Introducing Constance Gorman

Today I am so pleased to introduce to you a very inspirational woman who is not only a former business owner, a technical writer, a teacher and mentor, but she is now the author of the non-fiction book The Great Black Hope. She is one busy lady! After reading the following excerpt about the book, I’m sure you all will be as impressed as I am with this talented and caring individual. Thank you to Constance Gorman for allowing me to share her story.

 

 

People can keep dark secrets or be in the closet about many things. An extra-marital affair, alcoholism or sexual abuse are some of the top secrets kept hidden in the deep recesses of someone’s daily living. However, the most common secret may be the inability to read, or rather, illiteracy. The Great Black Hope , written by Constance Kluesener Gorman, is a true-story that chronicles the life of a high school student with a secret that haunted him for years. His name is Tony Daniels.

Tony, a youth from the inner city, has stood out since grade school as a talented football player. By the time he reached high school, Tony was a standout as defensive lineman for racking up substantial sacks of the opposing team’s quarterback. In December, 2003, he was voted First Team – all districts- by The Cincinnati Enquirer’s All Stars group of football coaches and staff of Greater Cincinnati with 70 tackles, 30 tackles for a loss, 9 sacks and a fumble recovery.

Yet, despite all the accolades for his football achievements, Tony suffered from a continual state of sadness. Deep inside him, he kept a secret so painful that he found it hard to share it with anyone. Then, Tony found he faced an obstacle that no street smarts or physical strength could conquer-illiteracy. Tony could read simple three or four letter words, but, words that contained vowel blends or multiple consonants were beyond his understanding. Tony survived school by cheating his way through in order to hide his disability. But, when it was time for the state proficiency tests, and Tony was required to pass them to graduate from high school, he knew that his secret had to be told. It had to be told to SOMEBODY.

He couldn’t tell his mother because he was somewhat of a discipline problem already. Tony didn’t want to disappoint his mother again! Looking back, Tony surmises that his issues at school stemmed from his inability to read and the frustration he experienced when he couldn’t learn subject matter at the same pace as his classmates. He felt he had no place to turn. So, he kept his illiteracy disability a secret until it was impossible to continue any longer.



Constance Gorman was a Chemistry teacher at his high school and tutored his brother, Mike occasionally after school. With these tutoring sessions, Mike began to know that Ms. Gorman was the type of teacher who would put in the time to help out one of her students. So, when Tony started having trouble in school the following year, Mike pointed Tony to Ms. Gorman.




Levi Jones and Constance

Tony felt comfortable with Ms. Gorman and shared his secret with her. Together, they embarked on an adventure to rid him of illiteracy, as well as his continual bouts with depression and a life threatening heart ailment. Once Tony became an avid reader, Ms. Gorman continued in her mentoring position and helped him pursue his dreams of college football and the NFL. Along the way, Tony picked up other mentors, such as Levi Jones of the Cincinnati Bengals, Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants and NFL Hall of Fame, and a consortium of heart surgeons at Ohio Heart.

The Great Black Hope is an inspirational story of hope for readers who may have a dark secret, suffer from depression or despair about one of the many bumps in the road of life. The book is currently being considered for a book-to-film project by the film industry.

 

Tony with his wife and children

The Great Black Hope can be purchased at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Apple Stores, Sony, Kobo, Baker and Taylor and all other retail outlets in print and e-book format.

The Great Black Hope website: http://sufficientgracebook.weebly.com

Constance Kluesener Gorman is a former business owner and product development chemist, who received a calling to participate in the education sector. She is currently a private tutor, but also occasionally teaches business, chemistry and mathematic classes at local universities in Greater Cincinnati. She holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Miami University, an M.B.A. from the University of Cincinnati and a B.S. in Education from the McGregor School at Antioch University.

Although Constance has been published as a writer in technical journals and other print media relating to her business career, The Great Black Hope is her first effort in writing a nonfiction novel. She plans to write and publish the remaining fifty-seven or so other stories relating to her spiritual favors and experiences.

Constance’s long term goal is to revitalize the inner city community of Lincoln Heights in Cincinnati, the first incorporated village in the United States whose population was predominantly African-American and self-governing. Lincoln Heights is the community in which her students live.

Constance Gorman

websites: Tutoring- http://www.mycincytutor.com
Book Release- http://sufficientgracebook.weebly.com
e-mail: ckluesenergorman@yahoo.com OR mycincytutor@yahoo.com

 

A LOT GOOD, A LITTLE BAD

Today I have some exciting news to announce! A sequel to my children's picture book The Pea in Peanut Butter is coming out! It will be published by Futureword and is in the works right now. The title is Inside the Magic of Words. This book will take Kailee on another magical journey but this time she will learn that reading is fun and can take you on all sorts of adventures. Stay tuned as I will announce a release date as soon as it becomes available.

Also, a halloween story of mine has been accepted by Guardian Angel Publishing titled Pumpkin Squash, but that's all I can tell you about it at this time.

This Saturday, February 23rd at 10:00am, I will be reading my book The Pea in Peanut Butter over a radio show called It's Story Time with J.D. Holiday. Tune in here if you'd like to listen. My story will be 2nd to be read so if you tune in around 10:10 you should be able to catch it.

Now for the bad news... I crashed and burned on my diet. I thought for sure if I posted it on my blog and promised to keep my readers updated that I would succeed, but unfortunately I was wrong! The last week I did it, all I got to eat were shakes and soup and when I got on the scale and gained half a pound, that was it. I think that diet could work for the right person, but for me it wasn't a diet that I could stick with long term so I've decided to try something else. At this point, I have no clue what that will be but I have to come up with something! About 5 years ago I made up my own diet and over 3 years, I'd lost 30 lbs. I basically ate very non-fat small lunches and then whatever I wanted to at night within reason. It took awhile to lose but I never felt deprived and was in the frame of mind to lose it slowly. I kept it off for about 2 years but gradually gained almost all of it back. It was easy to eat small lunches while I was working a full-time job but now that I'm not working, an apple just doesnt cut it at home! But I may just have to try it again.

Well that's it for me this week. Hope everyone has a great week and don't forget to write, write, write!

CREATURE/CHARACTER CREATION

Let’s face it… it’s tough to create a unique and different character of any kind for our stories. Just when I think I’ve got a super idea, I search amazon.com for similar characters or stories and I find a million. I’ve heard that every story and every character has already been used at least once. And I definitely believe that.

 

So what do we do to make our characters unique? It isn’t easy and definitely gives us a major challenge. Since I’m a very visual person, the first resource I go to is the internet. I google kids, or animals, or whatever is similar to the character I am going to create. Just looking at a picture gives me tons of inspiration and ideas. Once I find what I might like the character to look like, I ask myself a ton of questions. What if this kid had braces instead and had trouble talking with them? What if this kid only liked to wear red? And on and on.

The other day I needed to create a unique creature and give it a unique name that wasn’t in the dictionary. It wasn’t easy but turned out to be a blast for me. The first thing I did was decide if I wanted this creature to be scary or funny and did I want it to be a “person” creature or animal? Once I decided that, my hands were on fire googling everything I could think of.

After the long process of finding some things I liked, since I can't draw a twig, I went into Photoshop and the real creative process began. I cut this, pasted that, and finally ended up with what I thought was a unique and fun creature that I could write about. The problem with that is, it’s so much fun for me that I have a hard time knowing when to quit and go with what I’ve created! And no, I’m not going to tell you what I actually came up with! You’ll have to read the book when it comes out to find that out!

Anyway, that was my process. When you create your own characters, creatures, demons etc., what process do you go through? Especially you authors who write paranormal, how the heck do you come up with what super powers you want them to have, that are unique?

AS TIME GOES BY

For those of you who read my last blog, you’ll recall that I started a new diet called Shred: The Revolutionary Diet. I promised to update you on my success.

Well I’ve now completed 1 week and 3 days and as time goes by, I’m still not sure what I think about it. It’s very structured and everything is on a schedule, which I don’t mind, however I am feeling like this diet makes me think of nothing but food! What I will have for my next meal and what time I’m supposed to eat it. So I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

 

I weighed one week after and although I feel like I’ve lost a few pounds, the scale was once again a wicked mean creature to me and only said 1 lb less!! Grrrrrrr. I wanted to beat it and throw it out the window. But with my luck, it would just find its way back in and plop its cruel self back in front of me.

But I’m still giving it my best chance. I’ll update you again next week.

One of the hardest parts of this diet is the strict schedule as to when I’m supposed to eat my meals and snacks. The other day I was so engrossed in writing that before I looked up again, 4 hours had passed. I missed my lunch and my snack!

Why does time go so fast while I’m writing and sooooooooo slow at other times? But time flying by while I write is more than worth whatever time it takes up. Because not only am I having a blast, the more I write, the better I get as time goes by.

Happy Birthday to Me!

This has been a great week for me. I've gotten alot of writing done, finished my next assignment for the advanced Insititute of Children's Literature course I'm taking, finished a great book written by Courtney Rene titled Shadow's End, and made it through my 56th birthday, yesterday.

Today I'm reminising about how different birthdays are to me then when I was young. As a child, birthdays were all about the presents, the cake, and hopefully the party and a whole day of the attention being all about me!! However as an adult, I haven't had a single birthday party. It seems like everytime I have a special birthday, circumstances don't allow for a party. And never living close to family doesn't help either. So I've had to learn to except birthdays as no big deal.

On my 40th, we had just moved to Vicksburg, MS so I knew absolutely no one. On my 50th, I had just changed jobs two days before so they didn't even know I had a birthday let alone that it was my 50th. However, that year I did have a fantastic surprise. My siblings and a good friend all flew down and surprised me. That meant so much to me!

It's funny how as you age even the smallest things mean alot to you anymore. Yesterday I had no party, I had no family around, but I did have lunch with friends. That meant alot. My husband and I agreed to not give gifts for our birthdays this year because they are so close to xmas, his was the 13th of Jan., so I got no gifts except a beautiful candle from my mom. But I didn't miss it. My gift was all the happy birthday wishes I got from so many friends on facebook! I was overwhelmed.

I'm sure when I age even more, that will go away and I'll just be thrilled to make it TO another birthday!

On another note, I did get some fantastic publishing news on my birthday, however I can't share it yet. So why did I even mention it then?? Cause that person, she knows who she is, made my birthday complete. Can't wait to share more with you'all on that later!

Now I must go to my frig and start pigging out on my birthday cheesecake because starting Monday, I am beginning Shred: The Revolutionary Diet. Any of you hear about that? It's a diet that is made to jump start and trick your metabolism into working. I read the book and it definitely sounds like a doable diet plan. It's a six week plan that has detailed menu options for every day, and every week until finished. If you reach your goal weight in that six weeks, you go onto maintenance. If not, you start the six week cycle again.

Anyway, it's normal foods. You basically eat 4 meals and 3 snacks. Who can't do that!! You learn to portion control and eat every 3-4 hours so you never feel hungry. And you have options of food to eat for each meal and tons of snack options. You also eat lots of smoothies and shakes if you choose to for a meal. I know a few people who have tried this diet and its working great for them.

Unlike weight watchers where I lose sooooooo slowly, this diet is made to lose 18-25 lbs in the 6 weeks if you follow it, and have more than 25 lbs to lose.

So, Monday is kick-off for me. I've decided I will try to update on my blog, my success each week. Not because I think you are really interested, but because it might help me stick to it! I will also post a picture of me before and after to see what kind of difference it makes, if any.

Stay tuned! But even more than that... PRAY, PRAY, PRAY for me!! I need it!

BAD REVIEWS - Do they help or hurt us?

As an author, I find book reviews to be hard. There are so many great books, mediocre books, and bad books out there. I for one do not like to give out five star ratings lightly. But, it's hard to define what books should receive the highest rating.

Especially if you are reviewing a fellow author or friends book.You know if it's one of those, they are expecting a five star rating from you. Afterall, aren't we supposed to support our fellow authors and friends?

But what do you do when you come across a book from a fellow author that you just simply can not give a good rating to? Do you lie? Or do you stay true to yourself and review the book with complete honesty? Which one helps the author more?

I once received a terrible review about a rhyming story I had written. I didn't know the reviewer but he was a respected author in the community. He was not nice in his review and basically told me to give up rhyming. With this being the very first story of mine that he had ever laid eyes on he thought he was that much of an expert that he could judge my writing enough to say I had no clue about meter or rhyme. I was shocked because I thought fellow authors were supposed to give each other encouragement. He gave me none. Yes, tell the truth but do it with encouragement. I don't believe it helps an author to just tell them to give up.

So did it help or deter me from ever writing rhyme again? I don't know. At first I was very angry. Then I decided I would work harder than ever to prove him wrong. But in the end, although I played with the story a little bit, I have done nothing with the story. It has sat in my inventory for almost 2 years now. I have practiced rhyme and meter and do believe I'm much better at it now and understand it, but... everytime I pick up that story my stomach cringes. What if he was right? Should I just continue on with prose and give up rhyming forever?

I once had to review a fellow authors book that was done in rhyme. I have to say it was one of the most difficult because I just couldn't find much at all good about the book. The author broke all the rules I'd learned and the ending just left me completely flat. I just could not give it a good rating or recommend it. Unlike the 'cruel' reviewer I'd had on my own story, I did try to find something nice to say though. I felt horrible that I couldn't give that author a good rating but it would've felt completely wrong to lie to myself and the reader. Needless to say, the author chose not to post my review.

I couldn't blame the author because none of us want to post a bad review. It doesn't help us sell our books. But does that help the reader make the right choice about what books to read? How do you feel?

Rain, Rain, Rain!!

It's raining cats and dogs today down here in cajun country! My dogs are running around with their tails between their legs wondering what all that loud noise is. My cat is well... just hiding. He's big and fat so I have no idea where he has found a hiding spot big enough for his enormous hairy body to hide but he's no where to be found!

We have tornado warnings, watches and flash flood warnings out everywhere within a 60 mile radius. Lots of areas have already flooded as it's been raining for several days here. I've lived through a flooded house once before in my lifetime and it's no fun. I feel for those people who are going through that right now. Luckily, we live in a pretty high area so hopefully we'll be ok.

I'm one of the weird ones though that enjoy stormy days. I hate tornado threats but otherwise a day filled with rain, lightening, and thunderstorms makes me happy! I love the mystery of it. I love how the rain feels on my skin and how refreshing it is. I also remember how fun it was to run outside after a big rainstorm and play in the puddles when I was a child. Strange, huh. I guess it's because I'm amazed at what happens up there in the clouds. How can it one minute be sun shiny and hot and the next, wet rain drops are falling everywhere. Snow fascinates me even more, unfortunately I rarely ever get to see that down here but on those rare occasions when I do... it's really magical. I should have been a weatherman. I can totally get why they love their job. I can only imagine how interesting it must be to them since they study why weather happens and all that good stuff.

I know people who only want the sun to shine and that makes them happy. But I'm just not one of them. Sure I like a sunny day but then the next day needs to be different or I'll start getting depressed! I need change!

I need to make this post short and quick as it's also lightening like crazy here. I could lose electricity at any minute and don't want it to fry my computer! I wanted to add some stormy pictures to this post but blogger is not cooperating. Bummer!

So I'll just end by asking what kind of weather makes you happy? And what's it doing in your neck of the woods right now?