Hello readers, I was a finalist in Angelea Walkup’s HorseGirlTV Guest Bloggers competition! Please see the guest post at http://www.horsegirltv.com/making-a-difference-one-horse-or-human-at-a-time/. Thanks, Angelea, and Team HorseGirlTV for inviting me to stop by. 
Making A Difference, One Horse, Or Human, at a Time
February 4, 2013 By 2 Comments
Back to Basics Works
July 20, 2012 By 12 Comments
I recently conducted a writing workshop that led me back to basics. You see, my group ranged in ages four to fourteen, and I had thirty minutes to teach them how to write a story. At the same time, I happened to be reading Stephen King’s
On Writing, the best advice I’ve seen on the craft. When I looked back, my simple “lesson plan” contained striking similarities to the master storyteller’s guidance, so I thought I’d share what I learned. [Read more...]
A Real Good Story
June 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I last posted about “Keeping It Real” in writing and mentioned how some people responded to my book, Believing In Horses, turning fiction into reality. Last week, some local children made a significant donation to local rescues in their “Kids Can Do BIG Things, Too!” campaign. Please welcome my guest blogger, Kristy Alvarez, founder of Desire Ministries and the leader of this campaign, who tells the story in her words.
As many of you know, or may not know, through Desire Ministries, we have been running an after-school Horse Club program since 2006. We meet with the students of Cornerstone Christian Academy on a weekly basis so that the students who participate can learn the basics of horseback riding and horsemanship at Loftmar Stables in Bowie, Md.
Keeping It Real at the Annapolis Book Festival
June 5, 2012 By 3 Comments
This year, the Annapolis Book Festival included a panel, “Young Adult Books: Keeping It Real.” The title alone fascinated me, and I was thrilled to be part of it. The Key School in Annapolis created the Annapolis Book Festival 10 years ago when a group of dedicated parents decided to bring a world class event promoting reading and writing to Annapolis, Md. Once involved with the event, I quickly recognized why the Annapolis Book Festival holds the reputation as one of the finest book festivals in the region. With over 40 authors and 25 panels, The Key School saw to every detail and ensured both authors and audiences enjoyed the event.
Horse Book Club
November 30, 2011 By 1 Comment
Today I met the newly-formed and already-fantastic Horse Book Club at Nantucket Elementary School in Crofton, Md. Nantucket’s school librarian, Ms. Miller, brought together this group of enthusiastic horse-crazy students to read and discuss my book, Believing In Horses, over the next several months. Like so many of our educators out there, Ms. Miller, and her assistant Ms. Clark, have gone beyond their required jobs to create a special learning environment for these readers. Ms. Miller asked if I’d come sign and present the books and talk to the Club on its inaugural day, which of course I happily did.
To make this an ongoing interactive experience, the Club will use a relatively new educational social media platform, Edmodo. According to its creators, “Edmodo promotes anytime, anyplace learning. Functionally, it allows teachers to post messages, discuss classroom topics, assign and grade classwork, share content and materials, and network and exchange ideas with their peers – but in reality, it is so much more.” The librarian established a Believing In Horses group in Edmodo allowing us all to discuss and share ideas virtually. Ms.Miller’s first post: ”I hope you will enjoy our book club. Our first task is to find a neat name for our book club. Think about ‘horse’ words and share them with the group.”
But, our Horse Book Club leaders wanted more. Besides meeting weekly and discussing the book on Wednesdays (after all raised their right hands and swore they would not read ahead of the assignments), Ms. Miller thought it would be a good idea to have a mid-book project. So, the Horse Book Club members will be participating in the first annual Voice For The Horse Children’s Writing Competition. The founder of Voice For The Horse, Yvonne Allen, created the writing competition to provide a unique and free learning opportunity and allow children to share their love for horses across North America through their writing. From what I saw in the Horse Book Club’s eyes today, watch out competition!
And finally, the club will conclude its year with a field trip to Loftmar Stables, the backdrop and home to many of the horses in the book. We’ll do some hands on horse work, meet horses, take pictures, and answer final questions. And now it was my turn to make a club assignment: the Horse Book Club will help me put Ms. Miller on a horse for the first time in her life. I believe they can do it!
While assessing why I was so estatic about this Horse Book Club visit today, it hit me that this small group represented so many of the goals I had set when writing this book. Kids are reading and writing; they are sharing their love for horses; and adults are learning more about horses – maybe even becoming horse lovers, too. Thank you, Horse Book Club, for choosing Believing In Horses; it’s a blue ribbon win for me.
