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Showing posts from February, 2020

ANATOMY OF AN AUTHOR BIO

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I happen to love reading author Bios and find myself envying those that lean into being quirky. My boilerplate Bio for the past few years is so-so, with one clever line about snakes, but it's not particularly catchy. Because I write a cozy mystery series with humor, murder, and other assorted social maladies, I always wanted my author Bio to reflect my style of writing.  I was reading an article in a recent Funds For Writers newsletter. In it, author, C. Hope Clark wrote about the problem of having to write an author’s Bio. She suggested asking friends and family for childhood quirks or funny memories. That triggered some funny, and COMPLETELY TRUE facts about my childhood and career that I thought might make for a catchier, quirkier Bio. Here is my rewrite: Liz Boeger’s stint as a bikini model peaked in kindergarten. Her fallback career as a mystery author didn’t surface until she hit the mid-century mark. In between, she wrangled children, adults, and the occasional Flori

Bottle Bling! A Craft Project to Encourage a Good Habit

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"Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink." This quote from the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, reminds me how often my coworkers and I used to get our matching, disposable water bottles mixed up. We hated having to throw them out. Then I created a sparkly solution! I am working on my daily goal of drinking 64 ounces of water and I've returned to using my Bottle Bling! to make the habit stick. Here is a quick and easy craft project to add a little bling to your water bottle. Your bejeweled bottle may also encourage you to drink your daily goal of 64 ounces—good luck! I’ve made these Bottle Bling ! bracelets for years. They double as great little gifts to surprise a friend. The idea resulted from a lesson on creative problem-solving I wrote for a fourth or fifth grade class many moons ago, during a unit on Inventors and Inventions. Then, it morphed into a fund-raiser for a campus Relay for Life team. When I was