Happy 4th of July!

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Happy 4th of July to the greatest country on earth! The ways we celebrate our country’s birthday are varied—parades, picnics, backyard barbecues, firework displays, relaxing with family and friends, or simply spending a day of quiet. No matter how you enjoy the holiday, remember the hard work and sacrifice our founding fathers and so many others …

The ABCs of Summer

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Summer is in full swing, and we are loving every sun-kissed day. Who can think about summer without swimming, picnics, fishing, and sunscreen? Describing these warm lazy days can leave us searching for how to fill our hours, but let’s give it a try. A – Adventure B – Baseball C – Camping D – Dance …

13 Ways We Can Make a Difference in Our Communities

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Summer has us busy—sometimes too busy. In the middle of fun-filled exhaustion, we hear a speaker or read an article asking how we are making a difference in our community. Ouch. We hadn’t thought about that. We’re busy planning and implementing a vacation which leaves us a bit stressed and needing a rest afterward. Work piles …

June 11 – National Making Life Beautiful Day

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills National Making Life Beautiful Day is an opportunity to put a smile on someone’s face. Everyone needs a touch of beauty. Indeed, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford shows us the value of an esthetic experience. What makes your life beautiful may be acts of kindness or encouragement while another …

Observing Memorial Day

By Barbara Latta @DiAnnMills This week’s guest blogger is Barbara Latta  @BarbaraLatta Observing Memorial Day is not a contemporary ideal. Remembering those who’ve given their lives for others has given us reason to value the sacrifices of courageous men and women. Twenty-two-year-old Marine Corporal Jason Dunham and some of his military buddies sat around their barracks in Iraq swapping stories. …

Are You Cut Out to Write a Novel?

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills We’ve all wondered if we’re cut out to write a novel. We experience an unusual or exciting event and ask ourselves, “Could I write a story about this?” Sometimes we dwell on it for days, weeks, months, and even years, still asking ourselves the same question. Why not take a novelist writing quiz to see if …

7 Reasons We Love Stories

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Thousands of stories are released each year. So many wonderful and amazing books, and we’ll never be able to read them all. But we try. What’s the fascination for story? Why do we crave the next novel and the next? Here are 7 reasons we love story. Entertainment is the number one reason we love story. …

National Honesty Day

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills April 30th is National Honesty Day. The value of honesty seems like an easy decision for most of us. It’s a virtue we want to incorporate in our lives, and we want our list of virtues to include trustworthy, reliable, upright, honorable, righteous, kind, and the list goes on. “Honesty is the first chapter in the …

Favorite Candy from the 50s – 70s

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills A few weeks ago, I asked my friends on Facebook to share their favorite childhood candy. We had so much fun reminiscing that I decided to research the top-selling candy since the 1950s. Sweet Taste Explosions of the 1950s Anise Bears Atomic Fireballs Turkish Taffy Dad’s Root Beer Barrels Junior Mints Bit-O-Honey Sugar Babies Lemonheads Bubblegum …

7 Habits of a Highly Productive Reader

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills Readers come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. Some prefer short nonfiction pieces while other readers reach for book length. Fiction readers select type and genre of stories according to their taste and whim. Avid readers devour one book after another while many prefer to linger on each word. Word lovers highlight and underline passages that …