The right friends will help you thrive and succeed in life while the wrong friends can get you killed. Friendshifts will show you how to recognize the difference between healthy and destructive friendships as well as how to develop and maintain those friendships that will contribute to a longer, happier, and more successful life. Friendshifts, the word coined by friendship expert and sociologist Dr. Jan Yager, explains how friendships shift as we go from one stage in our life to another. The variety of roles we play throughout our lives - as student, worker, boss, spouse, or parent - changes, shifting the role that friendship plays.
I wrote a novel when I was ten and a full-length play when I was thirteen. In junior high school and high school, first a reporter and then a reporter as well as feature editor of the school newspapers. I began researching my first nonfiction book while still a junior in college. In a public speaking class, I decided to research the history of vegetarianism for my topic. The research was totally engrossing and it led my around the world -- to India, Germany, England, and other countries in Europe -- and it took me eight years till that first book was published by Scribner's when I was twenty-six years old. I love to read as well as write; I love to go to the theatre (as well as write plays), go to the movies (as well as write screenplays), and travel. I love people so it's hard for me to put the hours in that writing and rewriting requires but I do it because I have a need to share with others through my writings -- books, articles, and poems. My plays and screenplays are yet to be produced but I know someday it will happen.
I'm often asked what is my favorite book that I've written? That's a tough question to answer because each book represents a very special and powerful experience for me, from my five year study of crime victims, which led to VICTIMS (published by Scribner's) to my trilogy of friendship books: FRIENDSHIFTS: THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP AND HOW IT SHAPES OUR LIVES (published by Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc.) which led to interviews on OPRAH, THE VIEW, TODAY SHOW, EARLY SHOW, SUNDAY MORNING, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, and other programs; WHEN FRIENDSHIP HURTS (Simon & Schuster, Inc., Fireside), which led to major TV interviews AND author tours in the U.S. PLUS Australia and New Zealand for the Finch Publishing edition (Australian) of the book; and WHO'S THAT SITTING AT MY DESK? WORKSHIP, FRIENDSHIP, OR FOE? (published by Hannacroix Creek Books), on work and friendship.
I enjoy hearing from readers even though a personal reply can't be guaranteed.
My academic credentials include a Ph.D. in sociology from The City University of New York, an M.A. in criminal justice from Goddard College, and a year of graduate work in art therapy at Hahnemann Medical College. In addition to writing, I am a professional speaker as well as a coach. I have been speaking, or conducting workshops, since my mid-twenties before a variety of corporate, association, and government agencies, companies, or meetings. My topics include time management -- I'm author of three books on time management including WORK LESS, DO MORE (Sterling, 2008), CREATIVE TIME MANAGEMENT FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM (Hannacroix Creek Books, 1999), and CREATIVE TIME MANAGEMENT (Prentice-Hall, 1984)-- business protocol (BUSINESS PROTOCOL, Wiley, 1991; 2nd edition, Hannacroix Creek Books, 2001); friendship (books noted above); and work relationships.
Although the majority of my books are nonfiction, I've also had my fiction published including two suspense novels co-authored with Fred Yager: UNTIMELY DEATH and JUST YOUR EVERYDAY PEOPLE. I look forward to the publication of my first solo novel at some point.
I have had one or multiple nonfiction and fiction books translated into more than twenty languages; it's wonderful and rewarding to know that readers around the world are discovering my books.
Writing a book is hard work but it is very rewarding and I feel privileged and honored to be a book author. Each new book publication is exhilarating and exciting.
I'm also working fulltime as Director of Publicity and Subsidiary & Foreign Rights for a dynamic new publishing company. It's very rewarding to use what I've learned through my various jobs in publishing over the years -- first at Macmillan, followed by Grove, and then running my own small press as well as being a published author with several excellent houses -- to help a new company and its authors and books to obtain broadcast or print publicity as well as subsidiary or international publishing opportunities.
Although authors are, of course, crucial, readers are key as well. Whether you read a book by borrowing it from the library, excerpts or the whole book for free on the Internet or your mobile phone, or you buy it to read and add to your personal or professional library, or to give it as a gift, I thank you for your interest in reading and books, my own, of course, included!
