Thank you,
Lisa, for hosting me today. I love talking about my interactive e-book for
girls, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the
Careers of Successful Women, and the remarkable women who are interviewed
in it.
Hello,
Readers, I’m J.Q. Rose. Thank you for stopping by. I’m excited to visit with
you today. Please leave comments to enter a random drawing for prizes after the
tour is completed. More information about that later.
Connect with me
online at:
Bio:
After
writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for
over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction writing with her
first published novella, Sunshine
Boulevard, released by Muse It Up Publishing in 2011. With Girls Succeed
she returns to her first love, writing about real people. Blogging,
photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep
her out of trouble. Spending winters in Florida with her husband allows Janet
the opportunity to enjoy the life of a snowbird. Summer finds her camping and
hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.
Welcome, J.Q. Please tell us about
your current release.
Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the
Careers of Successful Women
profiles fifteen remarkable women who tell us about their chosen careers and
the paths they followed to achieve their dream profession.
What inspired you to write this book?
I was stirred
to write a book for girls after working four summers at Camp Newaygo, a girls’
residence camp in Michigan. I met the most amazing young women who were
counselors and energetic campers who kept life interesting! I marveled at the
potential for the futures of these smart, enthusiastic girls. Faced with so
many possibilities for careers, I wondered what choices they would make. This e-book
is a good reference for them to learn about a career, and the women’s stories
inspire and empower girls to follow their dreams.
EXCERPT:
Introduction
to Brenda Marshall’s story…not the entire chapter
“I
personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to
her or his fellow human beings.”--Margaret
Mead
BRENDA “FLOWER” MARSHALL
PROFESSIONAL CLOWN
A
Big Red Nose
“If
I had known where my red nose would take me, I would have been scared,” said
Brenda Marshall. When she first put on a borrowed costume and a big red nose
for her church’s Vacation Bible School twenty-five years ago, this young mom
had no idea she would eventually be clowning in the United States, Poland,
Russia, Hungary, China, Africa, Honduras, and Singapore.
Brenda
was a quiet, shy girl in elementary school. She was a straight A student with
outstanding penmanship. She was not interested in speaking in front of a group,
let alone be funny or silly. In junior high school, Brenda thought acting could
be fun so she signed up for the theater class. She loved the art of acting,
bringing the written word to life, and hearing the applause from the audience. The
thespian or actress continued performing throughout her high school years
leading her to major in Theater in college.
Brenda
met and married her husband after her first year in college. He convinced her
to discontinue theater and enroll in business classes so she could have some
skills to get a job. But several years later, she dropped the accounting
classes and enrolled in a clown class at the same college.
Her
first clowning “gig” or job was for the summer Vacation Bible School at her
home church. She borrowed a homemade clown suit that had been a Halloween
costume and found some large-sized shoes at the Goodwill store. She stuck a
flower in her four-year-old daughter’s Easter hat and secured it to her head to
complete her first costume. Brenda didn’t have much experience in clown make
up, so she just applied the white face paint and drew on her face. She was a
hit. The children loved her. She was thrilled with the experience. She was
bitten by the “clown bug.”
“I
didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing, but I knew it felt right,” Brenda
said with a twinkle in her eyes.
@@@
HIGHLIGHTS
OF HER CAREER
Citizen Ambassador to Poland, Russia,
and Hungary
First woman president of Clowns of
America International
Teaches
Clown Camp at the University of Wisconsin, University of LaCrosse, Medicine Hat
College in Alberta, Canada.
Director
and Instructor of the International Clown Cruises aboard Carnival Cruise Line
Ships
Taught
clown ministry classes in the Summer School of Arts in Penticton, Canada
Adjunct professor at Arlington Baptist
College, Arlington, TX
Taught
at the clown ministry conference, Joey to the World, and at the Missouri
Baptist clown conference
Awards
in state and international clown competition in the make-up, parade ability,
and skit categories.
Ceslee
Conkling Award given by the Cowtown clowns, Alley # 135.
Ambassador of Clowning Award by the
Texas Clown Association
Performed
in Ghana, West Africa
Leader
of the first People to People International Clown Delegation to China
Clown
Ministry Impact Award
Performed
in public schools in Roatan, Honduras
Taught
clowning at a conference of children’s ministry workers in Singapore
Instructor
for One Way Street Puppet Festivals, TNT Clown Seminars, and Bring Them in
Children’s Ministry Conferences.
Co-creator
of “Funnyatrics” at Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, TX
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Clown
Organization of America International http://www.coai.org
Mooseburger
Camp http://mooseburger.com/camp/index.html
Clowning
for Christ http://clowning4christ.com/tnt_clown_retreat.htm
New
York Goofs Clown School http://www.nygoofs.com/clown-school#!__clown-school
Sharing God’s Love
Through Laughter—A Guide to Christian Clowning, by Brenda Marshall
What exciting story are you working on
next?
As soon as I
finish up this book tour for Girls
Succeed, I will be working with a reading specialist to develop a study
guide to accompany the book. My editor at Muse It Up Publishing just contacted
me for edits on a new mystery/ romance, Coda
to Murder, scheduled for release in February 2013. I plan to research
several famous and not-so-famous women in the past who broke barriers such as
the first woman to drive across the United States from New York to California
in 1909 and Major Stephanie Rader, a World War II WAC who was a spy during the
war in 1942. I enjoy research and will continue adding stories to the Girls
Succeed blog. And always, there’s a mystery/romance story bouncing around in my
brain that I will eventually have to get down on paper, or should I say, typed
into a file in the laptop.
When did you first consider yourself a
writer?
I think I
felt that first thrill when I saw my byline on my first newspaper article in
1995.
Do you write full-time? If so, what's
your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find
time to write?
I have no
full-time job, so I guess I write full-time. I never thought of it that way
until my Internet went out and I had to fill my time in other ways. I couldn’t
write blogs online, research online, hob-nob with my cyberspace author friends,
or promote my writing. I didn’t realize how many hours I had free because I
couldn’t promote online. When Muse It Up Publishing released my first e-book, I
had no idea before and after marketing was so time consuming. So yes, I can say
I write AND promote full-time.
What would you say is your interesting
writing quirk?
I don’t
know how interesting it is, but I write better (I think) when I don my old blue
flannel shirt. Maybe because it’s comfortable and I feel cozy when wearing it.
It’s also a reminder that I am serious about writing, so I stay more focused on
the task I set for myself that day.
As a child, what did you want to be
when you grew up?
A writer.
In fact I began writing in second grade. I think it is interesting I wrote the
Girls Succeed book about working hard to make your dreams come true. It took me
awhile, but now I am finally able to have the job I dreamed about when I was a
child.
Thanks for stopping by, J.Q. It’s been
a lot of fun.
Readers, here is the contest information J.Q.
mentioned earlier: J.Q.
will be drawing winners from visitors who leave comments during the tour. The
prizes for you or a girl in your life are a $10 Amazon gift certificate, a copy
of the Girls Succeed e-book in your choice of format, a “Succeed” beaded
bracelet kit, and inspirational note pads. (See the Girls Succeed and J Q Rose
blogs for photos and blog tour information.) Winners announced on her blogs on
Sunday, November 18 at 9 pm EST. Good luck!
