Month: November 2012

THE GIFT OF GIVING

gift 1One boy’s gift

At his first public speaking event, Timothy Schwab once said, “I want to thank my mom and dad for keeping me alive.” He was only 5 years old at the time.

Timothy was born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that can critically affect the lungs, pancreas, liver and intestine. “We didn’t know how to react,” says Tanya Schwab, Timothy’s mother, of his illness. Both Tanya and her husband, Thomas, had never heard of the disease before. But after some research they soon found out that no one case of cystic fibrosis is alike, that the symptoms vary, and even more alarming – there is no cure. Continue reading “THE GIFT OF GIVING” →

AN AFTERNOON WITH BEST SELLING AUTHOR JOANNA CAMPBELL SLAN

Joanna Campbell Slan is a self-proclaimed “addict.” Her drug of choice? Writing.

“I go into withdrawals if I can’t write,” Slan, author of new mystery series, The Jane Eyre Chronicles, says.

According to Slan – who just published her first book of the series Death of a Schoolgirl – has always been a writer. Even as a child, Slan would “scribble” down words on a piece of paper and would call it her “book.”  But her passion for the written word began as an outlet; an aperture for a better life.

Joanne Campbell Slan's Death of a Schoolgirl

Growing up poor in Vincennes, Ind., Slan was subjected to a tumultuous upbringing. As a child of an alcoholic parent, she recalls a time that seems to reverberate in her consciousness. One night, when she was a little girl she left a glass of water on the counter before going to bed. Her father, an unruly binge-drinker, accidentally spilled it. In the dead of the night he woke her and said, “Your mom is a slob, I’m going to divorce her and you’re going to live on the streets without anything to eat.”

Continue reading “AN AFTERNOON WITH BEST SELLING AUTHOR JOANNA CAMPBELL SLAN” →