-
New Year Optimism and a Mom in Spirit
Each New Year for me is a little bittersweet. I always yearn for great optimism and hope for the coming year, but a piece of that feeling fell away when seventeen years ago I lost my mother – Ruth Alice Lequear, known affectionately by many as “Chick” or to her grandchildren as “Chickie.” It was…
-
Celebrating Human Rights Day – December 10, 2016
For the past sixty-eight years, the world has celebrated the December 10th anniversary of the 1945 United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With the fresh recognition of what humans can do to one another following the horrific evidence of the Holocaust, the historic UN act promoted the publicizing of…
-
Freedom for Cuba
With the passing of Fidel Castro, I’m reminded of a time in the early 1960s when my parents offered to house a Cuban refugee family just after their escape from the tyranny of Castro’s regime. In our home in Indialantic came a small, very sad family who spoke little English and wished only to gain…
-
Adventurers Against Their Will featured in Holocaust Education Book
‘Literature Can Help Bring Forward Every Aspect of Human Life.’ (from the book: Essentials of Holocaust Education: Fundamental Issues and Approaches) An author’s life is never dull. After almost nine years, I’ve nearly finished my second and third books (My Dear Boy and Steadfast Ink). As they go through final edits, I’ve entered the stage…
-
I Love Book Clubs
I LOVE BOOK CLUBS As a non-fiction author, it’s particularly meaningful when you have a chance to connect live with readers who’ve had the experience to “meet” your real life characters. This opportunity recently happened for me when I got an email invitation to attend a long standing book club who’d read Adventurers Against Their…
-
Ready to Meet the World: My Dear Boy – 400 WWII letters. 78 writers. 1 remarkable secret.
Ready to meet the world: My Dear Boy – 400 WWII letters. 78 writers. 1 Remarkable Secret. To all who have tagged along on my seven-year writing journey—this is a big day! I proclaim the My Dear Boy 81,000-word Memoir complete. Now all I need is a good literary agent to open the locked door…
-
World Teachers’ Day: Thank you Ms. Bixby – A Teacher Who Touched my Heart
On October 5, 2015, take the time to celebrate World Teachers’ Day by remembering the educators who made a difference in your life through their passion for teaching. Growing up in Melbourne, FL, USA, I was fortunate to have several teachers that touched my life in a special way. Mrs. Maddox helped me learn in…
-
Lesson Plans from Life – Making it Matter
LESSON PLANS FROM LIFE – MAKING IT MATTERFrom: Joanie Holzer Schirm, Orlando Author: Adventurers Against Their Will (AATW) Lesson Plan: www.joanieschirm.local/teachers “Hopefully, education and knowledge of history linked together with pure compassion and humanity will let us recognize the origins of old-new dangers and tie down the demons of hatred and evil before they grow…
Steadfast Ink: The Journey Within
MY DEAR BOY: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation
Adventurers Against Their Will
