Kathleen J. Shields's Blog, page 5

Unibear Wins Multiple Book Awards!

This past year has been a whirlwind!

Last year, September 28th, 2021 “The First Unibear” debuted on Amazon and all online bookstores. It’s publication day was the three year anniversary of losing my father. My goal was to make a Sad Day into a Glad Day, and it sure was! I wrote the Unibear story when I was ten years old. I presented the hand drawn, rhyming story to my dad, who saved it all this time. My father pushed me to do something with “Unibear” for 30 years, and boy was he right!

We are less than one week away from the one year anniversary of “The First Unibear” book release, and what an amazing year it has been!

Unibear has been winning book awards!

Unibear debuted near the Top 100 children’s inspirational books on Amazon and in the Top 200 in Christian Poetry thanks to pre-order sales. Within the first week we had already received six 5 Star Reviews.

Best Book Monkey began promoting Unibear mid October. Story Monster promoted it in their magazine in the November holiday issue. Also, Unibear was added to Sabrina’s Unicorn Bookstore mid January.

I started the New Year with Unibear receiving our first Book Award Win – Best in Children’s Christian from the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award. January 19th we received a 5 Star Review from the Book Marketing Global Network. On January 21st, award winning author Judy Lowe did a story time reading of Unibear on JS Pathways facebook page. January 23 we received a Five Star Review from Readers Favorite.

It was March 1st, four days before my birthday, it was announced that Unibear was a Red Ribbon Winner with the Wishing Shelf Book Awards in the UK. April 4th we received another 5 Star Book Review from Donovan’s Literary Service.

Then, on May 3rd I was interviewed regarding why I like writing poetry for children’s books. May 27th I received another 5 Star Review, this time from the Literary Titan. On June 3rd it was announced that Unibear had Won the Literary Titan Book Award!! Unibear was winning numerous book awards.

July 11th Unibear won Honorable Mention from the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards.

On August 3rd I signed a contract with an agent who began pitching Unibear to film producers. He is actively seeking Film Option Agreements for production of book-to-film. He’s even submitted Unibear to other Award Contests and Professional Reviews!!!

August 16th I found out Unibear was a Finalist with the North Texas Book Festival and it won First Place in Picture Books on August 20th! On August 31st I did another interview, this time with the Book Marketing Buzz. Unibear is featured on BookAwards.com and so many other great websites.

On September 1st I discovered I had won the Silver Medal Book Award with the Readers Favorite! I am soooo looking forward to traveling to Miami Florida with my step-mom Sherri to attend the Awards Ceremony and receive my award on stage. I pray I get to say something because all I really want to say is “Thanks Dad for believing in me!”

I’m just beyond thrilled with how it has been going so far. I am so honored and proud to say that my father was right! Either that, or he is pulling some major strings from heaven. Either way, Thank you Dad. I miss you more than you can ever know… or maybe you do know.

Here are some of the many award posts on Facebook.And there may be more coming!!!

If you haven’t had an opportunity to read the story, now is your chance.
Buy it on Amazon. Barnes & Noble. Walmart. Powell Books. Books-A-Million. And so many others.

There is a beautiful Hardback book. (With Scripture)

A great paperback book. (Showcasing the awards)

A black and white coloring book. (With Full Story!)

The e-book, and an audio book. (Preview the Kindle here: —>)

There’s even an interactive book on Magic Blox. (A Great subscription book service for children.)

Learn more about it on my website www.KathleensBooks.com follow the links. Order a book direct from me and receive an autographed copy! And if you HAVE read the book, please consider leaving a review. Reviews help sell and promote books.

This book will make an excellent Christmas Gift or Donation to a Church or Library. Help spread the message of love, kindness and giving, as God had wanted, by sharing this post with your friends and family. Thank you again and God Bless!

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For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

– The other day someone was tailgating me and flashing their high beams at me (at night). I was driving on a back road in my neighborhood where the deer and critters are abundant and the roads are winding. I got so angry.

– The other day my husband was rudely passed by a motorcycle that decided upon taking the lead then slowing down, drastically.  When my husband went to pass him, he sped up. Then slowed down, on purpose.  This angered him.

– The other day I received the hundredth call from the same telemarketing company that I’ve requested my number be removed from.  That made me angry.[image error]
– The other day the news did a report on….
– The other day in the store someone did…

It doesn’t matter except the end result was it made you angry.  And did you get angry for only a moment then move on with your life? Did you forget about that moment a moment later and think of something else? Most likely not. Most likely, you mulled over that moment, bitter, annoyed, irritated that that person, place or thing interfered with your life and caused you this outrage.  Most likely your face showed your heated feelings, your lips curled down, you forgot to smile at the cashier, you told your family about the incident when you walked in the door, you contemplated what you could have done.

I should have run him off the road!  But then I would have damaged my car, caused an accident, got a ticket or got arrested…  Glad I didn’t run that (grrrrrr) person off the road.

How many minutes went by?  How much of your life did you just lose to this nameless, faceless situation that will most likely never happen again, never meet again.  Don’t do it.

I know that’s easier to write than do, but think about it. Scientifically, anger is bad for your health.  You heal slower. It causes stress, heart problems, elevates the blood pressure, causes anxiety, can lead to depression, can even start someone drinking.

Why let a nameless faceless person do that to you? Take a deep breath, clear your mind and let it go. Don’t talk about it again, don’t bring it up when asked how your day was, don’t think about it. Let it go. Take a deep breath, use a stresssball, exercise, listen to calming music (or fun energetic music) ask a friend to tell you a joke, anything but taking retaliatory efforts or stressing about it further.

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Where do I find the time for it all?

Why I am I working so hard on my writing? Why am I putting so many books out? Why am I writing so many blogs? Where do I find the time for it all?

It’s the fact that time is running out that is pushing me so hard towards finishing these goals.  God gave me all of these stories; stories I have been writing for years, since high school, since before high school. Things that I have started but haven’t finished… come close to… but alas, haven’t finished.

Time got away from me the past decade or so.  Working, surviving to make ends meet, exhaustion after work, just regular life stuff left no time to focus on my dreams. And as I get busier work-wise (or hopefully book signing wise) I may let time pass me by again, but I will try not to.

Why?  Because once I am gone there will be no one left here to do it! Who is going to follow my dreams for me after I die? No one! They have their own dreams to follow.  Who’s going to finish my books and publish them after I am gone? No one, those that can will be doing for themselves, and why shouldn’t they?

The fact of the matter is; we are ALL running out of time. [image error] Whether it’s the best of times, or worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got. – Art Buchwald

Our lives could be over tomorrow, have you accomplished everything you wanted to do?  Have you said everything that needed to be said? Have you done all that you had planned?

While I imagine I will be around for quite a while longer, the truth is, I don’t know when it will end and that is something that really bothers me.  While I doubt I will get the chance to finish everything on my list (it is rather long after all) I do want to feel a grand sense of accomplishment as I go.  I don’t want to meet my maker with the feelings of regret as I had when I looked back on the past decade of work and nothing else.

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The Great Cookie Debacle

Twelve weeks ago I attended a meeting for a craft show I was interested in exhibiting at. It wasn’t the typical fill out the paperwork, send in your money and show up the day of the event kind of show – no, this event was a week-long consignment opportunity that sounded amazing! So who was I to question their very specific requests? Pre-meeting to discuss details three months before the show, online inventory entry, printing labels, volunteering time – that was all easy, understandable tasks that I would have done any way, the one thing that struck me as an odd request was the requirement to bake cookies. Six dozen of them even!

Immediatelymy hand shot up. “Can I buy cookies from the store?”

“No.They must be handmade.”

“ButI don’t bake.”

“Youcan pay one of our volunteers to do them.”

I thought to myself, how silly, I should be able to do this. How hard could it be? Besides…. My husband does all of the cooking, he can do it. I later asked my husband for his assistance after detailing all of the wonderful opportunities this show was bound to present. He gave me this look like, but I don’t bake, and yet I suggested how hard could it be? So he conceded and time passed by.

Four weeks ago my husband went to Costco for some much needed groceries. One of which was sugar. We use quite a bit of sugar in this house between coffee, tea and Kool aid, so he was looking for a 25 pound bag. He saw the Imperial sugar 50 pound bag but that was too much, then he saw the Imperial 25 pounder right next to it. He heaved that bag of sugar in the cart and kept shopping. The next morning, we discovered that it was brown sugar and let me tell you, that is a shock when you are in desperate need of sweetening your coffee. So after a good amount of time and a few sips of brown sugar coffee I posted my husband’s hilarious mistake on Facebook – what kind of author would I be if I didn’t provide a little comedic relief every once in a while? I then asked my friends for brown sugar recipe ideas and someone suggested cookies.

Ooooh – I thought. I need to bake cookies for the consignment show. I need to bake some insane amount of cookies and we have an insane amount of brown sugar… SCORE!  So I found the easiest recipe (the one with just a few ingredients) for brown sugar cookies online and added a few ingredients to my grocery list. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter wasn’t going to work in lieu of real butter. I have never had the need for self-rising flour. And I’m pretty sure Vanilla Vodka wouldn’t be a good alternative for the vanilla extract the recipe asked for. We’re Irish after all.

So with all of the ingredients and recipe printed, I added the item to my online calendar and went about my days. Three weeks later on a Sunday afternoon my husband asks, “So what are we going to do for the rest of the day?”

“Bake cookies!” I declare with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm.

Hiseyebrow raised slightly. “This calls for a martini.” He spoke as he walked overto the wet bar.

Sowe both made a couple of drinks and waltzed into the kitchen. “Where’s therecipe?” He asked. I pull it from the drawer. “What do we need?” So I pulledthe ingredients. In our house, I’m the sous-chef. I’ve been known to burnboiling water, set the microwave on fire with raspberries and burn my handtrying to retrieve toast from the toaster oven. So I get to tell him what thedirections say and sit back and watch the ordeal play out.

Afterpulling out all of the ingredients he had me read the instructions to him,“first step – mix the softened room-temperature butter with…”

“Hmmm,”he interrupted “this butter is stone cold. Guess we have to wait for it tosoften.” He spoke while take a sip of his martini.

“Can’twe nuke it?”

“Thatmuch I know you can’t do.” He declared. So we waited. We drank. We watched TV.Three quarters of an hour-long drama in, we checked on the progress of oursoftening butter, was dismayed by its lack of progress and returned to the wetbar to replenish our drinks. (I feel a Julia Child joke coming on but I’ll stopwhile I’m ahead.)

Whatseemed like many hours into the middle of the afternoon, we finally beganmixing our ingredients together. The butter and brown sugar was a bear andthat’s when it occurred to my husband that when it said “mix” in the recipe, itwas referring to the use of an electronic mixer. Well we didn’t have one ofthose – we don’t bake. So he started looking through the drawers for an alternative.“Ah, the electric mashed potato stick. That ought to work.” Do you know what anelectric motor burning up smells like? I do. But our cookie dough was done, sowe put the electric stick in the freezer to cool off and I started the searchfor something to use as a cookie sheet. Nope, no need for a cookie sheet, wedon’t bake. One brownie pan and two pizza pans later I began spooning small dollopsof dough out. I was feeling very successful so far even with the smell ofburning electrical components wafting into the air.

Icontinued reading the directions, “preheat the oven to 375.”

“Thisis a convection oven; I’m setting it at 350.”

“Butthe directions say 375.”

“They’llcook too fast.”

“Ah,it’ll be fine. They wouldn’t have put it in the instructions if it didn’twork.” So against his better judgement we began baking at 375. 12 minuteslater, the timer went off, we pulled out our cookies and attempted to shove aspatula underneath them. That spatula buckled like a wet paper towel. Ifound one that was a little more ridged, handed it to my husband and he triedagain… it chipped the edges of the cookies but otherwise reacted like acrash-test dummy. So we pulled out the rolling pizza cutter.  This wasa pizza pan after all. While our cookies looked like some geometric scienceproject that Alton Brown may find intriguing, they were definitely NOT anythingI wanted to bring to the show. The good news is the dogs love them!

I was heartbroken. Not only had I failed at baking these cookies, I was afraid I wouldn’t have cookies to bring to the show and they were a requirement. I mean, I could have brought them these but it wouldn’t have done them any good. Plus, that was only the first batch – remember, I had to bake 6 dozen! I wasn’t anywhere close! I was near tears as my husband walked away in defeat. All I could think about was calling the local grocery store and asking if they could bake a bunch of cookies at various sizes so it looked like some idiot baked them in her home. But that’s when my husband added to my dismay, “They would be able to tell they were store bought.” Seriously? Have I been missing out on something? (No, my mom never baked either. We were a Chips-Ahoy and Oreo house.)

Monday I did everything I could to take my mind off of the problem and when I couldn’t get it out of my mind, I opened up an email to the show coordinator and began to write to her why I was going to fail at my task. Before I knew it, the above story had been typed out and when I realized it may bring someone humor, I pressed send.

Apparently it made her laugh so hard she shared it with the kitchen crew. Quite a few of the ladies found enjoyment in my saga, enough so that the next morning there was a reply on my email with an offer that I wouldn’t have to bring cookies after all. But it arrived too late, and this was a good thing. You see, while my husband was out Monday he stopped at the grocery store, found a couple of packages of powdered cookie mix that all you needed was oil and eggs and they would come out perfect. In fact, this is the exact recipe as brownies, and I CAN do those!!! Monday evening I baked my cookies and had extra! They came out great and I was thrilled.  

Wednesday, I was telling one of the ladies about my cookie debacle and she giggled, she admitted she did no-bake cookies. No bake! Seriously? I didn’t know there was such a thing! This is all because of the brown sugar! Oh well, I’ll try to remember to know better next time… of course, I’m hoping there won’t be a next time. I’m a writer, after all. If you want me to describe a cookie in six dozen ways, no problem. But to bake ‘em? I’m going back to my first instinct and declare – I don’t bake. 

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Two Stories and then the Truth

Another concept regarding perceptions – I loved this graphic!

They say: There are two sides to every story – and then there is the truth.  Some people are incapable of understanding this. They know their side of the story and are unable to see any other side. It’s kind of a great explanation of the split in our country – not that I plan on going political….

It just goes to show, we all have our perceptions but it takes someone really special to wrap their minds around both sides of the story – and an even better mind – to find a middle position and bring two sides together.

This is the kind of mind we all need. The ability to see both sides. The ability to accept two stories as being true yet formulating an instance where two separate things can be molded into one single truth. It may not be easy to do – especially for the analytical minds – but it is what is necessary for us all to “get along”.

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Happy Trolls, Happy Friends

Hamilton Troll makes friends everywhere he goes. Do you know why? Is it…

a) Because he’s happy?

b) Because he talks to others?

c) Because he asks questions?

d) All of the above?

You know the answer.  People like people who smile, who make them feel welcome. By talking with someone, you make yourself available. By asking them questions, you make them feel helpful. By smiling and being nice, you make yourself approachable.

Hamilton makes friends because he makes it easy for them to want to be his friend. What can you do to be like Hamilton Troll?

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Why is it that 2 wrongs don’t make a right but 3 rights make a left?

 

When traveling up north (I’m from Texas) I came across those crazy cloverleaf’s on the road. They are so completely confusing to us southerners who are used to simply making a left turn that I couldn’t wrap my head around them for the longest time.

If you look at it from overhead, like from a helicopter, you can see the method to the madness.  But when you are on the road and all you see is a curve framed by trees that you can’t see past, and you are merging with traffic, exiting immediately, doing another curve, merging with traffic, exiting immediately, doing another curve, merging with traffic… by now I’ve lost track of whether that was 3 curves or four and GOD FORBID it was four and I have to start ALL over again!  The dizziness, the headache, the oh my gosh why can’t I JUST make a simple left turn!!!

And then what is left but the wrong answer, that you totally will NEVER live down.  But what about when I am right? That hardly ever gets credit muchless remembered but one wrong move, one forgotten task, one little mistake, it is there forever.

Then there is the two wrongs thing… You accidentally break something you shouldn’t have even been messing with – wrong. You hide the evidence so you don’t get in trouble – wrong. But they find out anyway, so no right. But what if you throw in a third wrong, they ask you what happened and you blame the dog – wrong. Yeah, you’ll have guilt, especially if the dog gets in trouble… OKAY! Okay. I take it back! It was me! Why couldn’t that have been the left? You stood up. Accepted your punishment. Kept the dog from getting punished… that deserves a right, right? A proper left turn. But alas, no.  Because left is left and right is right and wrong is wrong no matter what… so exactly why do those cloverleaf’s exist then?

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It’s not Education if it’s Fun… It’s Enlightenment

Education – acquiring knowledge through teaching and instruction.

Enlightenment – giving or imparting knowledge by removing the dimness from one’s eyes or heart.

These two definitions talk about gaining knowledge,
the difference is the means to the end.

Learning lessons, through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts is education but finding the right mode of instruction is the key to turning on that figurative light bulb on top of a child’s head.

While there are definitely many children whose eyes sparkle with intrigue at the idea of going to school, most, usually gloss over. It’s not that school is not informative and educational, because it is.  It’s that children don’t normally find it fun.

Education tends to be structured lessons, back to back assignments and basically training. Reading is combined with assignments not available as intrigue.  When a child discovers on their own or through story-telling the excitement that can be found through reading, it becomes enlightenment.  When they are told to read, it becomes an assignment and any story gets lost to that glossed-over effect when that happens.

When education is fun, that’s when a child gets the most out of it. That is why I’ve worked so hard to make my stories fun and light-hearted.  Encouraging the light in a child’s eyes is my goal.  While providing a likeable role model, Hamilton Troll, and presenting situations and problems in a fun rhythmic way, my objective is to teach children how to respond to situations and deal with problems while preserving the light in their eyes.

When a child acquires an understanding of something you can see the light go on. The sparkle in their eyes illustrates the importance of education yet if it’s fun it’s enlightenment and that’s always a winner.

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You can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.

[image error] Life is hard.

When it is easy, it seems that it is only the lull before the storm. Something will happen. Something will test you. Something will make you want to cry. Whatever it is, those tears need to be shed. Whether in silence at night when everyone is asleep or bawling and screaming in the car, you are human. You are emotional. Let it out.

Pray to God to hear your cries. Ask Him what you need to do. Then listen for his response.

He will respond.

It may not be the response you want to hear. Maybe it will be. But either way, listen for his response. We can not do it alone. We must ask for help. We must seek guidance.

We must let the rain happen.

We must wash these times out of our souls so we can have that rainbow. So we can shine. So we can be presented as new.

A life of happiness and bliss would be nice, but no rain means drought, death. We won’t grow. We will sit stagnant and go nowhere if we aren’t pushed to embrace something beyond our walls.

Life’s pain makes us stronger.

It tests our limitations and forces us to become more. When it rains, it may seem like it will be raining forever, like it is never going to stop, but it will. And when it does, the sun will come out. It will warm us, and dry us, and brighten our life. Then we can look up at the beauty of our rainbow and smile, knowing we are better for it.

[image error]

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Labyrinth 2022 – Refilling the Chalice

Would you believe it has been 6 years since I wrote about the Labyrinth? It hasn’t been that long since I went to it, but it has been that long since I was inspired to write a message.  Today’s trip wasn’t planned. I saw the turn off to the street and thought, you know what… so I did. I am glad I did.

What is the Labyrinth?

I’ve written a couple of inspirational blog posts about it in year past. You can do a search on my site for it and read up on them. The Labyrinth is an elaborate walking path on the grounds of my church. You walk it for a spiritual journey and to have some meditative quiet time with our Lord. He has shared His wisdom with me more than once while I walked it and today was yet another insightful message.

Our church’s Labyrinth is a circle, outlined by rocks and the pathway is crushed granite. About 4-5 places where you take a turn it is decorated with the shape of a chalice outlined with rock and filled with a colorful blue broken glass. It shimmers and shines in the sunlight and always draws my eyes to it.

What is a chalice?

A tall, wine goblet shaped drinking cup. The Holy Chalice, also known as the Holy Grail, is in Christian tradition the vessel that Jesus used at the Last Supper to serve wine.  In this Labyrinth, the chalice is just a shape outlined with medium sized rocks and filled in with the blue glass pieces.  To me, the blue glass is representative of the living waters of Christ. Filling our cup, over-flowing our cup, but IN us, nonetheless. This particular chalice may have a ton of leaves and pollen on it, but that is just the weight we bear as we survive in this world over time.

Today, before stepping onto the path, I emptied my mind and asked the Lord to open my ears and heart to what he wants me to hear. I began walking, waiting for some spiritual guidance to illuminate my mind, and instead, the OCD in me noticed some of the blue broken glass pieces had been scattered on my pathway. Someone, something – a deer, who knows, had kicked a few of the smaller stones out of the line of the chalice shape, and over the course of rainy days, strong winds, or probably even hooves, had kicked bits of the blue out of its designated area. The sunlight shimmered on all of the rogue bits of blue and it made me think.

Our country today, politics today, health disagreements, teaching our children, race issues, our dividedness… is like this broken chalice. We’re broken. We’ve been kicked apart, opened up, in a way that our blue glass pieces are sprinkling out. We’re dripping living water as we go about our lives and we don’t even know it. We’re not insightfully sprinkling it on those nearest us, hoping their faith will grow like our houseplants – No. We are leaking. We are a toxic oil spill leaving our residue everywhere we go and no one understands why it’s there. It’s just leaving messes that no one wants to clean up.

Worse yet, with the crack in the chalice, we can’t even fill back up again. We keep leaking and we’re getting emptier by the day. Church is supposed to help mend our brokenness but with political division, racial tension, social distancing, online viewing, and a million other somewhat valid reasons, we aren’t being fixed. Fellowship has been replaced by fear. Prayer has been replaced by demands. Common sense has been replaced by tyranny. And unfortunately, that brokenness, that emptiness, it is spreading like a plague.

Maybe that is why there is so much hate, so many people divided, such a lack of decency, compassion, caring. People are at their wits ends. We disagree and we are getting violent about it. We used to be able to listen to both sides and meet in the middle but, I personally feel, the other side has forgotten how to do that. They forgot to turn the other cheek. They forgot that other’s perspectives are still valid and they are pushing their way or the highway.

Our world is not in a good place right now and we need to do something to fix it.

Feeling helpless, like I am one person, what can I do? I looked at this chalice and made a decision. I didn’t have the time to fix the others. I couldn’t clean out the leaves and pollen because I just didn’t have the right tools with me, but there WAS a little something I could do.

I fixed the chalice.

I put the rocks back in place, fixing the outline. It may not have been be done artistically, but the brokenness was closed. Then I, one-by-one, picked up each blue piece of glass in the general vicinity and placed it back in the chalice, refilling it – even if it was just a small amount.

I’m not God. I can’t fill it or overflow it, I don’t have the extra pieces to make that happen, but I took a step towards renewal. I hope, that maybe you too can find your own symbolic chalice and find a way to mend it, so you aren’t leaking any longer. Then I pray you find a way to let God fill you back up again. Maybe if we aren’t all oozing hate and anger, we will be able to see each other as what we are; family, and fix what is broken in our world.  

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