Good morning. 9/11, a sad day. Still makes me want to cry at all of the lives lost.

So I guess this is day 2 of blogging. I am trying to figure out what to “blog”. I suppose once I have some feedback that can start discussion it will get easier.

So I started writing, well I guess I always liked writing… I wrote my first book, Penelope, while I was visiting my father, after hearing about the birth of my great niece, Penelope. I didn’t really intend for it to be a book. I was just writing a cute story about this little girl. Anyhow, that being March, my husband, Penelope’s great uncle, passed away that June. It wasn’t until that August that I thought I would pursue the publishing process. You see, Bob, my husband, had read what I wrote about Penelope and said he thought it was “actually, really good”. Holding on to that one memory I searched the internet for publishers. Well, the writing and publishing process can go two ways…you can navigate it yourself, publish yourself, etc. or pay and have someone do all that work and wait for the finished product. Some say the first is better, saves money. I did the latter because, frankly, I wanted it to be done right the first time. I am happy with the results and also very happy that I have quite a few books lined up in this Penelope series to keep me busy.

Have a delightful day.

Wow! I can’t even believe that not only have I published three books but I am also blogging! These are just a few of the things on my Bucket List. I love writing and I love writing about things that I believe will be fun and educational for children. I think a key to teaching children, which is my background, is showing them how much fun learning is and also knowing that each tidbit of knowledge you introduce to a child is another piece of information to help them learn more about the world around them. Many of my stories have societal values incorporated in them and I touch upon ethnicity and social “norms”. I welcome feedback and criticism if you have it. I don’t shy away from creative criticism. I have learned to reflect upon what I do so that the next time I do it better.

Update! I am still blogging! I am still writing and creating and loving what I do! (11/23/2020)

I have been blogging now for a little over a year, my Blogging Anniversary was September 11th. Ironic to start blogging on such a historic day. Reading what I wrote on the first day of blogging, I can honestly say that my intentions, to get ideas out to people, is still a major motivation for blogging. I have found, however, other aspects of blogging that have become such a big part of my life now, I don’t know how I lived without Stine Writing before.

Back on my first day I wrote about how I am an author of four children’s books. Penelope, Penelope’s New Puppy, Penelope Picks her Pals, and Penelope Still Picks Suzie. These books were written for my great-niece Penelope. The best one is Penelope’s New Puppy! Penelope Picks her Pals is an alphabet and alliteration book. Many of the names used in the book are kids of friends and family members. Penelope Still Picks Suzie is about friendship, despite behaviors and judgement. When I first started teaching, I taught at a clinical day school for socially/emotionally disturbed children who had been outplaced from their home school after many attempts to keep them safe in a typical school. I found through that teaching that there are many parents who hear about “that kid” from their own kids. It is true. “That kid” does disrupt the class, draws extra energy from the teacher, makes learning more difficult, and makes learning that much harder. Although it is true, that kid probably carries around more baggage than the most f—-ed up adult! The last thing they need is total isolation. Am I saying they are wanted in a typical class? Haha, of course not! But when your child says that they are friends with “that kid”, it isn’t always so bad.

I continue to blog because I have made many connections, friendships you could say, with fellow bloggers. Not all of them, of course. I love to see the number of people following me increase but I still stand by my “friends” to keep me going everyday. I feel like if I was to travel anywhere in the world, I could ask one of these friends to see them and they would welcome me without hesitation! I, of course, would do the same.

Blogging has also been a place for me to better my writing skills, increase my writing tendencies, and read so much more than I ever have before. I write poetry now, which I never thought I was good at. A lot of it is silly, but much of it is true effort. I love writing my Cat in the Hat fanfiction poetry. All of my work is not for everyone but if it makes one person smile or think that much harder, then I did it!

Within my blog you will learn a lot about me. I lost my husband of 21 years in 2018, lost my 19 year old son in 2019, have a beautiful daughter who is 22, and have a boyfriend who has been solidly by my side for almost two full years. I love my dog and my guinea pigs. I draw, I build miniatures, I have an Etsy store (Stine Writing: https://www.etsy.com/shop/StineWriting?ref=seller-platform-mcnav), I make handbound journals, I crochet…the list sort of just keeps growing. I am “retired” from teaching, even though I am technically way to young to retire, but chose to do so after losing my son. Now I craft, I blog, and I enjoy the life that I now live.

I am grateful to all of my family, my friends, my fellow-bloggers, and everyone else who supports me and all I do!

Peace to you all!