Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul (34 page)

Linda E. Jessup
is founder and director of the Parent Encouragement Program, Inc., a family education center in Kensington, Maryland. She has helped to raise seven children, three of whom are adopted. The author speaks widely and has been a guest on radio.

Teri Johnson
serves as a United Methodist minister in the Dakotas conference, where she currently co-pastors the First United Methodist Church of Brookings, South Dakota. Teri loves preaching, writing and teaching, and is always looking for tips on how to juggle her 1,100-member “church family” and her seven-member immediate family. She and her husband, Marty, are the parents of five children: Taylor, Alyssa, Alec, Emily and Elliot. She can be reached at 625 5th St., Brookings, SD 57006, or call 605-692-4345.

Carol Kline
is a parenting skills instructor. She teaches a course called “Redirecting Children’s Behavior” and is a self-esteem facilitator who works with both children and adults. Carol writes articles for local papers and loves to help others write their stories. She can be reached at P.O. Box 1262, Fairfield, IA 52556.

Christy Carter Koski
grew up in Weatherford, Texas. She earned her degree from the University of Maryland Asian Division in Misawa, Japan, where she and her husband lived for three years. They currently reside in New Mexico, where she continues to write poems and stories. She considers herself a life explorer, eagerly anticipating each new adventure and all of the puzzling questions along the way. She can be reached by calling 505-356-6967.

Liah Kraft-Kristaine
is a philosopher who devotes her life to the subject of human potential. A former practicing attorney and CNN broadcaster, she now speaks worldwide on self-esteem, stress management and soul growth. Author of six books, including
A Course in Becoming
and the bestselling
30 Days to Happiness,
she has appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including
Oprah.
She is the host of a PBS television special,
The Myths of Happiness.
She can be reached at PO Box 1505043, Nashville, TN 37215, or call 800-4277982.
Lois Krueger
is a full-time mother and friend to three boys. She is also a part-time floral designer and is active in bereavement and support for families as a hospice volunteer. She is currently considering working toward a degree in nursing. Lois resides with her husband, George, in Franklin Park, Illinois.

Alison Lambert
is a member of the class of 2000 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is a certified emergency medical technician (EMT) with the Newton Square Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 in Newton Square, Pennsylvania. Ali is also an ocean lifeguard in Long Beach Township, New Jersey.

Page Lambert
has written the Pulitzer-nominated book
In Search of Kinship: Modern Pioneering on the Western Landscape
(Fulcrum Publishing 800-9922908). The book, from which her story is excerpted, is about Page’s life with Hondo and the other animals on her small Wyoming ranch. Page’s upcoming book
Shifting Stars,
a novel about the West set in 1850s Wyoming, will be available in summer 1997 from Forge Books. Page is available for workshops and speaking engagements, and can be contacted at P.O. Box 5, Sundance, WY 82729 or by calling 307-283-2530.

Jeanne Marie Laskas
writes a weekly column,
Uncommon Sense,
for the
Washington Post
magazine. She is the author of
The Balloon Lady and Other People I Know,
a collection of essays. Her work has appeared in dozens of national magazines, including
GQ, Life, Allure, Health, Red book, Glamour
and
Reader’s Digest.
She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected], or write to 1701 Benedum Trees Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

Suzanne Thomas Lawlor
has written hundreds of magazine articles and is the former senior editor of Cameron and Company, publishers of the
Above San Francisco
series. She has taught more than 500 people Transcendental Meditation over the past 24 years and lives with her husband, Tony, a noted architect and author, in Fairfield, Iowa. An avid gardener, she owns a dried floral business specializing in wreaths. Suzanne can be reached at 515-472-3159.

Bobbie Jensen Lippman
is a prolific human-interest writer whose work has appeared in national and international publications. She hosts a radio program called “Bobbie’s Beat on the Air,” which is broadcast locally and in the Midwest. Bobbie is involved with the visually impaired and is also very active in hospice work. She may be reached at 13650 South Coast Hwy., South Beach, OR 97366, or call 541-867-3805.

Diana Loomans
is a dynamic speaker and bestselling author who speaks internationally on the topics of self-esteem, communication and the power of laughter and play. She has written eight books including
Full Esteem Ahead:
100WaystoBuild Esteem in Children& Adults,The Laughing Classroom, The Lovables in the Kingdom of Self-Esteem, Positively Mother Goose,
and
Today I Am Lovable.
She is a frequent guest on national radio and television. She can be reached at Global Learning, P.O. Box 1203, Solana Beach, CA 92075 or by calling 619-944-9842 or by faxing 619-942-5260.

Patricia Lorenz
is an inspirational/humor writer of books, articles and columns. Her first two books,
Stuff That Matters for Single Parents
and
A Hug a Day for Single Parents
(365 daily devotionals) are published by Servant Publications in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over 400 of her non-fiction articles have appeared in 70 publications, including
Reader’s Digest, Guideposts, Working Mother
and
Single-Parent Family.
You can write to her at 7457 S. Pennsylvania Ave., Oak Creek, WI 53154.

Mary Miller
is a marketing communications manager at a Fortune 500 company and the mother of six children. She writes for local publications and frequently delivers speeches to business groups.

Stacey Nasalroad
was born in Fresno, California, and grew up in Modesto, California. She presently lives in Zimbabwe, where her husband is running a building company. She helps her husband with the business while enjoying life in a foreign country along with her daughter, Jessica, and her son, Adam. Although living in Africa is a benefit to her and her family in many ways, America will always be her home.

Sheryl Nicholson
is an international professional speaker of 14 years. Whether speaking on leadership, sales or balancing our choices in life, Sheryl continues to spice up her workshops with real-life examples like the one in this book. She has authored several books, audiotapes and a computer-based training course for companies on assertive communication. You can reach Sheryl at 1404 Corner Oaks Drive, Brandon, FL 33510, or call 800-245-3735.

Lynn Rogers Petrak
is a freelance writer and journalism teacher who lives in La Grange, Illinois, with her husband, Michael. She has written for the
Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine
and
Romantic Homes Magazine,
among other publications. Her submission is written in memory of her mother and great friend, Carol Rogers, who died in 1994 after a courageous nine-year fight with breast cancer. Lynn can be reached at 708-354-2854.

Debra Halperin Poneman,
president of YES! to Success Seminars, is a celebrated speaker on the subject of success and how to achieve it. Debra’s warm yet professional style blends nuts-and-bolts practicality with deep and inspiring spiritual insight, making her a popular guest on radio and TV talk shows and a sought-after speaker for corporations and organizations nationwide. Her seminars have been taught in every major U.S. city and many foreign countries. Debra can be reached at 1520 Forest Ave., Evanston, IL 60201, or by calling 847-491-1823.

Carol Price
has been a speaker/motivator throughout Australia, Europe and the United States. She has produced laughter, tears and energy for over 20 years. Her specialties include health care, stress management, real self-esteem, stopping difficult people, assertiveness and making life count. She is published on tape on many of these topics. She can be reached at P.O. Box 8731, Madeira Beach, FL 33738, or call 813-397-9111, or fax 813-397-3661.

Maureen Read
was born in England in 1924. Her career includes four and a half years with the British Broadcasting Corporation and a year in Budapest, Hungary, with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. There, she met and married her GI husband and came to the United States. Widowed almost immediately, she later remarried, and she and her husband of 42 years raised three daughters, one of whom coauthored this book! She is an avid tennis player and, at 72, continues to play in USTA and other senior tennis tournaments. She resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Elaine Reese
is a freelance writer in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Most of her articles are reminiscent of families, holidays, the country and the nitty-gritty of everyday life. She can be reached at 608-588-2284.

Lynn Robertson
resides in a northwest suburb of Chicago with her husband and two sons. She co-owns an industrial design and contracting business with her husband, Doug, and enjoys interior design.

Jennifer Rosenfeld
is currently writing
Building Your Yellow Brick Road: Real Women Create Extraordinary Career Paths.
She would love to hear more inspiring career profiles and can be reached at 212-794-6050.

Gina Barrett Schlesinger
is president of Speaker Services, Inc., a professional speakers bureau located in the Philadelphia suburb of Springfield, Pennsylvania. A dynamic speaker herself, Gina gives speeches and seminars on the topics of powerful presentation skills and life leadership time management. She can be reached at Speaker Services, Inc., 491 Baltimore Pike, Springfield, PA 19064, or call 610-544-8899.

Harley L. Schwadron
is a former newspaper reporter and public relations writer who lives and works in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has been a full-time cartoonist since 1985, specializing in business, health and topical cartoons. His freelance cartoons appear in magazines around the world, and his op-ed work can be seen in such papers as
The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Dayton Daily News, The Los Angeles Times
and
The Des Moines Register.
For many years his work was regularly featured in England’s
Punch
magazine.

Ann Winterton Seely
is a nationally known professional quiltmaker. She and her sister, Joyce Stewart, teach quiltmaking workshops and have coauthored two books. Ann lives in Taylorsville, Utah, and can be reached at 4890 S. 1575 W., Taylorsville, UT 84123, or call 801-262-1553, or e-mail [email protected].

Pat Bonney Shepherd
is the mother of two. She is the coauthor of the book
Know Your Dreams, Know Yourself
and has recently opened an office supply store/desktop printing service, The Write Stuff, in a thriving East Texas town. She can be reached at PO Box 1173, Pittsburg, TX 75686, or call 903-856-6924, or e-mail [email protected].

Louise Shimoff
has been happily married to her husband, Marcus, for 53 years and is the mother of three children and grandmother of four. She enjoys golf, volunteer work and world travel. Throughout her life, she has been an avid reader and has passed on her love of language to her children, one of whom is coauthor of
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul.
Louise has enjoyed helping her daughter, Marci, with this book.

Andrea (Andy) Skidmore
resides in Cleveland, Tennessee. She is a wife of 28 years and the mother of two sons. She has been employed by the Cleveland City School System for 13 years, where she is presently the principal’s secretary at Cleveland High School. She has spoken at her church several times on Ladies’ Day and writes about the one thing on earth she loves the most, her family.

Charles Slack
has been a business reporter and feature writer for the Richmond, Virginia
Times Dispatch
since 1986. He has written articles for
Reader’s Digest, Men’s Journal
and
Historic Preservation.
A 1983 graduate of Harvard, he lives in Richmond with his wife, Barbara, and daughter, Natalie.

Grazina Smith
began her writing career after raising seven children. She has read her works in appearances sponsored by the University of Chicago, the Chicago Public Library and the Feminist Writers Guild. Her work appears in
Prairie Hearts—Women’s Writings on the Midwest,
Outrider Press, 1004 East Steger Road, Crete, IL 60417 ($14.95 plus $2.25 shipping).

Doni Tamblyn
has written and performed music and comedy for stage and media since 1980. She also travels extensively as a trainer and motivational speaker. As president of HumorWorks, she teaches professionals to use their natural sense of humor productively, appropriately and without fear. She specializes in creativity training and training creatively. She may be reached at

3910 Fulton St., Ste. 8, San Francisco, CA 94118, or call 415-267-3034.

Lynn Towse
has never written anything before. She would do anything to mend the hearts of her sisters, Judy and Mary. They are a very close family, and the thought of being published in
Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul
is very exciting for all of them.

Mary L. Towse
is currently the director of corporate diversity for Hallmark Cards, where she has worked for the past 24 years. She has a degree in English literature from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and is currently completing a master’s degree in organizational management at St. Mary College in Johnson County, Kansas. She can be reached at P.O. Box 1309, Bonner Springs, KS 66012.