As featured author on Tuesday, August 23, 7:30pm, I'll be reading excerpts from Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self. See The Reader for details. The Bourgeois Pig Cafe is located at 738 West Fullerton in Chicago. Come early and munch on their yummy sandwiches. The Bourgeois Pig is a cozy, student- …
Continue reading Invite: Book Event, Bourgeois Pig Cafe, Chicago
Last fall I heard Suzanne Gordon, journalist and long-time advocate for nursing, give a rousing speech to a room full of nurses. I’d read about her, but hearing her enthusiasm rekindled my smoldering fire of the necessity of promoting the professionalism of nursing. Ms. Gordon, as a non-nurse, challenged us to stand up for nursing. …
The International Christian Retail Show started for me with a warm greeting from Bill and Nancie Carmichael from Deep River Books, my publisher. They sponsored a dinner (yummy salmon) for their authors and guests at the Westin in Atlanta. My guest, from the friendship theme in Caring Lessons, was Marianna Crane. After dinner, Bill invited …
Continue reading ICRS #2 – Interviews, Signings, and Cupcakes
One big blessing is the best way I can describe my experience at the International Christian Retail Show last week in Atlanta. My friend Marianna Crane, featured in Caring Lessons, and I arrived within minutes of each other and met up at a Delta gate. We hadn’t seen each other in over a year, and …
Continue reading ICRS #1 – Hopping MARTA to Downtown Atlanta
Getting ready for Atlanta next week. Meeting up with the publisher of Caring Lessons, Deep River Books, at the International Christian Retail Show (check out the impressive list of exhibitors). Looking forward to media interviews and book signings. And to hanging out with my friend Marianna who will join me (and who plays a starring …
In my quest, as a nurse, to become a writer of memoir, I learned the importance of first sentences: to draw the reader into the story immediately. Think of the classics: “Call me Ishmael” (Melville's Moby Dick) and "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” (Dickens's A Tale of Two …
In 2000, the summer after I retired from teaching nursing, I took my first writing course. It was with Carol LaChapelle at the Newberry Library in Chicago. She assigned us to write a character sketch. I had no idea what that was. As she went on to explain, I thought, Oh, that's just a head …
As a retired nurse promoting a career memoir, people have asked how I did it all—raise kids, get a PhD, and work in nursing. It’s now an old story, but one that got resurrected recently when my husband asked me to read an article in the newspaper. In the article, “Poll: Many moms resent carrying …
The next time you’re moaning about having to attend a mandatory fire safety program, interrupting your day, at your workplace, think about this story. The other night I was babysitting for my daughter’s two children under two on the 13th floor of a high rise her family was renting for vacation. I was burping the …
I was thrilled yesterday (5/30/11) to find an article titled “Jobs in Health Care on the Rise” in the Business section of the Chicago Tribune. In a discussion of the need for more doctors, Christopher J. Gearon notes that more of their jobs are being held by nurse practitioners and physician assistants who also are …
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