Category Archives: Education

May 14, 2021 · 8:27 am

My First Radio Interview

This week was my first radio interview ever! It was a promotional segment for the webinar I’m hosting on May 19, Self-Publishing 101.

I was nervous, of course. I didn’t receive the questions in advance, so I couldn’t prepare. I was also worried I might choke up. You see, the main reason I decided to self-publish was so my mom could read about my adventures. And well, although I know she’s proud of me, there was a chance of tears when I talked about it in the interview.

The interview was set up for 9:30 in the morning. I received a call via my Skype number. The guy on the other end seemed to have difficulty understanding that I was using Skype, not a landline. I’m not sure how the number showed up on his equipment. Anyway, he wanted to know my Skype name, so we could switch to Skype (which we were using) and I clicked away and accidentally hung up on him. We were off to a great start!

He called back and we proceeded, thank goodness. I was transferred to the interviewer, Matt Rainnie, who naturally had the perfect voice for radio broadcasting. He asked for verification on how to pronounce my name, did an intro, and we were off.

I didn’t really have trouble answering most of the questions. That random giggle that sometimes surfaces when I am nervous made an appearance. I cringed internally, but carried on. I also didn’t know how to answer the question about how many people I have reached with my books. I have no idea. I don’t keep track of book sales or stats and that type of metrics. I’ve sold books to be sure. I have followers on both my websites and social media. I haven’t a clue on how many.

Then, the clincher. The interviewer asked if I had advice to give would-be authors. I got a little emotional. I told them not to wait. After all, had I waited for a traditional publisher, my mom would never have seen my books in print.

Fortunately, the interview ended there. It didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked, but I guess it was ok and I was certainly glad it was over.

If you’d like to listen to the radio broadcast, you can find my 7 minutes of Canadian radio fame here:

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April 26, 2021 · 7:06 am

New Games!

So I went a little off the rails with my Women in the Bible series. Remember how I had completed a deck of playing cards featuring women mentioned in the Old Testament? Then remember how I had my son translate those cards so I could make a Spanish deck? Then I made a memory game and translated it too? Well, now I have two more games and a third in the works.

Claudia, my artist friend, did NOT disappoint with additional illustrations. Take a look at these:

Women of the Old Testament Matching Game provides hours of educational fun for the entire family. Each full-color card provides information about one of 24 extraordinary women mentioned in the Old Testament. Two levels of difficulty make it the perfect game for all ages. Also available in Spanish: El Juego de Emparejar Las Mujeres del Antiguo Testamento and in PDF format from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Who Was I? Women of the Old Testament Guessing Game is a fun way to review your bible studies. Each full-color card has information about one of 37 women mentioned in the Old Testament. The scriptural footnote gives you an opportunity to learn more about each woman before the next game. Also available in Spanish: ¿Quién era yo? El Juego de Adivinar–Las Mujeres del Antiguo Testamento and in PDF format from Teachers Pay Teachers.

The next game is a trivia game, but as there are 140 cards, it’s taking some time to format. I finished the English version, but am waiting on my son’s translations to get the Spanish done.  Stay tuned for another update next month on that. In the meantime, I made a set of seven (plus a free sample) games designed to work with Zoom. Yep! Women of the Old Testament Trivia Game for Zoom is available for download from TPT as individual games or bundled. I’m planning on another series of Zoom games in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

I’m also going to expand the Bingo games with more unique boards for larger groups of players. Right now, the free versions have only 3 different boards. Additionally, I’ll be making worksheets for teachers on the topic of women in the Old Testament. Making curriculum is what I do best!

Egad! I seem to have become a little obsessed with this project, not even knowing it if will be profitable. However, it is an activity I can do from home, which I plan on hibernating in a bit longer even though our state has turned “green” on the risk level. I mean, look what happened in India! Otherwise, it’s business as usual on the ol’ Flores ranchito.

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April 5, 2021 · 6:50 am

Card Games

Once upon a time, I made several games for a local Sunday school teacher. Since I’ve nothing but time this year of continued limited events and essential travel only, I thought I’d dust those puppies off and see what I could do with them. 

I found a place that will print cards and made a biblical version of “Old Maid” starring Jezabel and a memory game with 20 women mentioned in the Old Testament. Then I had my son translate them and made Spanish versions. He’s quite the translator these days!

The cards can be ordered from my online store and shipped pretty much anywhere in the world, provided people know about them and like them enough to purchase. There may be import fees for countries outside of the U.S. and Canada (like Mexico).

I wasn’t done with my creative explosion quite yet. Having been a teacher for several decades, I know that most teachers make their own materials and don’t have a lot of money. Thus my online store on Teachers Pay Teachers was created. There I’m offering the pdf versions of the Spanish and English biblical card games, plus a FREE bingo game with three different boards (in both languages).

April 6-7, Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a site-wide sale. Everything in my store is 20% off as well. So send your teacher friends!

These games are hopefully only the first of many classroom aids. After all, I’ve been making materials for my classes for a long, long time. Perhaps they will be useful for other teachers as well. I plan on adding materials for English, Spanish, ESL and maybe music classes in addition to the Sunday school games. 

I admit I’m not so sure how to market my new “stores.” I suppose that’s a new skill I’ll have to learn. I’ll be sure to wedge time to learn marketing between the other projects I have going on in my productive quarantine 2021.

Friends having fun playing with MY cards!

So far, I’ve set up a storefront on my blog with links to these products. I’ve also set up an opt-in for a newsletter. The monthly newsletter focuses on new products and sales rather than the topics found on either of my blogs. 

You can see a sample newsletter for International Children’s Book Day below. Both books are still on sale today if you haven’t picked up your copy. You can click on the image to see the newsletter with the links. 

I’d love to hear what you think of the games, storefront, or newsletter. Marketing pointers are welcome as well!

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