As I grow older, more and more I realize the importance of keeping my mind as active as possible and my body as fit as I can. Without both of these, it would be difficult and maybe even impossible to achieve all of the things that I am doing now and plan to do in the future. Thus, like everything in my life, I schedule time each day to maintain both my mental and physical health.
My body is definitely…..
I do not really believe in the idea of reincarnation, but many times in my life I have felt as if I could have been part of another life or another time period. I say this because of my overwhelming attraction to Egypt most of my life. Even as a child, I dreamed of visiting Egypt as I have stated in previous blogs. I have always felt the need to be a part of this culture and…..
As a new author who has published her first book, I have learned so much. Often, the process was stressful, perplexing, and even painful at times. Being a novice in the publishing world, I decided to self-publish which is the trend for most new writers. Waiting for a traditional publisher could take many years due to the thousands of books sent to these companies each year, and then the publisher could request rewrites which also slows down the process…..
Having many Egyptian friends, I have begun to understand some of their dreams and hopes for their future in their new democratic Egypt. However, I continued to be interested in their thoughts so I literally posted a Facebook Questionnaire to obtain their specific dreams and goals. These were the questions and the assignment I gave to them:
I want to do a blog about your future dreams and plans since Egypt has become a democracy. Please answer…..
I knew when I composed the last word of my book that it needed something more—some special touch–to tell my story. Happily the answer to this quandary was instantaneous. I had literally taken thousands of photos during my three visits to Egypt, and some of them were quite picturesque and noteworthy—even unique. Thus, I immediately started scrutinizing the many albums I had created for Facebook from 2011 thru 2012 and rummaged through my old photo album from 1996. I…..
All of us have favorite authors, favorite genres, and favorite subjects we enjoy reading. One thing that determines or influences our tastes is the writer’s style of writing. This includes his choice of words, his sentence structures, his type of organization, his motivation or purpose, and of course, his personality which plays an important role, too.
During my many years of teaching, I taught many kinds of writing—creative writing, such as poetry and short stories; letter writing;…..
One of the really exhilarating things for me as an author was the creation of my book covers. 
Some authors may choose to assign this task to the book publisher, but I envisioned the exact front book cover that I wanted for my book about Egypt. My problem is I am not an artist—at least not yet, (but the thought…..
Every writer knows the power that words can have on its readers. Thus, words are selected with great wisdom and care in order to express the precise thing that the writer wants to express, to appeal to the specific emotions the writer wants the reader to feel, and hopefully to impact the reader in some way—to entertain, to change opinions, to share a message or insight, or to educate. Today I will share a poem I wrote…..
As a high school Language Arts and English teacher for thirty-seven years in American public schools, I have taught many courses in all types of writing—short stories, dramas, poems, research papers, essays, and other expository forms. I have evaluated thousands of student compositions and written projects, but I never really had the time to sit down and write myself until after my retirement in May 2008. At first, I only wrote a few personal essays about my life for my…..
One of my many passions is traveling. As a child, I daydreamed of visiting faraway, exotic places. When I became an adult and a teacher, my husband Bill and I made our first trip to Europe. I carefully planned the itinerary, and we rented a car and spent twenty-one days touring as many countries as we could. That first summer we visited countries like France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, both East and West Germany (at this time), Switzerland, Italy, and Monaco. …..