a bit about Katie.

Katie L. Carroll began writing at a very sad time in her life after her 16-year-old sister, Kylene, unexpectedly passed away. Since then writing has taken her to many wonderful places, real and imagined. She wrote Elixir Bound and the forthcoming Elixir Saved so Kylene could live on in the pages of a book. Katie is also the author of the picture app The Bedtime Knight and an editor for MuseItUp Publishing. She lives not too far from the beach in a small Connecticut city with her husband and son. For more about Katie, visit Katie's website, friend her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter (@KatieLCarroll).

How I Became a Writer

By Katie L. Carroll

I thought my life as a writer began when I was 19 on a particularly hot day in early spring 2002, a black-letter day, the blackest of black-letter days in fact. I was in college on track to becoming a physical therapist with an early acceptance into the graduate program. But I didn’t become a physical therapist; I became a writer.

I’ve since come to realize, with the help of my mom, that it was much earlier than that when I began my writing life. On my blog post on the release day of the ebook version of Elixir Bound, she wrote, “Although you would have done fine as a physical therapist, I always knew it was not your calling. You were a writer ever since you could pick up a pencil and I think I always knew that, after all the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree (of course I’m talking about your dad).”

Well, my mom was mostly right. Even before I could pick up a pencil, my mom would read stories to us, the Little Golden Books, the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, all kinds of fiction. I think that’s when I became a writer.

When I stop to think about it, I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out I was a writer. The signs were all there. My family and I used to write and illustrate our own picture books about the adventures of Sam the Billy Goat. At the climax of the story it would always read, “Voop Whoosh! Up went the Billy Goat.” And he would fly up to save the day.

I wrote (and sometimes illustrated) stories my whole childhood. In middle school, high school, and college I worked on the school newspapers. Yeah, I think I had been in a state of denial for 19 years…which brings us back to that black-letter day…April 16, 2002. The day my sister Kylene died.

I don’t like to talk about that day. How the forget-me-nots were in bloom. How there was recording-breaking high temps. How it was the worst day of my life. 

So what do you do when you’re 19 and your sister’s just died? Well, once you’re in a place where you can think again, you reevaluate. Everything. 

For me that meant rethinking what I wanted to do with my professional life. Kylene gave me the permission to pursue my passion. So I began writing. Eventually I decided not to continue studying to be a physical therapist. I kept writing, often not even sure who I was writing for. Kylene, an audience, myself?

I pursued publication. And got rejections, along with some encouragement. I revised, learned a lot more about the business of publishing. Wrote some more. Revised some more. Got a lot more rejections…You get the picture.

Ten years and four months after Kylene died, my book was finally born into the world. And what was that book about? A young woman, entrusted with the future of her family’s secret healing Elixir, goes on a quest to find the Elixir’s secret ingredient.

I don’t need a psychoanalyst to tell me I was fulfilling a wish with that book. It was supposed to be about Kylene, and it is in some ways, but it’s really about me. Because for those 10 years, it had been too hard to write Ky’s book. I tried. Elixir Bound started out from her point of view, but I just couldn’t write that book yet.

But I am writing it now. Elixir Saved, a follow-up to Elixir Bound, will be Kylene’s book. 

You see, I believe each of us as an individual doesn’t truly realize the impact we have on people. Each person we touch—whether it be with a story, a hug, a smile as we pass a stranger on the street—leaves a ripple. 

Kylene, in her short life, left lots of ripples. With the people she loved. With the people she cared about. The people she felt compassion for, which was pretty much everyone. The people she shared the Harry Potter books with. Even the nurses in the hospital from the short time she was sick felt her ripples.

I like to think that each ripple I make with Elixir Bound is really Ky’s ripple…because I’m not sure I would have discovered my life’s passion if it weren’t for Kylene. It makes my heart smile to think that Kylene is still making ripples on the world, and that I have my own little role to play in that.

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Elixir Bound Back of the Book:

Katora Kase is next in line to take over as guardian to a secret and powerful healing Elixir. Now she must journey into the wilds of Faway Forest to find the ingredient that gives the Elixir its potency. Even though she has her sister and brother, an old family friend, and the handsome son of a mapmaker as companions, she feels alone. 

It is her decision alone whether or not to bind herself to the Elixir to serve and protect it until it chooses a new guardian. The forest hosts many dangers, including wicked beings that will stop at nothing to gain power, but the biggest danger Katora may face is whether or not to open up her heart to love.

Buy Links:

MuseItUp Publishing

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

iBooks 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Trailblazer: Diana Nyad Swims from Cuba to Key West, Florida

Congratulations to 64-year-old Diana Nyad who made her dream of swimming from Cuba to Key West, Florida without a shark cage a reality. She did it! She's the first person to accomplish this feat.

Diana tried to make the journey when she was 28 years old. She never lost her desire to conquer that 112 mile ocean swim. It took her five attempts through the years before she could make it work.

Diana says to never give up!

Watch the abcNEWS video below to see her successful swim completed!

Best of Summer Kid Lit Giveaway Hop

Hey Readers! 
Welcome to the Best of Summer 2013 
Kid Lit Giveaway Hop 

hosted by Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews.

You're invited to hop around the blogs and discover children's books and sign up to win prizes from August 26-September 6, 2013. Please leave a comment below to be eligible to win an e-book copy of my non-fiction book for girls, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women. Find out more details below and how to get the  FREE Study Guide that accompanies this book about careers and making dreams come true.

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The Kid Lit Giveaway Hop is a fantastic and fun way to meet authors, learn about new children's literature, and re-visit some titles which may have been one of your favorite reads as a child.

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White is my favorite children's book. Penned over sixty years ago, it is a classic beloved by many generations of readers. Mr. White tells this magical story of Fern and her little pig, Wilbur.

Wilbur's friend is Charlotte, a spider who lives in the barn with Wilbur. Because Fern can understand the language the barn animals speak, we are allowed entry into this wondrous world about friendship, life, and loss.

If you haven't experienced Wilbur, Charlotte, and Fern, as well as Templeton the rat, please take time to read it. The story speaks to kids and kids-at-heart.

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Inspiring and empowering girls to achieve success in their dream careers.

Girls Succeed interviews fifteen remarkable women who have achieved recognition for accomplishment in their occupations. This diverse group of careers encompasses women in the arts, business, science, medicine, ministry, entertainment, and sports. Stories include women who have stamped out disease, made people laugh, earned Olympic and Paralympic gold medals, crossed the country in the cab of an eighteen wheeler, and many more chapters to inspire and empower girls to reach for their dreams.

Girls Succeed Book Trailer

This interactive e-book is an additional resource for units of study on careers, leadership, persistence, goal-setting and more. Back to School Special Pricing--$1.99.

To receive a FREE PDF digital file of the Study Guide that accompanies the book, please email your request to jqrose02at gmail dot com with Study Guide in the Subject line.

You can download a sample of the e-book which includes the Table of Contents and/or purchase Girls Succeed at

Smashwords Link 

Amazon Link  

Kobo Link 

Barnes and Noble Link 

Study guide for Girls Succeed Smashwords Link

Study guide for Girls Succeed Amazon Link 

About J. Q. Rose

After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction writing with mysteries, Sunshine Boulevard and Coda to Murder, released by Muse It Up Publishing. In Girls Succeed she returns to her first love,

writing about real people.  Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. Spending winters in Florida with her husband allows Janet the opportunity to enjoy the life of a snowbird. Summer finds her camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online at

Girls Succeed blog

J.Q. Rose blog

Facebook

J.Q. Rose Amazon Author Page  

List of participating blogs--

Career: YA Author Kaitlin Bevis on Writing as a Career

Welcome YA author Kaitlin Bevis to the Girls Succeed blog! Kaitlin and I are swapping blogs today, so please hop on over to Kaitlin's blog to visit us there and leave a comment. Thank you!

Kaitlin Bevis spent her childhood curled up with a book, and a pen. If the ending didn't agree with her, she rewrote it. She's always wanted to be a writer, and spent high school and college learning everything she could so that one day she could achieve that goal. She graduated college with a BFA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, and is pursuing her masters at the University of Georgia.

Her young adult series "Daughters of Zeus" is available wherever ebooks are sold. She also writes for truuconfessions.com and Athens Parent Magazine.

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Today Kaitlin shares her lifelong passion for writing with us. Do you enjoy writing stories? Maybe you and Kaitlin share similar experiences.

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Writing by Kaitlin Bevis

I've been writing all my life. Before I could read I called it make believe, but the same basic components were there. Plotting, developing characters, dialogue. It's all there,

I developed much of my writing style through reading. I would read my books with a black marker and a pen in hand, so I could change anything I didn't like. If the next book wasn't coming out soon enough, I'd create my own version.

I did that with shows too. As soon as Sailor Moon went off I'd start acting out the next episode. I was so proud of myself, because I was almost always right.

Took me awhile to realize the show had a rather repetitive formula...

While I was in middle school I wrote my first book. It was terrible. I still have it on a floppy disk, and I'm too terrified to open the file because it was that bad. In high school I was able to take creative writing classes and learned how to critique the work of my peers.

I enjoyed writing so much that when I ran out of creative writing classes in high school, I begged my school councilor to let me take it at the college through joint enrollment. In the summer between eleventh and twelfth grade I took English 1101 and 1102. During my senior year I took introduction to creative writing, advanced fiction writing, advanced non fiction writing, advanced poetry writing, and screenplay writing. The next year I took my core classes and even more creative writing classes. Including autobiographical writing, science fiction and fantasy writing, technical writing, and every other writing class I could find. Once I ran out I moved to Atlanta to get an English degree with a concentration in creative writing. I'm finishing up my masters now, and am applying to the Phd program with a creative writing dissertation.

Despite my lifetime commitment to writing, my personal writing didn't really take off until I joined my writers group. I was familiar with the workshop format through my schooling, but there's something different about a group of people who willingly spend Saturday nights away from their family and friends to talk about their writing that just can't be replicated in a classroom.

I'm very excited for my first book, Persephone, to be released. It's been a long journey to publication, and I can't really tell when it started. Did it begin when I penned my first draft? Or was it in college when I was learning everything I could about writing? Was it before then when I was acting out the next episode of Sailor Moon? Each of those little moments were important because of where they led. Now my book is out of my hands and into the readers.

Time to start the next one.

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Persephone, Daughter of Zeus

Back of the Book: 

The "talk" was bad enough, but how many teens get told that they're a goddess? When her mom tells her, Persephone is sure her mother has lost her mind. It isn't until Boreas, the god of winter, tries to abduct her that she realizes her mother was telling the truth. Hades rescues her, and in order to safely bring Persephone to the Underworld he marks her as his bride. But Boreas will stop at nothing to get Persephone. Despite her growing feelings for Hades, Persephone wants to return to the living realm. Persephone must find a way to defeat Boreas and reclaim her life.

Reviews 

Goodreads:

Musa: 

Amazon: 

Barnes and Noble: 

Kobo:

Available at all major online booksellers. 

Persephone youtube video:

Connect with Kaitlin online: 

Email: kaitlinbevis@gmail.com

Webpage: 

Blog: 

Amazon Page: 

Goodreads Page: 

Facebook: 

Twitter: @kaitlinbevis

Google Plus:

Book Review: Kiera's Quest Awakenings by Kristy Brown

Kiera's Quest: Awakenings

Book One in Kiera's Quest series

A MuseItYoung Novella by: Kristy Brown

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 75

ISBN: 978-1-927085-91-2

Price: $3.50  

Available at MuseItUp Publishing , Smashwords  and major online booksellers.

Back Cover:

Meet Kiera, a pretty, intelligent, and talented girl, brought up by her uncle, and abandoned by her parents. Life is as normal as she believes it to be, apart from the deep ache inside her, telling her she’s different. For years, Kiera had dreams where she ventures into a different reality. She’s not alone; a presence is always there, keeping her safe, yet she feels vulnerable, and hunted.

Zakk, Prince of Zantar, is under the Witch Queen’s spell as she tries to take over his world. He crosses paths with Kiera, and their fates are entwined.

As their journey unravels, she learns that she is not the only one affected by this prince. Who is on her side? Will she find out why she has been chosen? How can someone so young, defeat such evil? Will she find the strength to save the ones closest to her? Will this be Kiera’s only Quest?

Book Review by J.Q. Rose

If you are a reader of fantasy, then you are in for a great read when you choose Kiera's Quest Awakenings. I loved the really, really wicked Queen and the complete opposite of wickedness, Kiera, the main character. The story is told in a quaint English language which adds to the atmosphere in the tale. 

Kids will identify with Kiera in her contemporary world of school and friends. But her life becomes woven together with Zakk, Prince of Zatar, who is from another world. The story has suspense, mystery, and dark action which may be too intense for young readers. 

The imaginative storytelling kept me turning pages.  I raced to the end of the story to discover what would happen to Zakk, Kiera, and her friends. I was disappointed to discover the story does not wrap up all the loose ends, but rather, Kiera has to go on another quest to discover the answers. There are two more books in the series. If you don't mind reading a serial, I think you would enjoy this lively story.

New Book Release: Julius Caesar Brown and the Green Gas Mystery

Please welcome imaginative children's author Ace Hansen to the Girls Succeed blog! You have got to read on to discover this fun and entertaining new book. It's a fun day. Not only do I get to giggle with Ace on this blog, but also I am a guest on Ace's blog. So hop on over and say hi and discover probably more than you'll ever want to know about me.

 The world is farting green! Who will stop the green gas crisis!

THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK by Ace Hansen

Whilst I was cruising the Milky Way Galaxy in search of better tasting food, I crash landed into Meteor Crater, near Flagstaff, Arizona. Never having been on Earth, I hopped over to the closest city and began searching for nourishment. Everywhere I went people pointed and laughed, especially after I'd let out a few flaturific emissions. I couldn't understand why my green gas was so funny, until I realized Earthlings emissions were invisible! So I began to wonder, what if Earthlings started blowing greenies? 

The next thing I know, I'm being chased all over town by scary men in dark blue suits 'cause apparently you Earthlings think you have to pass around some kind of dark green and white paper in order to get the food you need. Crazy! So after spending a short stint behind bars, I figured I could get cash by making up funny stories for the miniature Earthlings, especially the ones who giggled and snorted every time they saw one of my green poofs. 

And thus JULIUS CAESAR BROWN AND THE GREEN GAS MYSTERY was born! 

Excerpt:

 Chapter One 

The real Julius Caesar conquered the world.

All I wanted was to conquer a simple spelling test.

“Having trouble?”

I set down my pencil and glared at Ben Purdee, the brainiest kid in fifth grade. “No problem.”

Yes, I had a problem. And it wasn’t just how to spell brocolee. Or was it brockoly?

Mrs. Tucker closed her book. “Time’s up. Pass them forward.”

I handed my test to Ivy Chen, who sat in front of me, and pushed my chair away from the desk. The legs scraped the floor. A loud, embarrassing noise echoed through the classroom. Heads turned. Ivy stared, her brown eyes wide as pie.

Ben nudged me and smirked. “Did you just—?”

“No. It was my chair. See?” I scooted back and forth trying to remake the suspicious sound, but I failed. Ben moved his desk away from mine. Ivy’s nose twitched. My cheeks grew hot. “It really was the chair,” I mumbled.

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Now go buy my book, so I can go buy some gummy worms. Or maybe you want to send me a big bag?

If you'd like to purchase JULIUS CAESAR BROWN AND THE GREEN GAS MYSTERY it's available as an ebook now and is coming in print Fall 2013:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBookstore
MuseItUp Publishing

About Ace:

Ace Hansen doesn’t pass green gas. The author grew up in a household of boys and knows all about deadly stinkers, tree houses, and scary neighbors.

   Ace enjoys all kinds of creepy things and has been known to devour entire bags of worms* while writing outrageous fiction.

*Gummy, of course. What were you thinking?

If you'd like to learn more about Ace (of course you do!) you can find him on:

Ace Hansen's Website

Twitter and Facebook