#Read about Guest #Author B B Free.

BB Free Hello everybody! I’m excited and honored to be featured in this blog. It’s a wonderful opportunity to introduce myself to you.

I’ll start by saying that I have dedicated the better part of my adult life to nurturing the love of reading in children. I have been an elementary school teacher for 17 years in Miami, Florida. I have a Masters in Reading, and my areas of focus have always been reading, writing, and English as a second language.

I am one of those people fortunate enough to make a living at something I love. Books, words, pen and paper have been in my life since I knew what each meant, so it was simply cosmic orchestration that I should feel a calling to share that with children.

Many times in the course of my life, I attempted to pour feelings, anecdotes, dreams, nightmares and fantasies into journals, and they always turned into stories and poems. Journaling never kept my interest. I didn’t want to chronicle the workings of my mind, I wanted to explore them, embellish them, and develop them for storytelling.

I have other passions, sure. I travel a lot. Some could say I’m addicted to discovering new places. I love photography, and fine dining is a sport for me. In fact, I have a foodie blog that allows me to combine all three of these hobbies.

In 2001, I was taking a course in Gifted Education. The culminating assignment was to write a children’s story with a message. Inspiration came immediately in the form of my then 11-year-old daughter, Laura, a young lady wise beyond her years. I know I’ll sound like any proud mother, but her generosity of spirit was indeed, what compelled me to write the draft that fourteen years later would become my first children’s book, The Rescuers.

I won’t lie. It hasn’t been an easy road. From the moment I decided to publish the book a year and a half ago, I encountered many obstacles when searching for an illustrator, when learning about layouts for picture books, even trying to keep the costs of self-publishing down. Teachers don’t make much, as you probably know. But here we are. It is done, and in the end, it has been a journey of discovery and education, and I’m quite pleased with the outcome. It’s been called “the little book with a powerful message about kindness”, and I’m proud.

After the Spanish version of The Rescuers is released, my next project will be a fairy tale, and it will also convey an important message to children about the value of inner beauty over what shows on the surface. I have also been working on a novel for adults for the past three years, and hope to finish that elusive first draft soon.

In between all the writing, and the research and the reading, I’ll continue traveling with my husband John, teaching and restaurant hopping.

If you want to read about some of my gastronomic adventures, you can find them on my blog

I am also on Facebook, where I post regularly about my works in progress. Those are the two social media vehicles with which I feel the most comfortable. However, since the publication of The Rescuers, now available on Amazon, I’ve given in and decided to expand my exposure.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Goodreads. These accounts are brand new and I’m taking baby steps with them.

Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself, and I’ll catch you between the lines!