What is Gina Blue about? Education and...especially...Substitute Teachers After I published my book, I, of course, wanted to sell it. I did book signings at Barnes and Noble, attended craft and book fairs, consigned books at local B&Bs and other toursity shops and finally became interested in joining NSTA, the National Substitute Teacher Alliance. After all, substitute teachers ARE my primary audience. In 2007, I became a member of NSTA and attended the NSTA national conference held in Rockville, Maryland. I met many interesting people including other authors, sold a few books and donated others to support a local chapter in Chicago, and had a really fun time! Mr. Jim Politis continues to serve as president. Check out their website. |
| March 2012 Welcome to the World of Gina Blue! Who is Gina Blue? I wasn't always called Gina Blue. The name evolved from the writing of my first book, Desperately Seeking Humor: Incredible and Satirical Tales of a Substitute Teacher. The story goes like this... Back...way back...in 1998 I had an epiphany. I would write a book. It would be about the Life of a Substitute Teacher. Since working full time as a substitute teacher in the Ashtabula County Schools was my current source of income, well...it sounded easy enough. So I go to work, take notes (sometimes on napkins, sometimes on tissue paper and sometimes on sticky notes...whatever was close at hand!) of interesting stuff the kids said and did during class and then go home and write. Well, it took about three months before I stumbled on a recipe for my stories. I actually got my inspiration from watching Fred Astaire dance! Anyway, after finishing my stories and after several years of rewrites and revisions, I self-published through I Universe. I wrote all my stories in the first person, and as I continued to write, I decided to take the name of Gina Blue. My website became ginablue.com and over the years I became known to my friends as Gina Blue. Today I am Gina Blue. |
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Today Education is not my primary focus; however, I continue my membership in NSTA and continue to support the cause of the Substitute Teacher. |
Today...Gina Blue's primary focus is... |
| Coloring... and celebrating the act of coloring in coloring books as a generational bonding experience, whether it's between parent and child or grandparent and child, or between.... |
Let's talk about coloring and color books. Color books you say? Aren't you supposed to call those books "color-ing" books? Well, that's what my grown-up friends tell me...repeatedly! When I was a kid like in the picture at the left, I called these books "color" books and...guess what... as an adult I STILL do! Why?? I dunno. Maybe that's what my mom called them. Maybe that's what my friend Thaya called them. Maybe I just called them that because I "colored" in them. Parts of speech are interchangeable. Verbs can be used as nouns and nouns can be used as verbs. Kids don't make cognitive decisions like that, they just "do" it because it makes sense! And that made sense! Anyway, I still like to color and especially around the holidays. A year or so ago, around the holidays, I had several appointments to keep. I took a favorite color book and a small box of crayons with me to keep me company while I waited. Apparently the receptionist was observing me for when I was called to her window, she started to tell me about how much she loved to color. "It's so relaxing...a real stress reliever!" she said. As we continued to chat, I couldn't help but notice she was whispering! I kinda looked around to see if there were other people around. But there was no one else in sight! Later, back at home, the thought came to me that the receptionist may have been a "closet colorer"! The child in her wanted out, but the adult in her didn't want the world to know! Just an observation. So when it came time to write another story, I decided to celebrate coloring. This story is called Eva Blue. |
