Hi Everybody:

I am so pleased (giddy actually) to share with you that my friend Meagan Frank’s book, Choosing to Grow: Through Marriage has recently been published! She and I are both working with the fabulous Linda Boulanger at Treasureline Publishing (umm…okay I am still in need of “working” as Meagan’s book is actually DONE )…anyway….

Choosing to Grow Through Marriage is about the 8-year recovery of Meagan’s own breaking marriage.  Her journey includes 25 titles, 173 questionnaires and 70 women who saved her from walking away (interestingly, the women she spoke to were from all walks of life – happily married, divorced, never married  - anyone touched by marriage (which is just about anyone)).

Meagan was moved to write this book when she realized she had hit a catastrophic nadir in her life: five moves in six years, two babies under the age of two and a husband who worked 90 hours a week, left her feeling isolated and depressed. As Meagan says,”I almost made a disastrous decision and realized I had to do something significant to move forward in our marriage. I chose to research my way out….it took us four years to work on our marriage, get my identity back, and move past the darkness.”

And how does Meagan feel now that her story and her life’s work is in the public domain? Says Meagan, “I am nervous about setting it out there in the world, but I know the story will help people. If I found one resonating thing during my research it was that modern women are struggling with the way modern marriage is redefining itself. It is an ongoing conversation, and we are all navigating the new roles of mother and wife without a blueprint from our mothers.

One day I realized I didn’t want to be married anymore. Our relationship wasn’t the fun, ideal, romantic version I had created in my head, and all I wanted was to get in my car and drive far away from the life that had consumed me. Expressionless, I stood holding my nine-month-old baby as I watched our three-year-old tear apart the toys…again. No husband in sight and no light at the end of the exhausting reality. If this was marriage…I was starting to think I had promised more than I could deliver.

Eight years later, on the back side of an incredible journey, I can confidently proclaim I believe wholeheartedly in those vows of marriage. Our life isn’t always fun, ideal or romantic, but it is truly the only life I want to lead. I didn’t come to this conclusion standing still, however. Once I got my feet moving from where I felt stalled, I found strength, beauty, and joy in the most surprising places. Those discoveries came on the heels of my decision to grow. It was a choice to work through it…it was a choice to learn what I could about myself and our marriage…it was a choice to be open to changing my behavior first. Choosing to Grow: Through Marriage is the story of how I got here. It is not a fix-all manual, but it is a real account of the possibilities. We all have the capacity for change and growth…we just have to choose to do it.”

If you like this book, you’ll want be on the lookout for Meagan’s next creative projects:  Choosing to Grow: Through Youth Sports and Choosing to Grow: Through Motherhood. Meagan is planning her  book tour – and I have my fingers crossed that Chicago will be on the list!

About Megan Frank:

A 1997 graduate of Colorado College, Meagan was a high school English teacher for three years. Her son was born in 2000, her first daughter in 2002, and her second daughter in 2005. In those five child-bearing years, she was a stay-at-home mom who wrote a number of blog and magazine articles. In fall of 2003, she started research for Choosing to Grow: Through Marriage. The project included interviewing nearly 70 women, reading through a slew of articles and books and collecting 173 questionnaires. As a complement to the research, she also wrote for and maintained a website about the project. In fall of 2005, she was hired as a reporter for The Dunn County News in Menomonie, Wisconsin and for five months she did a variety of writing projects for the paper. Meagan wrote features, opinion pieces and news articles. Miscellaneous writing adventures include: winning third place in a writing contest for The Colorado College Alumni magazine, writing her grandfather’s war story in a published book about World War II, writing a feature article for the 2006 summer edition of the Chippewa Valley Business Report, and writing regularly for two blogs: one for fun called What the Blog is Going on Around Here? and another called Choosing to Grow: Through Marriage. She currently lives in Woodbury, Minnesota with her husband Paul and their three children; Nate, Haley and Kiana.

Thanks Meagan for sharing your story with us!

Swati

Hello Everyone:

Today’s post is a book review on Adoption Nation: How Adoption is Transforming the American Family by Adam Pertman. It’s an incredible read for anyone touched in any way by adoption (which it turns out is more people than you may think) or any one interested in learning more about the topic.

As a nation, we have adopted more than 130,000 children annually from within the United States and from abroad. That translates to more than 100 million people in our country (!!!) today having some form of adoption in their immediate families – and it means that you don’t have to look too far to see that nearly everyone is connected to this extraordinary, misunderstood, controversial, life-altering institution in some way.

I am not one for sensationalized stories – for me, the attraction to this book comes from the more common, everyday experiences of those touched by adoption. Most moving is the glimpse into the varied emotions of adoptee children: joy and curiosity, depression and confusion, identity crisis, new found inner strength, love and so much more.

Enjyoy the review and consider picking up this moving, insightful, and sometimes surprising book.

- Swati

**********

Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming Our Families – and America

Adoption Nation takes on the challenge of explaining the historic changes enveloping us all – and does so with a unique combination of engaging prose, gripping stories, insightful perspective and exceptional research.

Its author, Adam Pertman, is one of the most influential experts in his field and Adoption Nation has been called “the most important book ever written on the subject.”

Inspired by his Pulitzer-nominated series while a reporter with the Boston Globe, the first edition of Adoption Nation(2000) captured an important piece of U.S. history and was a game-changer for child welfare professionals, policy-makers, and members of what Pertman calls “the extended family of adoption” (adopted individuals, birth and adoptive relatives).

The new, fully revised edition updates the “adoption revolution” with all of its joys and disappointments, its personal and policy issues, its complexities and controversies.

“There’s no exaggerating how much has occurred over the last decade – from the adoptive mother who recently ‘returned’ her son to Russia, to the children orphaned by the earthquake in Haiti; from the ongoing debate over transracial adoptions, to the still-unregulated Wild West of adoption on the Internet; from the decline in secrecy and shame in adoption, to the explosion of reunions between adopted people and their birth families; and from the precipitous drop in international adoptions to the soaring rise in adoptions of boys and girls from foster care, including by growing numbers of gay and lesbian parents,” said Pertman. “When I looked at the landscape, I felt compelled to do a thorough rewrite of the stories, of the research and of the phenomenon itself.”

More comprehensive, more up-to-date, more moving – and more useful – than any other book on the subject, the new edition of Adoption Nation is an invaluable resource for prospective and current parents and their children. And it is a passionate call-to-arms for equality and social justice, as well as a unique tool for educators, policymakers and professionals.

ADAM PERTMAN is the Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, the pre-eminent research, policy and education organization in its field. A highly sought-after speaker, Pertman has delivered hundreds of keynotes, trainings and other presentations internationally, and is the recipient of many awards for his work. He is the Associate Editor of Adoption Quarterly and has contributed to numerous publications on family issues. Pertman is widely quoted by journalists and has appeared as a guest on “Oprah,” “Today,” “The View,” “Nightline,” among other national programs. Before embarking on his current career, Pertman was a senior journalist with The Boston Globe for over two decades. He is a member of the Council on Contemporary Families, the editorial advisory board of Adoptive Families magazine, the National Adoption Advisory Committee of the Child Welfare League of America and the Advisory Board of Orphans International, among others. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and their two children. Learn more at www.adampertman.com.

I don’t know about you, but having to ask for a raise brings me to an instant state of anxiety.

Public speaking? No problem.

Singing off-key for five years in grammar school chorus? Whatever.  Give me the microphone.

Parasailing to celebrate my divorce?  No big deal.

Flying in a plexi-glass helicopter over a volcano?  Bring it on.

Asking for a raise? <gasp!> Can I have my blankie?

So, imagine how happy I was to be able to schedule a Skype interview (below) with Dr. Diane L. Katz, Ph.D., author of Win at Work: The Everybody Wins Approach to Conflict Resolution. In her book (which I did receive for free – my required disclosure ), she covers many salient work related topics, such as conflict resolution, dealing with a micro-managing boss, and how to ask for a raise.

I couldn’t resist interviewing Dr. Katz about that last one – and she has graciously agreed that if any of my readers have any specific questions or need advice on a particular situation, she will be happy to offer back some advice if you post your question here!!

Take a listen to the interview (posted below), be sure to post any questions you may have, and check out her book and her website at http://www.theworkingcircle.com or her blog here (the book is also available at Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon).

Have a super day -

Swati

DianeKatz on 2010-07-16 at 10.05

Hi Everybody:

I am SO excited to share an interview with  fellow blogger and author, Tess Moody.  Tess’ blog,

Six Feet Under Blog, is always a great read…but what I am really here to share today is my interview with Tess about how she gets her ideas and how she writes her books (because, ummm…that’s what I want to do!!)….I read her last book, Anonymous, in just a few hours…so we’ve decided to give one copy away for FREE (hooray!!).  I’ll tell you how you can win it in a second, but first let me tell you about the book…Anonymous is about a woman named Paige McDonald who is a well-known blogger and, when one of her  reader’s obsession with her goes too far, Paige finds herself in danger. Soon, other bloggers start turning up dead. So….will she listen to her family and stop blogging, or will she ignore everyone and keep blogging-at the risk of losing her life? You’ll have to read it to find out….!

Ok, here’s how you can win the book….follow me on Google Friends Connect, Twitter, and on my Facebook page (all links over to the right ), leave two comments on this site about my posts, and tell me you are done with these steps in one of your comments.  I’ll do a random drawing from everyone who participates and then we’ll send you your book!  Yippee!!!

Ok, now for my interview with Tess – enjoy!

1) How do you get your story line ideas? 
My stories either kind of just come to me out of the blue, or sometimes I dream the endings-not to copy Stephenie Meyer. lol. I have to say though, that my first novel came from a real life experience and I turned it into a thriller.

2) What advice do you have in creating the narrative arc as you do so well with your mystery, Anonymous?

This may be a left-handed thing (lol), but I like to start from the ending and go backwards. I guess I like to solve the "crime" before it happens, then go back and make it happen. Outlining on paper is important though, to stay focus on a beginning, middle, and ending to keep your readers interested. If you keep going on and on about their day, the reader will get bored and go away.

3) How/why did you decide to use i-universe to self-publish?
I love iUniverse! Sure, I would love for my books to be picked up by a publisher, but if you don't want to wait, iUniverse is the route to go. They have lower prices then some PODs, many services, and a quick turn-a-round.

4) How long have you been writing, what else have you written, what's your favorite?
To be fair, I've been writing since junior high. My language arts teacher loved my short stories, and always told me that I had such an imagination.
My first novel, The Accident, was published in 2002. I would have to say my favorite story would have to be that book. I wrote it while going through a big change in my life-a story too long to write about, but it is a bit similar to the storyline of that book.

5) One piece of advice I'd wish I could've given myself when I first started writing books...
Hmmm, I guess I would have told myself to try harder to get my book published. Self publishing has it's perks, but it's a lot of hard work.

6) What blogs do you enjoy reading?
I don't think anyone has ever asked me this before. I have too many to list, but my favorites are the bloggers that have been there for me in the beginning and are still there, leaving me comments to this very day:
Creative Junkie, Too Many Hats, Eight Helping Hands (you know you (Swati) are my new favorite too!) I love looking at foodie blogs too- I love looking at beautiful photos of food and it inspires me to learn how to cook. I'm a really bad cook!

To buy Tess’ book or see what else she’s written, go to:

http://www.teresamoodyauthor.com/

Have a great day!

Swati

Hi Everyone:

Someone sent me these tips for having a healthy (germ free) summer (is that possible with kids?) What better way to kick off the holiday weekend than with a post about germs ? I knew you’d agree…

Actually, they are good reminders…take a peek…they are written by Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona’s Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, and consultant to Coverall Health-Based Cleaning System^SM as well as the co-author of the The Germ Freak’s Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu: Guerilla Tactics to Keep Yourself Healthy at Home, at Work and in the World.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Swati

p.s.

I am a germ-a-phobe!

• Ants aren’t the only picnic intruders. Going on a picnic is a great family activity, but food-borne outbreaks can occur when food is kept warm for too long. Salad dressing is one of the most popular places for bacteria to grow quickly under warm temperatures. Try to keep food in an ice-filled cooler to prevent it from rapid spoiling. Also, try to avoid picnic tables in lieu of clean blankets; birds often land on picnic tables to eat crumbs, leaving fecal matter behind for unsuspecting victims.

• Ensuring safer playtime. Recent studies show that toys and playgrounds tend to become contaminated with E. coli and other fecal bacteria. Soccer balls, footballs, bikes, slides and handheld game devices are popular items for such contamination. Encourage children to wash their hands after playtime for as long as it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice to make sure they’re staying clean.

• Keep that sandbox covered. When children aren’t outside playing in the sandbox, make sure the play area is covered. Parasite infections are caused by cats and other animals, who tend to use sandboxes as a public restroom.

• Be careful around public pools. In recent years, the waterborne parasite Cryptosporidium (diarrhea-causing bacteria) has been linked to a growing number of outbreaks. Because the parasite is resistant to chlorine, the outbreaks have been associated with public chlorinated pools. If you have small children, it is best to have them use a small wading pool in the backyard or to attend public pools in the morning when fewer children are present.

Hi All:

I had no idea expectant dads “felt” so much!!  Check out these very real symptoms men can feel when they are about to become dads at my blog on Working Mother Magazine!

http://www.workingmother.com/web?service=direct/1/ViewBlogLandingPage/dlinkBlog&sp=S2423

or

http://tinyurl.com/2alcf5f

- Swati

Ok, so you’re in charge of bringing the wine for tonight’s dinner…and if you are like me, you head to the store to stare at the sea of brands in your price range…still being no closer to a thoughtful decision than you were at home.  I want to spend less than $10.00; how do I know if I should be getting Yellow Tail Merlot , Beringer’s Stone Cellars Merlot, or the Barefoot Merlot?  They all look the same from a foot away!  Well, I shall worry no longer because Good, Better, Best Wines: A No-Nonsense Guide to Popular Wines has saved me!  Carolyn Evans Hammond (a well-known wine writer) has collected and recommended the good, better and best wines ranging in cost from under $4.99, $5.00-$7.99, $8.00-$10.99, and $11.00-$15.00.

This book focuses on wines’ under $15.00 (which by the way accounts for 90% of the wines sold in the US!) and saves you from and endless talk about the wood used for the aging barrel and what a reductive note is…when all you want to know is what.wine.to.buy. While there are educational elements in the book (which I enjoy if I am at a winery, but not when I have 15 minutes to get to a party), the focus is on helping you make a quick and easy decision.  You can purchase the book via the Amazon links below – and I have also added the book’s official press release below if you would like to read more about it.

Can I just say how happy I am to have this book on my shelves?  Very.

See comment below by author Carolyn Hammond to win a FREE signed copy today!

Enjoy!

Swati

Purchase this book on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Better-Best-Wines-No-Nonsense/dp/1592579779

or

http://tinyurl.com/2dk6f53

PRESS RELEASE

America is drinking more wine than ever with the nation poised to become the world’s biggest wine consumer by 2012.  And much of what Americans drink are popular big brands under $15 per bottle with names like Sutter Home, Beringer, and Woodbridge—a trend that’s expected to continue.  According to recent findings by Nielson Company, top brands will continue to grow over the next couple of years because of the steady increase in wine consumption and the fact Americans are experimenting less with new wines in the current troubled economy.  But big brands are not created equally. Good, Better, Best Wines, A No-Nonsense Guide to Popular Wine is the first book ever to rank best-selling big brand wines. (ISBN: 9781592579778, Alpha Books, April 2010, $12.95).

“While wine snobs are swirling and sniffing expensive wines that are tediously hard to find, the rest of America is just drinking wine.  Popular wine.  Big brand wine,” says author Carolyn Evans Hammond.  “Big brands can spell terrific value but you need to know which bottles to buy. That’s where Good Better Best Wines comes in.  It’s small enough to pop in your pocket and take with you to the shop.  And it’s user-friendly enough to flip through on the fly.”

Good, Better, Best Wines ranks the wines by varietal and price up to $15 with tasting notes as well as bottle images to help readers find the wines on the shelves. And its accessible style and useful content—including a chapter on Good Deals at Super-Low Prices—cut the intimidation factor traditionally associated with wine. Wine guides typically focus on wines produced in much smaller quantities, are not marketed as well due to smaller budgets, get less shelf space if stocked at all, and tend to change dramatically vintage to vintage rendering the recommendations less reliable. Big brands use economies of scale to produce good value wines with easy-to-understand labels, limited vintage variation and broad distribution.  These advantages are a winning combination with today’s time- pressed wine consumers faced with tens of thousands of wine choices, who are more concerned with how a wine “drinks” than how it performs at tastings with the “sip and spit” test. For these reasons, big brands have become the wines most Americans turn to most of the time.

About the Author:

Carolyn Evans Hammond is an accomplished wine writer whose articles have appeared in such eminent magazines as Decanter and Wine & Spirit International in the United Kingdom, as well as Maclean’s, Taste, and Tidings in Canada.  Her first book, 1000 Best Wine Secrets, earned critical acclaim and international distribution.  She also issues a newsletter, runs a wine club, conducts seminars, and publishes a blog on her website—http://www.wine-tribune.com.  She holds the Diploma from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and a BA from York University.

To learn more about Carolyn and her new book Good, Better, Best Wines, view her book trailer at http://www.youtube.com/user/carolynevanshammond1.

Have you ever heard a stream of haphazard punishments come spewing out of your mouth?   Err….ummm…I’ve done that.  And I’ve gotten an angry, eye-rolling response back from my daughter. And then I’ve felt ridiculous because I can’t even remember what I’ve rattled off.

Apparently I am not alone (whew!) because Scott Gale, author of Your Family Constitution: A Modern Approach to Family Values and Household Structure and his son were having some sort of disagreement while their entire family was at the beach.  And it left him screaming “You’re done with TV for the week!  You’re going to bed right after dinner! You can spend the rest of the day in your bedroom!”  On other words, Mr. Gale went berserk with punishment threats – and soon realized it wasn’t his best moment. 

On another day, the Mr. Gale finds himself telling his sons they cannot watch TV after breakfast one Saturday only to hear his sons ask why it was ok last Saturday; he doesn’t have a good answer and he realizes that he’s been expecting them to act on his whim-of-the-day.  And he knows what he really want is to cultivate a healthy family atmosphere (yup, me too!).

The culmination of these reflections is this book, which provides a step-by-step process to build a Constitution for your family (hooray!).   This book provides a clear-cut method for managing a busy family in a practical and attainable way – and requires everyone in the family to be an active participant with clear accountabilities.

Be warned however that Your Family Constitution is not for the weak-hearted – parents are held to behaviors and agreements just like the kids; for example, if Mr. Gale doesn’t work out three times a week, he does not get to hog the TV on Sunday to watch football!

Check it out – my daughter and I are coming up with some of our “laws” now and it’s actually been fun to be having the conversation.

You can buy this book at Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Family-Constitution-Household-Structure/dp/0982296134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269720903&sr=8-1-spell

or

http://tinyurl.com/yfqq2to

You’re thinking about a vacation to Disney and you are pummeled with information about it: everyone has an amazing nugget for you and Borders is filled with shelves of guidebooks promising fun.  And you want it to be as perfect as possible for your little darling (or your Tasmanian Devil, depending on the kind of day you are having).  Want to know which book to pick to help you?  I suggest one that has won EIGHT National Book Awards!

The Complete Walt Disney World 2010 has every possible bit of information you need to enjoy Disney’s 700+ attractions, restaurants, shops and hotels – and offers hundreds of time-saving tips to boot!  (Yes I said over 700 – were you thinking of going for four days and just squeezing it all in as you go, off the cuff, with a five year old in tow, and a bazillion other people in attendance?  Er…you may want to rethink that strategy…)

Unique finds in this book include:

-          Plan Perfect Theme Park Days: understand the best time of year and days of the week to visit each park, the best rides for your kids, and (my favorite) how long the lines will be at each attraction, for every hour of the day (I love these people; almost as much as I loved my Fast Pass)…did you know about Magic Hours?  You can get in BEFORE the crowds – how sweet is that?

-          Animal Kingdom Wildlife Guides: Seriously, staying at the Animal Kingdom Resort, where animals graze just outside your room, was one of the best vacations I ever took…and this book has the most thorough section on it I have ever seen! Don’t miss the Safari ride at the Animal Kingdom Park…

-          What’s New: an overview of everything that’s new at Disney.

-          Character Locations: Lists that tell you EXACTLY where and when you (I mean you kids) can meet Disney’s stars (really could have used that on our 1^st trip there when my daughter was four). Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Snow White, Alvin and the Chipmunks…here you come!

The other really enchanting feature about this book is the 550 color photos it includes – your kids will get a kick out it (as will your inner child).

One additional tidbit I must share with you: Julie and Mike Neal, the authors, go to Disney once a week!  Yep, they know of what they speak. That’s my childhood dream-job come true.

Below is the link to purchase the book at Amazon.

Enjoy your vacation!

-          Swati

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Walt-Disney-World-2010/dp/0970959672/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269463906&sr=8-1

or

http://tinyurl.com/yk78fsc

Sounds like busy Sunday doesn’t it?  The title of this post isn’t an indication that I am going crazy (there are other signs which point toward that).   These are actually the titles of two fun children’s books I was asked to review.  And before I go any further, you should know my daughter has approved them too.

I’m Up in a Tree, written and illustrated by Mark Alden Johnson, is an amusing tale about a little boy who climbs up a tree, and then cannot get down.  As the day progresses, various silly characters (birds, bees, and a cat) offer counsel on how he can get down.  In each instance, he considers the advice and chooses instead to wait for his father.  It’s a great lesson in listening to your gut and not giving in to peer pressure.   But what makes this book delightful in my eyes is the charming manner in which it is written: simple, lyrical rhymes that are just right for kid-sized poets.  Check it out at Amazon: I’m Up in a Tree.

The second book, written by Jeannine Fox and illustrated by David Bamberg, is called Feeding Penny Pig.  Mimi, Laney’s grandmother, searches to find Laney the perfect birthday gift: a piggy bank named Penny Pig.  Penny it turns out is hungry, hungry, hungry for coins!  Once Laney gets Penny, she is busy doing chores all over the house to earn money, to feed Penny.  This book is a great building block for teaching kids about money management and the importance of saving.  Feeding Penny Pig also contains something that always tickled my toes as a kid: the intrigue of an inanimate object (a piggy bank) coming to life.  Nothing beats that when you are young and full of imagination.  The author is a Certified Financial Planner, a Certified Public Accountant and has been on a variety of radio and TV shows related to financial well-being.  You can check out Ms. Fox’s site at www.mimisfunhouse.com and you can buy the book at Amazon at: Feeding Penny Pig.

Enjoy and happy Sunday!

-          Swati

Ps.   As I am required to share by law, I did receive these books for free, but was not obligated to say anything specific about them besides my actual opinion!