Living, Teaching, and Traveling Overseas by Jill Dobbe

BOOK PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jill Dobbe, Author

                            www.facebook/JillDobbeAuthor

 

FORMER WISCONSIN EDUCATOR WRITES MEMOIR ON

LIVING, TEACHING, AND TRAVELING OVERSEAS

HERE WE ARE & THERE WE GO

TEACHING AND TRAVELING WITH KIDS IN TOW

Who says you can’t travel with kids?  My husband, Dan, and I do just that as we set off with our two very young kids, first to live and work on an island far out in the Pacific, then on to the continent of Africa with a few stops in between.  Armed with strollers, diapers, and too much luggage, we travel to over 25 countries throughout a 10-year span, while working together as overseas educators.

After surviving typhoon Yuri, almost being mauled by lions, and, nearly shot by a presidential guard, we happily endure all of the good times and bad, while living life to the fullest.  A decade’s worth of experiences and lifelong memories remain with us, as we return to the U.S., now with two teenagers in tow, and begin to experience our very own version of reverse culture shock.

I wrote this book mainly because I wanted to share our many travel stories with others who are contemplating living and teaching overseas or enjoy traveling, with or without children.  I want others to know that it can be done if you are willing to make it happen and are open to living a life full of adventures.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:   

  

Since writing her first memoir about her travels, Jill Dobbe has lived in Cairo, Egypt, Gurgaon, India, and Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where she now resides with her husband.  A Shawano, Wisconsin native, Jill continues to work as an elementary administrator overseas and writes on the side. Her two children are now adults and continue to travel on their own.  Every June, they all meet up together at their home on a lake in Wisconsin.

Publisher: Orange Hat Publishing, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, www.orangehatpublishing.com,

414) 212-5477, Shannon Ishizaki, Owner
Available:  Amazon.com (Paperback and Kindle)

BN.com

The Bookstore, Appleton, WI
Book World, Shawano, WI

Lisa Chilar on Writing a Character at AllWriters Workplace

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Who is this character living in my head and why won’t she leave me alone?

WAUKESHA – Do you have a voice inside your head? Is he or she coming out in the form of poetry? Let poet Lisa Cihlar help you guide this character through a poetic series! The Poetic Obsession – Writing a Character Series will help you define your character and look at ways to write a cluster of poems that echo each other without being carbon copies. Participants will do exercises, brain storming, and character mapping. Cihlar’s own Swampy Woman, from her new chapbook, The Insomniac’s House, would not slink back into the algae green waters. She had to have her say and to hear what others had to say about her. Let your character crawl out too! Bring along five to ten character based poems and let’s see who shouts the loudest. This AllWriters’ Celebrity Saturday Event will take place on September 22nd, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

LISA J. CIHLAR’S poems have been published in The South Dakota Review, Corium, Green Mountains Review, In Posse Review, Bluestem, and The Prose-Poem Project. One of her poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the author of two chapbooks, “The Insomniac’s House,” from Dancing Girl Press, and “This is How She Fails” from Crisis Chronicles. She lives in rural southern Wisconsin.

This Celebrity Saturday event has a fee of $85, which includes lunch, catered by Café de Art! You can register by calling 262-446-0284, or going online at http://www.allwriters.org/., click on Celebrity Saturdays.

AllWriters’ Workplace and Workshop offers on-site and online writing courses in all genres and abilities of creative writing, as well as coaching and editing services. A schedule of classes and registration is available online at http://www.allwriters.org/ or you can call 262-446-0284. AllWriters’ is located at 234 Brook Street, Unit 2, in historic downtown Waukesha.

Kathie Giorgio
Director, AllWriters' Workplace & Workshop LLC
Author, "The Home For Wayward Clocks"
234 Brook St., Unit 2
Waukesha WI 53188
Phone: (262) 446-0284

Kathie's Website: http://www.kathiegiorgio.org/

Fall Writers and Book Festivals!

WWA Fall Conference
September 28-30, 2012

Hotel Mead and Conference Center
Wisconsin Rapids, WI

See the page for all speakers and costs. Great workshops lined up!


Edgerton Book Festival
September 29, 2012

Edgerton High School
200 Elm High Drive, Edgerton

The Book & Film Festival consists of a number of interactive literary events. These include featured speakers and authors who share their insight on their writing and the inspiration for their books. The authors include those who have written best-sellers as well as Wisconsin authors. Through collaborative efforts within our community and those of the literary world we work together to present a weekend full of free reading and film related activities. In addition, a children’s author is selected each year to receive the Sterling North Literary Legacy Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature which is presented at the Book & Film Festival.


November 7-11, 2012
The Wisconsin Book Festival is a free, five-day program of public events that takes place every Fall in downtown Madison. It is the state's largest literary festival, drawing thousands of attendees annually.

Since its inception in 2002, the Wisconsin Book Festival has been a showcase for literary talent from across the state of Wisconsin and beyond. It is a forum for people to come together and sit face to face and side by side, to talk and listen, whisper, laugh, cry, sing, sign, write notes, tell jokes, and give voice to their ideas. The Wisconsin Book Festival is a special project of the Wisconsin Humanities Council, an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit, and works to fulfill the WHC’s mission: Community through Conversation.

We proudly host authors of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction for readers of all ages; in addition we stage plays, offer hands-on workshops, feature spoken word performances, and more. Our authors have included such well-known names as Grace Paley, Tim O’Brien, Edwidge Danticat, Isabel Allende, Michael Chabon, TC Boyle, Judy Blume, Wendell Berry, Michael Perry, Lorrie Moore, Lynda Barry and Harvey Pekar.

November 24, 2012
Southwest Wisconsin Book Festival
Mineral Point
Opening Doors, Minds, and Pages

Join us November 24, 2012 for the second annual Southwest Wisconsin Book Festival.

We are very excited to announce that the Festival on November 24, 2012 will be a full day of events. The morning will showcase workshops across a range of engaging literary topics for people of all ages. An afternoon of book signing and readings will highlight authors who were selected after submitting their book(s) and being chosen by our Literary Advisory Group. The day will be capped off with a keynote presentation at the historic Mineral Point Opera House by nationally known speakers John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist. Bookmark the date, we look forward to seeing you on November 24th!

New YA Wisconsin story by author Tim Fox

Introducing Tim Fox's new book

Journeys: An Ice-Age Adventure

About the Book

Twelve year-old Mark Jamison is a thinker and a worrier. Ten year-old Barry is attuned to nature, but his focus quickly shifts from one item to the next. The brothers’ lives are further complicated by family tragedies. Their dad’s deployment to Afghanistan and their mom’s illness both ended badly. Rather than a wonderful journey, life has been hard. But when the boys discover a mastodon tooth and a spear point in the Baraboo Hills, powerful forces are unleashed that carry them across ages and propel them onto the adventure of two lifetimes. The brothers journey with mastodons and Paleo-Indians amid the landscape of Ice Age Wisconsin. They face giant predatory mammals, as well as predators of the human variety. They witness acts of courage and sacrifice. And through it all, the boys gain more of the strength, wisdom, and hope needed to face the obstacles of life’s journey.

Journeys; An Ice Age Adventure is a story that inspires excitement, laughter, and tears. Above all, it reminds us of the importance of hope and a sense of wonder.

Links

Journeys; An Ice Age Adventure website

*paperback may be ordered here – ISBN 978-0-9856411-0-8

*teacher guide available here
http://www.journeysiceageadventure.com/index.html
 

Nook

 Kindle version of Journeys; An Ice Age Adventure

About the Author:

After a fourteen year teaching career, I had a fierce desire not only to write, but to pass on something special to my own kids. I love the Wisconsin landscape and feel a strong pull to its Ice Age connections – glacially sculpted landforms, fossil finds, Paleo Indian artifacts. These fuel my imagination and are part of what impelled me to write Journeys; An Ice Age Adventure.

Tim Fox is a personal fitness trainer and “Olympic-style” weightlifting coach. He can’t resist picking up big, heavy things!

Nicholas Dettmann's Debut Novel, A Life Worth Dreaming About

Carl Robertson, a 32-year-old man, did everything he could to move out of his small Midwestern town, losing many friends along the way. He dreamt of living the elegant lifestyle of New York City. He used his anger and hatred to move out of his hometown, discredit it and never wanted to think about it again. For a while, it worked. Then, he finds his life on the ropes and doesn't know why or how to change it. That is, until he meets a man who will change his life forever and in a way he never could've seen coming. Suddenly, he finds himself trying to catch up to a new reality, just in time to save his life and find his true love.

Buy Amazon Print
Buy Amazon Kindle





Paperback: 236 pages
Publisher: AuthorHouse (February 2, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1468543008
ISBN-13: 978-1468543001

About the Author

Nicholas Dettmann is a veteran journalist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has worked at daily newspapers in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Michigan City, IN and West Bend, WI. He has also appeared in numerous newspapers around the country, including the Houston Chronicle, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Baltimore Sun.

He has won writing awards at the local, regional and national levels. Nicholas graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in journalism & mass communications. In 2010, Nicholas wrote a story about a high school swimmer who suffered from dwarfism. His dream was to become a Paralympian. The Wisconsin Newspaper Association said, “Good story and nice storytelling getting the reader into the story.”

Nicholas was first published in 2001 at only 19 years old when he wrote a poem, “Remembering,” honoring the death of a classmate. It received an Editor’s Choice award from Poetry.com.

Nicholas Dettmann is currently the sports editor of the West Bend Daily News. He has held many positions as a sports writer for various newspapers across the US, but his real passion is that of storytelling. His debut novel A  Life Worth Dreaming About tells the story of Carl Robertson, an egocentric and angry New York City executive, who grew up in poverty in the Midwest and suddenly finds himself searching for a better life after being given a second chance he didn’t know he needed or wanted. A Life Worth Dreaming About will appeal to the fans of Baxter C. Krueger’s The Shack.

His writing idols include Rick Reilly, Mitch Albom, John Grisham and Tom Hallman Jr. In his spare time, Nicholas enjoys reading and spending time with family and friends.
Nicholas’ specialty is writing personality profiles.

Nicholas is married to his wife, Elizabeth, and they have two cats, Daisy and Dory.
Visit NickDettmann.com
and Blog: The Stratosphere

Wisconsin Writers Association Spring Conference Report with Greg Peck

http://gazettextra.com/weblogs/opinion-matters/2012/may/09/advice-for-would-be-writers/

Thank you, Greg, for a great write up!

Masters of Mystery: MJ Williams

I am Mary Joy Johnson (right), one half of the team writing under the pseudonym M. J. Williams; my sister-in-law Peggy Williams constitutes the other half. We teamed up to write mystery novels.

Peggy has been a free-lance writer most of her adult life, writing scripts for documentary films, magazine features, and online content. She has taught elementary school since graduating from Michigan State University. She also received a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Peggy and her husband, Mark, have two grown children and one new grandson, who, of course, is the light of their lives. When Peggy’s not teaching, she’s writing. 

When I’m not writing, I’m quilting. I retired from teaching writing at Bay College in Escanaba, Michigan several years ago. I earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at Central Michigan University. I also have two grown children, but I beat Peggy in the grandparent department; I have three teenage granddaughters  Since my retirement, I tutor ESL and learning disabled adults and have become very active in Madison’s quilting community.

We’ve recently independently-published our mystery novel, On the Road to Death’s Door, the first in a series, featuring a retired small town public safety officer and her husband. Emily and Stan Remington inherit a used RV and begin their travels in Wisconsin’s Door County where they are thrown into a murder investigation involving an old college buddy of Stan’s. It is available for the Kindle and as a print-on-demand paperback from Amazon.com.

The next book in the series, which takes place in Boston, is in production (read that as “we’re still writing it”).

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