What Makes Me Happy By Saralyn Richard Recently, one of my writer friends, Kathleen Kaska, featured me in her newsletter, the theme of which was: What Makes You Happy? I had fun answering Kathleen’s questions and thought I’d share them with you. What makes you happy? children and dogs! A long-time educator, I taught […]
Fighting the Good Fight—For the Arts by Saralyn Richard My first foray into the world of teaching was as an English instructor, and I learned a lot about working with students in a required academic subject. Several years into that career, I earned a graduate degree in administration, and I switched out of the English […]
Are You a Readaholic? by Saralyn Richard I’m a readaholic, and my addiction began when I was two years old! My mother realized that I was reading, and she encouraged me by taking me to the children’s section of the library and loading me up with all the books allowed for checkout at one […]
Teaching Creative Writing By Saralyn Richard I always wanted to be an author, but I was sidetracked into teaching by my parents, who felt writing was not a real job. I didn’t mind that much. I loved teaching, too, and when the opportunity arose for me to teach creative writing to high school students, I […]
Focus by Debra H. Goldstein Focus. From a writer’s perspective, the word embraces a simple but necessary concept – concentrating on the task at hand. It sounds easy: pay attention and the idea will be conceived, executed, eventually published, and promoted. But, that’s not how the real world works. Life offers each of us major […]
Fences
by Saralyn Richard Do good fences make good neighbors? In the past few months, I’ve gained new neighbors on either side of my house. There’s a brand-spanking-new fence between my yard and that of the neighbor to the north. There’s no fence between my yard and that of the neighbor to the south. I […]
Sharing the Spotlight by Saralyn Richard When BAD BLOOD SISTERS came out last March, a book club chose it as its first selection, and invited me to speak. This was no ordinary book club. It was the Elks Lodge #126, and they were fund-raising for the Texas Elks Children’s Services, Inc. So enthusiastic were […]
By Saralyn Richard When I was an English I teacher, I assigned my students a “Day of Kindness” paper, based on the Shirley Jackson short story, “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts.” The resulting papers and speeches led to a powerful discussion of good and evil, and how doing good deeds made the world a better […]
I’m often asked which of my books is my favorite, and I can never answer directly. It’s like picking one of your children over the others. I love every book for its unique qualities, its characters, its relationship to my own life. BAD BLOOD SISTERS is my first book set in my hometown, on an […]