Nan was born with a pen in one hand, a legal pad in the other and has been writing ever since.  Published in local and regional magazines, she has also written her own curriculum for teaching creative writing, speech and debate.

For the past 32 years, Nan has also kept a daily journal.  These annuals take a prominent place on her library shelves and include personal travel diaries, current events, family memories and humorous reflections on life.

Fresh out of college, Nan worked part time as a freelance features editor for a local newspaper, The Florence Herald.  She covered the opening of a new mall (Regency Square), did features on local artists and visited local farmers in order to write about crop dusting and growing better beans. 

The Herald, which began in 1884 as a weekly newspaper, has since become a publishing company and is no longer a news source.  Nan is grateful for the lessons she learned as features editor.  Interviews, deadlines and tight-writing requirements sharpened her skills and taught her the lesson that still guides her writing today - if her first sentence doesn't snag you, she's wasted your time.

As manager of Helium's Education Channel, Nan works with a great team in maintaining that site.  She creates new titles, oversees articles that come into the channel, reaches out to new members, encourages veteran writers and contributes articles of her own. 

When Nan discovered Helium two years ago, it was like coming home to a warm fire on a bone-cold evening.  With her dictionary and thesaurus nearby, Nan gave up the pen and pad of years gone by and now writes on her laptop.

My passion is ...

... touching the hearts of my readers.

My parents always told me ...

... to be thankful for my blessings.

Why I write ...

I write to inspire and inform, to encourage and entertain.

My first job ...

... was as secretary for the city tax assessor.

My best moment ...

... was August 31, 1974, 6:30 p.m. when I married my husband!

My inspiration ...

... is found in two polar opposites - the awesome complexity of God's creation and the simple, everyday happenings of life.

Relationships & Family > Communication (Other) How to use words effectively

1 of 5

Words, by themselves, are static or inactive. They have no power to entertain, produce change, encourage, comfort or move others to action. It is only when they are chosen, combined and delivered that they come to life. So how do we use words effectively? The choice of words - Inside every dictionary and thesaurus are thousands of words. Let's consider the everyday, common words to be "ten-cent" words and the uncommon, less-often used words to be "fifty-cent" words. A writer or speaker that makes heavy use of fifty-cent words will quickly lose his reader or audience. Why is this? Unfamilia...

More..

Writing:

Rating:

• Marketplace Premier Writer
• Creative Writing Silver
• Professional Journalist
• Editorial Advisory Board
• Channel Steward Education
• Marketplace Approved Writer
• Homeschooler
• News Writer