Janice Hall Heck
Finding hope in a chaotic world…
Archive for the month “December, 2017”
A.D.D. and Doing What I Do Best: Talking with People
A person with ADD/ADHD can overcome lots of difficulties. One can even write a book about his life’s experiences! Bob Ossler, Chicago paramedic, firefighter, air-sea rescue, ordained pastor and chaplain. Bob Ossler did just that with coauthor Janice Hall Heck. Triumph Over Terror is that book.
So I’ve owned up to being A.D.D./A.D.H.D, and that explains a bit of my poor performance in school in my early years. It may also explain a bit of my impulsiveness, inattention, and hyperactivity as a child and as an adult.
When I was a kid, I was Trouble with that capital T. I couldn’t seem to control my inattention, my off-task behavior, my risk-taking behavior, my failure to learn as fast as the other kids, my inability to complete tasks, and my penchant for taking up new interests when old interests quickly faded.
As a kid, I was a mess. But I did squeak through high school, thanks to my supportive parents and a few teachers who seemed to take special interest in me.
Along the way, I discovered strengths that have helped me become successful in life. In fact, I might even call those strengths “my superabilities.” Once I identified them, my life changed…
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At the shore…..Thursday Doors – December 7, 2017
Saw this wooden door with a chain link fence in an otherwise average neighborhood. Seemed a bit odd, but it had interesting detail.
10 Votes…Getting Closer to Our Goal
Please help us reach our goal: to finish up in 2nd place in the Readers Choice Book Competition – book title: Triumph Over Terror in Memoir Category 6. (The #1 book in this category already has far more votes than we could get at this point, so we will be happy with 2nd place.) We need 10 votes…and maybe a few more for extra measure.
Vote here for Triumph Over Terror, Category 6/16 Memoir Thanks for your help. Deadline: December 10. So vote now.
It’s been a while since I posted on this blog, but there’s a good reason. I was involved in
the writing, publication, and promotion of Triumph Over Terror, a book coauthored with Chaplain Bob Ossler about his experiences at Ground Zero in New York City after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Bob Ossler and I have also been posting at http://www.BobOsslerChaplain.com
Writing a book is hard enough, but after you write it and get it published, you have to garner people’s interest and get them to buy it.
Book contests are one way to create interest. Announcements about the contest go on Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, email, and wherever else a writer has online presence.
Thanks for voting for Triumph Over Terror, Category 6/16, Memoir
Click here to order Triumph Over Terror
Related posts:
A.D.D./A.D.H.D and Readers Choice Book Competition
Triumph Over Terror – Finalist – American Book Fest 2017
Quest Conquered: Book Published
Removing Grammar from My Life
I’m downsizing my grammar book collection, or at least trying to. Tough job. I have so many favorites. How can I heartlessly toss these treasures in a box for a yard sale? No. Some simply cannot go.
Last night I picked up Essays of E. B. White
(Harper Perennial, 1977 edition. Original copyright 1934). White is known for Charlotte’s Web, a book about a pig, a spider, and a young girl–a favorite with children everywhere. White is also known for his writings in the New Yorker and Harper’s magazine.
In one essay, White describes his own attempts to discard some of the accumulated miscellany gathered in his lifetime. But one book, he decides, he can’t possibly disown is The Elements of Style, the much favored, much challenged book 
by William Strunk, Jr.
In 1919, E.B. White took an English class at Cornell University with Strunk as the teacher. Elements of Style was on the required reading list.
Years later, (1957) E.B. White was asked to revise of The Elements, but after time spent working on it, he decided that “I discovered that for all my fine talk, I was no match for the parts of speech…[and] I felt uneasy at posing as an expert on rhetoric, when the truth is I write by ear, always with difficulty and seldom with any exact notion of what is taking place under the hood.”
Those reservations notwithstanding, White did revise Strunk’s original work. And, of course, that work has been revised again and again and is still a best seller on Amazon.
Downsizing my grammar book collection forces me to pick up old favorites and riffle through their pages and even smell a bit of their mustiness. With a sigh, Essays and Elements both go into a box to be donated to the library for its book sale. If I get nostalgic for these oldies, I will visit them on Amazon. I am sure they will be there for years to come.
Janice Hall Heck is coauthor of Triumph Over Terror, a book written
with Bob Ossler Chaplain. Look for more information at http://www.bobosslerchaplain.com and http://www.triumphoverterror.com
About Me
Janice Hall Heck 