Barbara's Meanderings

Why am I telling you all this? It happens that today on my monthly Blog Talk Radio show I have as my guest a man who lived almost his entire life with symptoms of thyroid disease without doing anything about them. When he almost died that is when he decided to take care of himself. Not only did he turn his life around, but he founded a foundation, The National Thyroid Foundation and he wrote a book, Why Am I Anxious? His name is Clay Ballentine and I learned of him through my good friend and amazing author, Fran Lewis. So it is right that Fran Lewis, author of children's books: My Name is Bertha, Bertha Speaks Out, and Bertha Fights Back. In addition, Fran has written two non-fiction books: Memories Are Precious: Alzheimer's Journey:Ruth's Story and Sharp As A Tack or Scrambled Eggs:Which Describes Your Brain?

Please listen in and it would be wonderful to have some callers for this show. You can also participate in the chat room during the show. Be sure you are signed into Blog Talk Radio. Here is the show's page and the call in number:

Call in number:

The second thing is to say Hello to all the people who have jogged over here to see my blog on Blog Jog Day! Please make sure to browse a little through some of my older posts. Maybe one of your favorite authors might have been interviewed by me.:) I love meeting new people, so please leave a comment for me.

Blog Jog Day is also World Hello Day! You need to greet ten new people. So hello and welcome to my blog. You will see it isn't like anyone else's anywhere.:) I will be giving away a free gift in honor of World Hello Day to anyone who comments. When you are finished here go and check out the next person in the list: http://jmanni32.blogspot.com.

Since last time I started tutoring and it's fun to get back to teaching and also the most fun is actually making money again!!! What I like about it is that I'm helping kids who somehow got lost in the flow of school. I think all they need is more attention to the things they don't know. Some of them have questions that never get asked during the lesson and then they never tell the teacher they don't know something. The teacher assumes that the material was learned by everyone who didn't ask a question and so goes on to the next thing. Of course, since the question was never asked the student has nothing on which to scaffold the learning and so it slides away and the student falls farther and farther backward. I've seen it so many times! Sometimes all a student needs is one skill to move ahead. Many times it's vocabulary or getting mixed up between two letters and learning the difference. I had a student who had a problem between reading b and d. This caused a problem for him every time he saw words with these letters. But this is the kind of information that is not readily seen by teachers. Reading teachers deal with this all the time. I like helping to get kids back to their grade level.:)

I'm going to have a lot of new guest authors popping up here from MuseItUp Publishing and wanted to let you know. I have met such a wonderful group of people who are also authors and they have hosted me on their blogs. So I am going to have them each on here to tell you about their books. Also, tune in on Tuesday, November 23rd, which is a different time for my radio show, but due to Thanksgiving we can't have the 4th Thursday this month. On my show, Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages, which airs at 3PM Central time, I am hosting two excellent authors. One is an old friend and critique group buddy, Greg Fishbone, and the other is a poet, Donald Hagelberg. Greg Fishbone has a book called, The Penguins of Doom and is about to publish Galaxy Games in 2011. Donald Hagelberg has helped edit and has many publications.

Until the next time hope you enjoy Blog Jog Day. Hello to all new people and to my faithful readers. I hope you will get involved in this harmless but wild trip through the internet. Thank you to my friends and if you are a Facebook friend, thank you for getting me to over 1,000 friends.:)

Last night we wanted to get some take out food and go home and eat it. That isn't such an unreasonable idea, right? You would think you could go to your own favorite restaurant, get your food and get home if the place is only five minutes away. But last night that five minutes turned into an hour. All children should have the opportunity to learn to read!

Please help us spread the word pass and give impoverished families access to books by posting this press release on your blog.


ACCESS BOOKS AND “AIR LIFT TO L.A.” DELIVER BOOKS TO COMPTON SCHOOL ON OCTOBER 2


Los Angeles – As part of their ongoing commitment to strengthen inner-city school libraries throughout Los Angeles and beyond, Access Books has joined forces with a team of Canadian authors to help Ralph Bunche Elementary (16223 Haskins Lane, Carson, CA 90746-1092) on October 2, 2010 at 9 a.m. One of 25 elementary schools in the Compton Unified School District (CUSD), Bunche is in desperate need of books for its 450 students.

Access Books, “Air Lift to L.A.” and a team of volunteers from Bunche will spend October 2nd revitalizing the library by painting murals and cataloging brand new books. In addition to the books, Access Books will provide a reading rug, rocking chair and sofa to create a warm and inviting environment for students. Five authors from Canada will be on hand for the event and to give fun and exciting presentations to the students.

The participating authors are:

Rob Weston, author of Silver Birch award winner Zorgamazoo

Kari-Lynn Winters, author Jeffrey and the Sloth, On My Walk, and other award-winning books.

Jill Murray, YA author of Rhythm and Blues and Break on Through

Wendy Kitts, Freelance Writer, Book Reviewer, and author of a soon-to-be published picture book from Nimbus Press

Helaine Becker, author of more than 40 books for children including Silver Birch award winners Boredom Blasters and Secret Agent Y.O.U.


Sadly, only 48 percent of Bunche’s students are scoring “proficient” or “advanced” in English & Language Arts on the California Standards Test. Research has shown that the best predictor of how well a child will learn to read is the number of books to which he or she has access, but 61 percent of economically disadvantaged children don’t have age-appropriate books at home. The students of Bunche Elementary fit this profile: 90 percent live at or below the poverty line. According to a 2009 report from the Jumpstart Foundation, communities ranking high in achievement tests share a common denominator: an abundance of books in their libraries.

California's Department of Education recommends 28 library books per student, according to the February 2010 draft of its School Library Standards. Bunche, however, has a mere three books per student. Therefore, Access Books has set a goal: Collect at least 5,000 books for Bunche’s library and classrooms. Many of these will be brand new, popular fiction titles – books that have been carefully selected to get students excited about reading.

Access Books’ partner for this endeavor, “Air Lift to L.A.,” grew wings after Canadian children’s author Helaine Becker visited a Long Beach elementary school and saw the empty shelves. Shocked and saddened, she rallied her Canadian colleagues and started a book drive. “The conditions [in Los Angeles] are on par with the worst of the Third World countries,” she writes on the “Air Lift to L.A.” Facebook page. “Actually, they are worse, because in much of the Third World, people are doing their best to raise their standards, while in Los Angeles, conditions have deteriorated abysmally in the last ten years.”

Bunche has just moved its campus library into a new, larger space to afford room for growth, but unfortunately, many of the shelves are bare. The library assistant nicknamed the library “The Dream Shop,” but with so few books, its dreams have yet to be realized.

California ranks last in the nation in funding for school libraries, spending less than one dollar per child. Although the 2011 federal budget proposal includes a $400 billion investment in education, there’s no mention of federal funds specifically geared toward school libraries. According to Sandra Barnett, head of the American School Library Association, “the budget is proposing to take away the last access to literacy for these kids in high-poverty areas.” The American School Library research data clearly shows that students with access to school libraries and good books score higher in state reading scores and are more interested in reading.

“I think the big issue is that we really need to make reading part of school and make reading fun and interesting,” said Rebecca Constantino, P.h.D., the founder and executive director of Access Books. “And that starts with having a good library.”


About ACCESS BOOKS: Access Books provides quality, high-interest books to Southern California's most impoverished school libraries. Since 1999, they have donated more than a million books to school and community libraries in the greater Los Angeles area. Access Books has been featured in USA Today, the L.A. Times, the New York Times and School Library Journal among many other media outlets. Access Books’ founder, Rebecca Constantino, is a recipient of Oprah’s “Use Your Life” award. She has published over 100 articles and a book in the areas of literacy development, equity in education, urban school and cultural perspectives of language acquisition.



Give a Child a Book, She’ll be Happy

Give a Child a Library, She’ll be Literate

P.O. Box 64951, Los Angeles, CA 90064

310-284-3452

www.accessbooks.net

If you are interested in learning more about Jane Kelley after this review, listen to my show on Thursday, September 23rd at 3PM Central Time, Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages. She will be talking about her book, Nature Girl and you might find out if she is going to write a sequel to it. :) On the same show will be Sandro Isaack, author of Stork,MIA, a picture book about a dad and dad who search for the stork. This should be a great show!! Scheduled for October so far is Michelle McGriff, who has a new urban fantasy novel being published in November.

So thank you, Jo Linsdell-Feliciani for including my blog in this award.

Here are seven things about me.

1. I'm a native New Yorker but we had to move to Connecticut because of our place becoming condemned due to a fire in our neighbor's apartment.

2. I love lions and Betty Boop and collect both of them, but the lions only in statues, photos and stuffed animals.:)

3. I was a teacher for over seventeen years, but I retired in 2008.

4. The thing that bothers me most is typos. I try never to make any if I can.

5. In the past ten years I have written four novels, three of which are YA and one a romance/suspense/adventure and none have been published yet.

6. I have a children's story published "The Trouble with Follow the Leader" and an adult story published, "Out On A Ledge".

7. The reason I started my blog was because I couldn't get either my husband or my daughters to understand how important my writing was to me and to listen to what I said.

So here are the 10 blogs that I think deserve this award:

1. http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/the-guys-perspective

2. http://www.outnumberedonline.com/

3. http://www.donnamcdine.com/

4. http://katiehines.blogspot.com/

5. http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/

6. http://thewritingjungle.blogspot.com/

7. http://luxuryhaven.blogspot.com/

8. http://www.i-cant-believe-im-not-bitter.com/

9. http://www.margotfinke.com/

10.http://www.asuen.com/blog/

I am adding 5 more blogs to this, because someone else who got this award said it was 15:

11. http://alittlebirdietoldmeso.blogspot.com/

12. http://caroleannmoleti.blogspot.com/

13. http://chergreen.blogspot.com/

14. http://www.cpaphilblog.com/

15. http://www.drpkp.com/

I am posting the bloggers who just received The Versatile Blogger Award from Jo Linsdell-Feliciani who are sharing this award with me:

1. http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/
2. http://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/
3. http://authorspromotingauthors.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.barbaraehrentreu.blogspot.com/ - Doesn't this look familiar!!!
5. http://vrleavitt.com/
6. http://jdswritersblog.blogspot.com/
7. http://www.thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/
8. http://janverhoeff.com/blog/
9. http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/
10. http://writersanctuary.blogspot.com/

Until the next time, thank you to my new readers and to those readers who have been here for awhile. This week is the week for my radio show, Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages and I will be having as my guest, Fran Lewis. She is a really good friend from my teaching days who has become a children's writer. She also has a few books published on the subject of Alzheimer's. Tune in on Thursday, May 27th at 3PM Central Time to hear my guest and myself with my co-host Freda Roberts talk about Fran's books. Her picture books address issues that are very common in school. They are: My Name is Bertha, Bertha Speaks Out, Bertha Fights Back.

For everyone who is praying for my husband, please keep your prayers coming. I really appreciate all my friends who have kept me going during this stressful time. Thank you so much.

Picture for Taunting Shadows from: http://www.erasofelegance.com/arts/gallery/fisher/fisher.html

Picture for Strong from: www.aintitcool.com/ node/38090 l

They stopped plowing and this is the street.

Read more:
On some days you feel like you are on an airport conveyer walk. Today was one of those days. There was hardly any down time at all! After two weeks of procrastination we finally got my daughter's TV and DVD player out of her room. We put them all in my husband's car. Today we brought them back to Costco and here is the amazing thing. They were both on the three month warranty so Costco gave back the entire amount to my daughter. I wanted to hug the Costco employee and it was such a short and wonderful experience. If you buy anything from Costco as long as you have all the parts they will take it back if it's within three months of the date of sale.

We went to a new restaurant, Peekskill Brewery. This place has a beer theme. I mean everything has been paired to its correct beer. When we started we were served a taste of beer and wonderful hot rolls with butter and tapenade. My husband, daughter and I ordered butternut squash soup and instead of being comforting it was spicy, but it was good. I think it needed a little calming. I tried adding butter to it and that was better. Though that should not be necessary with soup.:) My other daughter ordered the clam chowder which was also very spicy. My husband ordered the Blue Point Blueberry beer, which was smooth and delicious. I hope to find that somewhere again.

I have some great news!! I have been chosen to be the NY Examiner for Literature at Examiner.com. I was very excited to find out this afternoon and I am planning to start writing for them very soon. I learned about it from one of my friends. You will see this is a very reputable site and several of the writers from here have been on TV too.:)

So December 15th was National Cupcake Day and I didn't get a chance to bake cupcakes. So I did it today, though it's a day late and I baked two dozen, half white cake and half chocolate cake. But I frosted all of them with chocolate icing and to tell them apart I sprinkled some powdered sugar on the white cake cupcakes. My daughter adores them even though she is grown, so I wanted to make her happy and I did. She loved the cupcake she ate.:) Please go here to this awesome blog I found that is totally devoted to cupcakes. It makes me drool to see the pictures at Cupcakes Take the Cake. I love the look of this blog too and so glad I found it.:) Hope you like it too. I think there isn't anything that makes people smile more than offering them a cupcake.

But researching the last topic I found an even better day and I celebrated it without even realizing it.:) It's National Chocolate Covered Anything Day. So covering my cupcakes with chocolate icing was perfect for today.:) I even topped them with a chocolate chip and drizzled melted chocolate on them. But think of all the things you can cover in chocolate. Only please don't use yucky things like bugs. I saw one of those Food Network shows where they had to eat insects covered with chocolate. Yummy. I mean yucky!!! But I love chocolate covered strawberries.

That reminds me about walking around the mall around Christmastime when the economy was better and passing Godiva chocolates. They had someone in the window with a big bowl of melted chocolate and a huge bowl of gorgeous, luscious strawberries. The person was dipping the strawberries in the chocolate and I think they were giving away free samples. Ah, Godiva at Christmas with the golden boxes full of delicious goodness. Ah chocolate!! You can never go wrong with a box from Godiva even if it's only a few of their goodies. Of course, you wouldn't want to give them to someone allergic to chocolate, but even then they can give them away to someone else.:) There is nothing better than a piece of Godiva chocolate melting in your mouth! I just love the chocolate and no one is paying me to say this.:)

My husband was working the first part of this week, so we didn't do much together. I lit candles for Chanukah with my two daughters and though I think that my mother if she were alive would probably be horrified, I bought store bought latkes from Stew Leonard's for the first night. After warming them in the oven they got crispy and they were just as delicious as if I had made them at home. I do have latke mix and may make my own tomorrow night. I will never forget two years ago when I had to make latkes with my daughter who was bringing them into her office. They have an International Day once a year and she and I were going to make them together. However, though we prepped the night before and had the mixture all ready, neither of us had taken the amount of time to fry them into account. So I got up early and started frying them. You know that frying latkes means you can't put too many in a pan or they won't brown. So you can only do a few at a time and that's what bogged us down. I had to go to work, because I was actually working then and didn't have a chance to take a shower before I left. When I got to work I smelled like fried latkes and unfortunately my boss had no idea what they were.:) The latkes my daughter brought into work were a big hit, though.

Thank you to any new readers and thank you to the readers who continue to follow me. I hope to be able to give away a lot of books today for the holidays. Also please remember that next Tuesday is my Christmas show on Red River Writers Live Tales from the Pages. My guest will be the writers of Milspeak and Sally Drumm, who is the editor of the book by the same name. I am pleased that at least six of them will be participating. They are members or former members of the armed services and they will be talking about how they have celebrated the holidays in the service. They will also be reading from their own writing. I think this is going to be a fantastic holiday show. Until the next time if you celebrate Chanukah, have a happy holiday. For all others, hope you are not too stressed by holiday shopping.

I am so happy that NaNo is over, because I am getting to sleep a little earlier and now I only have one novel in my head.:) During NaNo I tried not to think about what I was writing. After all, it doesn't matter as long as you get the words down on the page. So now I can concentrate on my WIP again and I'm excited to finish it. I can feel the finish line coming soon, but I still have no real idea of how I am going to end it.:)