Sunday, May 29, 2011

Happy Memorial Day



Dear Heavenly Father,


As we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy every day, we think of how they have followed in the footsteps of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Please hold our servicemen and women in your strong arms. Cover them with your sheltering grace and your presence as they stand in the gap for our protection.

We also remember the families of our troops. We ask for your unique blessings to fill their homes, and we pray your peace, provision, and strength will fill their lives.


May the members of our armed forces be supplied with courage to face each day and may they trust in the Lord's mighty power to accomplish each task. Let our military brothers and sisters feel our love and support.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

Monday, May 23, 2011


Hello everyone, here's our latest live chat reminder. We look forward to talking to you tomorrow night! So much fun!

Live chat with Alexandra Folz - Tuesday 5/24 9 PM Eastern, 8 Central, 7 Mountain, 6 Pacific at Intentional Conscious Parenting

Mark your calendars! Tell your friends. Spread the word around.

Date: Tuesday, May 24th

Author: Alexandra Folz

Book: Indigo's Bracelet

Topics: We will be talking with Alexandra about her beautiful book Indigo's Bracelet, the publishing process, how she picked such a wonderful character Indigo to demonstrate to children, tweens, teens and adults how through life's experience's Indigo learned about her spiritual tools, self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-esteem, her love for nature and the environment. Alexandra's publishing experience with Balboa Press and more.

Click here to join live chat.

CHAT WILL BECOME LIVE ON THE NIGHT OF THE CHAT AT 9 PM Eastern, 8 Central, 7 Mountain, 6 Pacific.

Sponsors/prizes:

Grace from Blessedelements will be donating a gorgeous handmade choker.

Donna will be donating one of her wonderful children's book, The Golden Pathway










Win an autographed copy of Indigo's Bracelet By: Alexandra Folz

I Think I Am! Teaching kids the power of affirmations, children's picture book By: Louise Hay
We look forward to connecting with you tomorrow night. Join in on the fun for a chance to win prizes. Have fun, make new friends, connect with old friends, help support authors that support the inner light of the children and the conscious parenting movement. Even if you have not read the guest authors book that's OK. Join in to learn more about Alexandra's book for a chance to win an autographed copy.

Talk to you soon, Carol and Stacy.

**If you have any problems joining live chat or any questions. Feel free to email Carol at:
intunedparenting@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

Monday, May 16, 2011

Guest author, Margaret Fieland visits The Golden Pathway


I'm pleased to host guest author, Margaret Fieland today when she shares with us her article on "Writers Resources":

WRITERS RESOURCES


By Margaret Fieland

Back in the old days, before the internet, writers had piles of reference books on our desks, but today we have all that and more available at the click of a link. Here are some of my favorites.
The Basics

The three links no writer should be without.

Online dictionary - http://www.dictionary.com/ - Need to look up a word? Just click on the link.

Online thesaurus – http://www.thesaurus.com/ - A must for any writer, and a favorite of mine. The right word, here at your fingertips.

Rhyming dictionary – http://www.rhymezone.com/ - For poets, a great online rhyming dictionary. I have a couple of print rhyming dictionaries. I could have saved myself the money. This website is much easier to use. Type the word, click ENTER, and voila!

Fancy, Schamcy

Reverse dictionary – www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml - My mother would have loved this. Give it a definition, finds the word.

Visual Dictionary – http://www.visual.merrscam-websites.com/ - When you want an image to go with that word.

Citation Machine – http://www.citationmchine.net/ - Perfectly formats citations for your research paper.Choice of MLA or APA format.

Body Language, and more

Say it with gestures:

The Bookshelf Muse - http://www.thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/ - Site features an emotion thesaurus, setting thesaurus, and much more.

An absolutely terrific resource, especially when the only way you can think of to express grief is Nonverbal Dictionary – http://www.center-for-nonverbal-studies.org/ - Dictionary of gestures, signs, and body language cues.

Darkworld RPG Character Flaws – www.darkworldrpg.com/lore/flaws.com - List of character flaws, from absentminded to zealot

Candles by Victoria Scent Descriptions – http://www.candlesbyvictoria.com/ - Describes all their candle scents, but great for finding that elusive scent you need for your manuscript

Text Analysis Tools

Gender Genie – www.bookblog.net/gender/genie.php - Based on work by Shlomo Argamon, Moshe Koppel, et al, you can paste your work in here and see if it thinks it's written by a man or a woman. Great for checking that first person narrative you hope sounds like the opposite sex.

Autocritter – www.savvyauthors.com/vb/autocritter.php - Help finding weak or repetitive words.

Wordcounter – http://www.wordcounter.com/ - Counts how many times you use particular words in your manuscript.
Miscellaneous

State Curriculum Standards - http://www.educationworld.com/ - By state, by subject

Self publishing Coach – http://www.self-publishing-coach.com/ - Shelley Hitz has some great tips on her site.

Preditors and Editors – http://www.pred-ed.com/ - Check out publishers, agents, and more

Duotrope's Digest – http://www.duotrope.com/ - Find that perfect venue - search by name, by category, more

Submit your website Free

Scrub the web – http://www.scrubtheweb.com/

Search engine submitter – http://www.searchenginesubmitter.com/

AddPro – http://www.addpro.com/

AddMe – http://www.addme.com/

SubmitExpress – http://www.submitexpress.com/

Google add url – www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

Submit your press release Free

prfocus – http://www.profocus.com/

PressExposure – http://www.pressexposure.com/

Prlog – http://www.prlog.com/

I-News Wire – http://www.i-newswire.com/

Free Press Release – http://www.freepressrelease.com/

Author Bio:

Born and raised in New York City, Margaret Fieland has been around art and music all her life. Daughter of a painter, she is the mother of three grown sons and an accomplished flute and piccolo player. She is an avid science fiction fan, and selected Robert A. Heinlein's “Farmer in the Sky” for her tenth birthday, now long past. She lives in the suburbs west of Boston, MA with her partner and seven dogs. Her poems, articles and stories have appeared in journals and anthologies such as Main Channel Voices, Echolocation, and Twisted Tongue. In spite of making her living as a computer software engineer, she turned to one of her sons to format the initial version of her website, a clear illustration of the computer generation gap. You may visit her website, http://www.margaretfieland.com/.


Margaret, thank you for visiting today and sharing all these valuable resources.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Golden Pathway and Donna McDine visits The Professional Writer's Connection


Hello All:


Cheryl Malandrinos is hosting me at The Professional Writer's Connection as I share my "First Book Story" - http://profwritersconnect.blogspot.com/2011/05/first-book-stories-golden-pathway-by.html
I'd be delighted if you have a moment to stop by to visit and leave a comment if you are so inclined. If you are leaving a comment, make sure you leave your blog URL, Facebook, or Twitter username so I can reciprocate the visit, friendship, and follow.
Thank you and have a wonderful day!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm

Friday, May 6, 2011

School Visit - St. Dominic's - childrens' author, Donna McDine


School Visit to St. Dominic's

My recent school visit to St. Dominic's was a terrific learning experience! A visit I would enjoy conducting over and over again. St. Dominic's is an alternative school for children with special needs and the enthusiasm from the students for my visit was overwhelming and heart touching.

We started off our two hour visit with the classroom teacher, Ms. Jacqui introducing me to her students, I then in turn asked each of them to introduce themselves. With introductions complete, I discovered much to my delight, Ms. Jacqui and the students prepared themselves for my visit beforehand by writing questions on index cards they wanted to ask. Focused and on task, the ease of conversation was exhilarating and we moved on to watching the book trailer of The Golden Pathway and reading an excerpt.

I then shared my experiences of journal writing and discovered several of them enjoy writing. This was the perfect opportunity to give them each a pocket journal and pen and asked them to write about how they enjoy spending their weekends. After about 15 minutes they each shared their journal entry with the class. I then encouraged the students to continue with their journal writing for enjoyment and before I knew it, it was time to say thank you and good-bye. Encouraging them to stay in touch through Ms. Jacqui.

The feedback that very afternoon from Ms. Jacqui via email set the tone for a wonderful weekend:

"The kids absolutely loved having you come in and talk to them! Your book is amazing and since we have recently learned about the Underground Railroad the students were able to connect with your book easily. They also LOVED the journals and your ideas/inspiration for writing in them! Carol and Peter spent computer class doing just that! They are all bright kids and your talent of coaxing them out of their shells was effortless. They really enjoyed meeting you and the time you took to get to know them a bit over the course of your visit. Thank you." Ms. Jacqui, St. Dominic's

A wonderfully exciting and affirming time as to why I write for children!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Award-winning Children's Author
The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
http://guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm