Please read my feature travel article about Barcelona in Image Magazine! Click on current issue. My article is on page 56.

Smart Poodle Publishing strives to promote children’s literacy programs and young talent. So you may remember that in October, 2009, we interviewed inspiring young writer/entrepreneur, Dallas Woodburn. Her organization, Write On! For Literacy has helped more than 3,000 kids with self-expression through literacy and publishing programs They have visited 65 classrooms and have distributed close to 12,000 donated books to underprivileged children through their Holiday Book Drive.

Write On! Books Publishing Company, founded in 2010 as an offshoot to Write On! For Literacy, just announced the release of its debut anthology. Dancing with the Pen features stories, poems, and essays by more than 60 young writers in middle school and high school from across the United States and even abroad: Singapore, Canada, and New Zealand. How exciting that must be for young students to see their works published!

Dallas explained, “Dancing with the Pen is a book for young writers, young readers, and the young at heart. Even if you are not normally a big reader, this book is still for you. Maybe you’ll recognize yourself in these pages. Maybe you’ll even be inspired to pick up a pen, step out on the dance floor, and go for a whirl yourself!”

Dallas Woodburn, anthology editor, is the author of two award-winning collections of short stories. She has written more than 80 articles and essays for national publications including Family Circle, Writer’s Digest, The Los Angeles Times, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Creative Writing and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Fiction Writing at Purdue University.

Dallas Woodburn during the Write On! Holiday Book Drive

Copies of Dancing With The Pen are available at www.writeonbooks.org for $24.95, which includes shipping and handling. Discounted bulk orders are also available. For every copy purchased, a new book will be donated to Write On’s Holiday Book Drive to benefit disadvantaged youth.

Best of luck with the book, Dallas. I can’t wait to read it myself. Your talents and motivation are sure to inspire countless kids and adults alike. The world needs more people like you!

My article published today on Wandering Educators is chock full of travel tips. Please check it out!

http://free-clipart.net/

My full length article about Philly is featured today on Wandering Educators. Please check it out!

Doctors at several health centers in MA are giving child patients from low income families coupons to farmer’s markets for free veggies and fruits in an effort to encourage healthier eating and fight childhood obesity.

18-year-old raised over $1,00,000 for The Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.

Bone marrow stem cells are used to repair skin of pediatric patients with a rare, life threatening skin disorder.

http://webclipart.about.com

Please read my article/interview Wandering Educators with my brother, Eric, who just returned from the Maldives.

I’ve written a lot about summer in the past. Here are links to the most read entries:

Everything You Need to Know About Summer Camp – French Woods Interview

You Know it Feels Like Summer When

Ask the Right Questions Before Booking a Hotel

Where are We Going on Our Summer Vacation?

Dog Friendly Summer Travel Tips

25 Ideas to Enjoy the Last Days of Summer

Great Planning = A Great Vacation

Summer Driving Vacation – Have a Great Time WIth Your Kids

Summer Travel – Flying Solo WIth Children

I recently read an article about how Americans are now marketed to more than 5,000 times a day. How perfectly disgusting! Now I’m really starting to pay attention to just how many ways marketing invades my life, wasting my time, rotting my brain.

There’s a Secret Antiperspirant TV commercial out now where a woman is dancing at a nightclub with a guy, and she throws her arm up to sniff her armpits. I am supposed to sit on my couch while watching that and think, “Wow, I really need that product. The next time I sniff my pits in public, (and doesn’t everybody do that?) I know Secret will be protecting me.” And what about commercials for local restaurants with low quality camera work and horrible theme songs you just cannot get out of your head as you are tossing and turning in bed at night? And how emotional can I get about the brand of paper towels I use and the absorbency? How hard is it to choose the right paper towel brand when you go to the store? Even worse, what about the animated toilet paper commercial with the bears in the woods and the “residue” the t-paper leaves on their behinds? It’s hard to watch that ad while eating lunch. Gross. And I just love the commercials with stick-thin models devouring chocolates – as if they ever eat chocolate, or anything else. Don’t get me started on drug commercials that sell medicine that do nothing but make your illness worse – or kill you altogether.

And I don’t even watch TV that often.

Television is the most obvious venue for advertising, but there’s so much more to marketing than the idiot box. Here are just 10 of many thousands of ways:

http://www.webweaver.nu

• Ads on the back of stall doors in public restrooms. “Need your car towed? Call Charlie.” No, I don’t, Chuck. I just drank a quart of ice tea and need to use the facilities, if you don’t mind.
• Ads on paper placemats in your favorite local restaurant from other restaurants. Isn’t that competition?
• Ads in doctor, dentist, and other professional office offering more services to you. “We don’t just clean teeth, we cap them at a cost of $2,500 each. We also have tanning bed services.”
• Door hangars from solicitors telling you they will trim your trees, but fail to tell you they do not have a license, nor are they insured.
• Billboards on the highway with letters so small that you almost get killed trying to read it.
• Direct mail from politicians telling me why the opponents are corrupt and nothing about what they can do for me.
• Checking out at the grocery store, the cashier asks you to donate $1 to a charity, and you know that $1 will go to an executive’s salary and $0 will help anyone in need.
• All the cute items displayed at the pet store, that your pet now needs since you saw them. Naturally, your dog is picky about the design on his new toy shaped like a cat , so you better select carefully. And when it comes to your pooch’s haute couture wardrobe, be sure to get her a matching purse and hair bow, or she will be so depressed when you get home and may need to see a canine therapist.
• Sitting in the movie theater watching the pre-show ads, on a never-ending loop, selling me ridiculously priced junk food, asking me to patronize local businesses and buy tickets for more movies.
• Massive-sized products at the warehouse stores beckoning you to buy more than you will ever need (like a 6-gallon jar of yellow mustard too huge to fit properly in the fridge) to make the unit cost go down. Though in reality, if you cannot use it all, the unit cost will go up.

So tomorrow, when you are out and about, start noticing the bombardment of advertising you are so used to experiencing, you never even thought about before.

Oh, and please tell 1,000 of your friends about this article.

More and more people are working from home, including business executives. But that doesn’t mean their offices have to look like home offices. Please check out this great article about working from home, featuring my sister, CEO of Airlift Ideas.

Shelley Rosen from Airlift Ideas

LA Parent is the best regional parenting magazine! But it’s not just for parents in LA. There are so many fantastic articles and tips in there for parents everywhere. See for yourself by clicking here.