J. Q. Rose stopped by the Dragon’s Lair to talk with Myrria about her non-fiction book Girls Succeed.

Hi Chris, Thanks for hosting me today so I can tell your readers about the awesome women profiled in my newly updated interactive e-book for girls, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women.

 

Readers, Chris and I are swapping blogs today, so please pop on over to my blog to continue this delightful visit. J.Q. Rose blog http://www.JQRose.com

 

This book about careers includes interviews with fifteen remarkable women who have achieved recognition for their accomplishment in their occupations. This diverse group of career women includes a doctor who has discovered cures to stamp out disease, a professional clown who garners giggles and sometimes groans from her audience, athletes who earned Olympic and Paralympic gold medals, and a semi-truck driver who crossed the country in the cab of an eighteen wheeler. The careers featured in Girls Succeed! encompass women in the arts, business, science, medicine, ministry, entertainment, and sports

 

It was my privilege to interview these remarkable role models for the book. My heartfelt thanks go to them for trusting me to tell their inspiring stories and for allowing me to share with readers the path they took to achieve success. I have had many wonderful comments from girls’ focus groups on how the stories have resonated with them.

 

I envisioned this book way back in 2006 after I had met and worked with the counselors and campers at a girls’ summer residence camp in Michigan, Camp Newaygo. In fact three of the women in the book are alumni from that camp, medical doctor Cate Bradley, cooking professional Sue Chef, and educator Barbara “Chili” Chiles.

 

I made a list in Excel of all the areas I wanted to include like arts, entertainment, science, business, athletics, and so on and filled in the spreadsheet with the names of outstanding women and their mailing addresses. Yes, I spent a lot of hours doing the research in the library. (The Internet and e-mailing were still new and not always available.)

 

I designed a really cute letterhead, if I say so myself, and toiled over writing a cover letter that would stir them to want to be included in the project.  A matching post card accompanied the letter. I asked them to return the post card after placing a check in the box indicating they were interested, not interested, or wanted more information.

 

I was thrilled when the postcards began returning to me in the mail with checkmarks in the boxes for “interested.” I immediately sent the respondents a page of questions to return to me. After receiving the information from them, I called each one for an interview. Yes, complete strangers decided to join the project simply because they wanted to inspire and empower girls. Amazing.

 

It has been an awesome journey to discover so many generous, thoughtful women. They range in age from late twenties to well, just let me say, mature. Their backgrounds include the city life and the rural life, and they are from different ethnic groups. They have graduated from Harvard, Yale, private and state colleges, and one from a community college to earn her commercial driver’s license to drive semi trucks.

 

Each one followed their own path to discover success in their dream job. So you might say, “Girls succeed!”

 

I could go on and on about these wonderful women, but instead I have chosen to stop and share only one of the stories, children’s author and illustrator Jane Stroschin. Take a peek at one of Jane’s projects, an outstanding mural of six panels depicting symbols of Michigan on the Girls Succeed blog at http://girlssucceed.blogspot.com/2012/10/childrens-author-and-illustrator-jane.html.

 

“To succeed you have to believe in something

with such a passion that it becomes a reality.”

— Anita Roddick, entrepreneur, business executive

CHAPTER 3

JANE STROSCHIN

CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

 

 

 

Practice, Practice, Practice

 

Eight-year-old Jane clutched the new drawing pad, pencils, and paints to her chest.  She treasured the precious tools.  The little girl filled the paper pads with her drawings and paintings. Jane Stroschin was enthusiastic about creating art pieces from the time she was just a girl. She grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her twin sister and an older sister.

It was her love of drawing which helped Jane recover from an accident. One day she and her friends were outdoors playing football.  Jane was tackled, but could not get up.  Her legs were broken.  She had to endure surgeries to repair her legs.  Doctors told her she would not walk.  But through determination and hard work, Jane proved the doctors wrong.  She learned to walk again.

During this time of recovery from the accident, Jane worked on her drawing skills and practiced and polished her artwork.

Jane loved sketching so much she continued even after her legs healed. She created cartoons for her junior and senior high newspapers.  In high school, her art teacher asked her to join the “grown-ups” painting class in her home town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The artists in the class were impressed with her composition.  She graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in art education.  She continued to paint and draw and to learn from respected masters of art in classes and workshops.

After graduation Jane married Mike Stroschin and they moved to Fremont, Michigan, where she and Mike raised their two children, Laura and Brian. Because there were no jobs for art teachers, Jane accepted a job as the children’s librarian at the local library.  It was here that she fell in love with picture books. She appreciated the combination of art with the story.

She read lots of books so she could be sure to select interesting ones for the library’s weekly story time. Two of her favorites to read out loud were Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Voirst and Ray Cruz.  She wanted the kids to have fun with the stories and to return each week for more.

One summer afternoon Jane and her young children, Laura and Brian, sat on a grassy hill watching the puffy clouds move and change as they crossed the blue sky.  The kids told their mom what the clouds looked like…a dinosaur, a kitty, and more.  These cloud pictures gave Jane an idea for her first picture book, The Cloudy Day.

Another idea for a book, Emma Lou and the Reindeer Flu, popped into her head when Jane was on the road traveling to a school where she would be teaching kids to write stories and draw pictures.  It began to snow.

“The snow was beautiful.  It made me want to write a Christmas story,” she said.

As Jane continued on her journey, the story of Emma Lou took shape in her mind. She pictured Santa stopping at Emma Lou’s farm on Christmas Eve because all the reindeer were sick with the flu.  She had to get the words on paper, so she stopped at a restaurant, sat down at the table, and began writing the story on the back of the placemat.

“Would you like a menu?” asked the waitress as she placed a glass of water on the table.  She couldn’t put it on the placemat after all.
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Jane looked up from her writing.  “Um, oh no.  I’ll just have the special—whatever it is,” she said and returned to her writing.

The words for the story were streaming onto the placemat.  Jane didn’t even notice the waitress had brought her food.  Finally the waitress stopped by the table and asked if something was wrong with the meal.  Jane kept writing and took a bite of the food.  “It’s fine,” she said.

When she finished the story, Jane went to the pay phone in the restaurant to call her twin sister.  (This was before cell phones were available.)  She read the story over the phone to her surprised sister.  There was silence on the other end.

“Well, what do you think?” she asked. Still silence. She began to worry. Jane thought her sister must not like the story and was trying to figure out how to tell her it was a rotten idea.

At last Jane heard her sister sniffle and then reply.  “I’m crying. I love it.”

This children’s author eventually founded her own publishing company which allows her to write and illustrate books, as well as oversee their layout, format, sales, and shipping.  She also works to publicize the books.

Not only is Jane a wonderful story teller and excellent artist, she is also an accomplished art teacher. Children and adults attend her drawing and painting workshops.  She travels around the country teaching children to write stories and draw pictures to go with their stories.

Her latest gigantic art project is as tall as a one story building and as wide as two cars parked bumper to bumper. She was commissioned by the City of Fremont, Michigan, to create a mural entitled Celebrate Our Symbols. The colorful painting depicts scenes found in nature and the wildlife in Michigan such as deer, birds, fish and more.

“If you want to be an artist, then study art history and the masters’ techniques.  If you want to be a writer, then read the great writers.  Develop your style from studying them,” Jane advises.  “Be persistent, be passionate, and look for encouragement from your family and friends.”

Jane laughs when she says, “No one can put a pair of ice skates on their feet and then skate.  They fall and they get up.  They practice, practice, practice.  That is what you have to do to be your best.”

# # # #

Tag line: Inspiring and empowering girls to achieve success in their dream careers

 

The new updated version of Girls Succeed is now available at

Smashwords Link http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/241825

Amazon Link  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NY6ZAS

And will be available soon at major online booksellers.

BIO: After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction writing mysteries.with Sunshine Boulevard, and Coda to Murder released by Muse It Up Publishing. 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.

 

Connect with J.Q. Rose online at

J.Q. Rose blog http://www.jqrose.com/

Girls Succeed blog http://girlssucceed.blogspot.com/

Author website http://jqrose.webs.com/

Facebook http://facebook.com/jqroseauthor

J. Q.  Rose Amazon Author Page http://tinyurl.com/aeuv4m4

Goodreads- http://www.goodreads.com/jqrose

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/janetglaser/