​The most important thing about Amanda – she believes everyone has a story to tell. Here’s hers!

​She loves to read and write about the important things in life on her blog – like books and boys, faith and marriage,  mom life and yoga, and much, much more.
​
Amanda also writes weekly articles for Kingdom Edge Magazine and quarterly ones for Flourish magazine. If you need inspiration, motivation, or relaxation, visit her website at https://amandaflinn.com/

When Amanda needs to think or do a little research, she goes into a savasana. That’s a yoga pose. It’s also called the corpse pose too.

Whichever it is, it’s working! Amanda has her first two children’s books coming out this year.

Savasana Photo source: By Joseph RENGER - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1728138

Part 2 – Meet Amanda’s First Three Books

​She has three books coming out in 2020, and one is already here. It’s about two of Amanda’s favorite things. Can you guess what she wrote about? Now – look below!
                                                                     

​Yep, meet YOGA BABY! What else would Amanda write about, as a mom, who’s also a big yoga lover?  Yoga makes you reach and bend, rock and sway. It’s a perfect way for a baby to connect with a busy mom.
 
Amanda’s back matter is a guide full of  tips and tricks to add yoga into your busy life as a parent.

​
Coming soon – I’m wondering what it could be . . . I love the clues . . .  like the word at the top.  It could be God. It fits with Amanda’s Christian background.
​
But I have no idea whose shoes are at the bottom. We’ll all have to wait to find out!

​


​Coming soon – I wonder – could it be  a lighthouse . . . or a  prison? I have no idea . . .  but anticipation will keep all of us waiting.

Lisa is prolific! She’s written for both magazines and newspapers, and she’s published more than 100 children’s books. That’s incredible! Her favorite writing topics are science and agriculture.   

Lisa’s knowledge and love of science led her into the perfect job, writing. She wrote for adults first and eventually found her way into children’s writing.

Today she has her dream job, reading, researching, and writing. She’s also a freelance editor and website creator. That’s how I met Lisa, she built my website back in 2016.
​
When she’s not working, Lisa  is hiking, scrapbooking, and reading some more. I told you – she’s prolific. If you’d like to read more about her, go to her website: https://www.lisaamstutz.com

Part 2 – Lisa’s Books
Don’t worry! I’m not going to write about all 100 of Lisa’s books! Instead I’m featuring her top 11 books on Amazon. Two of them are coming out later this year. If you’d like to look at the other sixteen, here’s the link:
​ https://www.amazon.com/Lisa-J-Amstutz/e/B005YHGWNI/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
​

​January 2020 – Meet the three major groups of amphibians – frogs, salamanders, and caecilians. Learn about their anatomy, behavior, and environmental needs. Then try out 30 hands-on activities in “Try This,” “Look For,” and “Listen For.” They’ll build your skills in observation and analysis, writing and drawing, math and science, and natural literacy. Lisa’s back matter includes a glossary of scientific terms, a list of amphibian orders, and a teacher’s guide to instruction. 

​Coming in August 2020 – Beginning readers can learn how to protect our planet. They’ll read about the things we’re doing that hurt the Earth, and what they can do to protect it. 

​Coming in October 2020 – This rhyming picture book is also a nonfiction story of plants and how they defend themselves. If the story is half as fun as the cover, we’re in for a treat!
 
PS- did you notice that Lisa has 3 books coming out this year? I told you, prolific!

​


​Last year in February 2019 – Kids like to build models, but models are part of the world of work. Read how scientists, architects, engineers, and artists build theirs. 

​



​Last year in February 2019 – Kids like to build models, but models are part of the world of work. Read how scientists, architects, engineers, and artists build theirs. 

​



​That same month, August  2019 – Do plants have babies? Yes they do! Young readers can find out all the different ways in this easy-to-read book. 

​A month later, September 2019 – Have you heard  about the annual bird count that’s been going on since the year 1900? This story takes a boy and his mom on the hunt. This year Grandpa had to go south for the winter, just like the birds. So if Gramps isn’t there to spot his favorite bird, a dove, his grandson hopes to spot one for him. 

PS – Were you counting? That was 4 books in 2018! Bow-wow-wow! What a year!

​From August 2017 – Have you ever wondered why tigers have stripes, or how their claws help them hunt? Read and find the answers to these questions, plus some more fascinating facts about tigers. Explore their habitat, physical characteristics, and their behavior to understand these top predators. 

​

​From August 2017 – Have you ever wondered why tigers have stripes, or how their claws help them hunt? Read and find the answers to these questions, plus some more fascinating facts about tigers. Explore their habitat, physical characteristics, and their behavior to understand these top predators. 

From August 2016 - Some scientists use the smallest building blocks in the the universe – atoms. It’s nanotechnology, and it’s found in places like advanced devices, materials, and computers. Read and discover how scientists are changing our future a few atoms at a time. 

​From August 2016 - Some scientists use the smallest building blocks in the the universe – atoms. It’s nanotechnology, and it’s found in places like advanced devices, materials, and computers. Read and discover how scientists are changing our future a few atoms at a time. 

Here’s the link to my post about Coke and covid-19. Their plastic preforms are perfect for test kits – http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/coca-cola-and-covid-reall

Use the link above with this post, and you can see how I put this post together. I hope it helps you with your next writing project.

​



Part One – Where I Went Wrong
I posted this . . . CHARLOTTE, Jun 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE via COMTEX) -- CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. (NASDAQ:COKE)

When I went back the next day, I realized what I’d written . . .  nonsense, My only excuse – it  looked good. It was all in caps – it had to be important! It wasn’t! It didn’t make the new post. That’s when I got the idea to write this post about where I went wrong, how I fixed it, and how I’d do it differently the next time I have a research-based post.

Here’s the link for my source: https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/coca-cola-bottlers-dedicate-production-capability-to-support-covid-19-test-kits-2020-06-01-818413
​
 Part 2 – Where I Got it Right
I let go of the original format. I used what I know about stories. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end. I copied a paragraph at a time from the original and pasted it where I was ready to write. I underlined the key ideas from that paragraph and put the ideas into my own words, as much as possible.

When I finished a section, I turned on narrator for Microsoft Word. Then I listened to what I wrote. That’s where the magic happens – where the words become mine, and now I’m telling you the story.
The beginning was not the announcement, that first paragraph. Find #1-2. They describe the problem, the need for preforms that fit covid-19 testing kits.

The middle stretches from #3 – 20. I put these ideas into an order that made sense to me. I wrote step by step, a paragraph at a time telling how people and businesses worked the problem and solved it. If there are mistakes, they are mine.

The new end is #21-22, but it’s the source’s beginning – the announcement. I added in a number I wanted to know – how many preforms have been produced since the announcement June 1, 2020. (The math – 8 weeks x 7 million = 56 million test kits.)

CHARLOTTE, Jun 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE via COMTEX) -- CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. (NASDAQ:COKE) today announced that ​21- Southeastern Container, a PET preform and bottle manufacturing co-operative funded and managed by a group of Coca-Cola bottlers, has begun producing test tubes for use in COVID-19 kits. Utilizing several injection molding preform tools, the manufacturing co-operative has 22- already produced over 7 million tubes for testing kits.

3- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services collaborated with Oak Ridge National Lab to identify manufacturers who could address a supply chain gap of COVID-19 test collection tubes to support the increasing testing needs of States. 4- Lonnie Love, lead scientist for Oak Ridge National Laboratory's COVID-19 advanced manufacturing initiatives said, "When the US Dept. of Health and Human Services reached out to ORNL for assistance in finding a COVID-19 test tube solution, we considered several options to help industry scale up production. 5- Through a personal connection and discussions with Coca-Cola Consolidated, we determined the preform that goes into a blow molding machine to make 6- Coca-Cola bottles looked exactly like the test tube needed for the COVID-19 testing kits.

7- At ORNL's request, Coca-Cola Consolidated provided samples of their preforms and the laboratory worked with COVID-19 testing company 12- Longhorn Vaccine-Diagnostics to confirm that the tubes met test kit criteria.

1- "There is a global shortage of cryotubes available to meet the need for our PrimeStore Molecular Transport Medium, said Dr. Luke T. Daum, Chief Scientific Officer at Longhorn Vaccines. "Coke bottlers have done what no other vialing company could do--In a few short days, they have fabricated a small, ruggedized vial from a plastic preform 2- that does not leak, is large enough to hold any swab type, and importantly, they can make millions of tubes per week," said Daum.

​13-"Within 24 hours Longhorn called us and said, "Coke is it!'" Love said. "It's this type of collaboration that shows the true impact of industry and national laboratories working together. ORNL and Coca-Cola bottlers solved a huge problem. Coca-Cola bottlers had an answer to a problem they did not know existed, and by connection with ORNL, they will now be supplying millions of preforms for COVID-19 testing kits throughout the US."

​"In every community across our country, the local Coca-Cola bottler has always been active in serving its community - and this crisis is no different," said Dave Katz, President & COO of Coca-Cola Consolidated, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the U.S. "Through a series of personal connections, we discovered the opportunity to contribute to the effort to increase COVID-19 testing capacity quickly. For over a hundred years, our family of Coca-Cola bottlers has been honing the production process to serve consumers, and we are honored and excited to pivot that expertise to helping keep Americans safe and healthy."

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory worked with Coca-Cola Consolidated 8- to determine whether soda bottle preforms, which are small plastic tubes heated and blown into a bottle shape to hold carbonated beverages, can be used as test tubes in COVID-19 kits. These kits 9- include a swab, saline solution and a plastic tube to enclose the swab during transport. Soda bottle preforms are the perfect size to hold the long COVID-19 swab. The soda bottle preforms also contain 10- a screw-top cap that is tamper-proof and safely seals the tube, preventing leakage and exposure during transport.

Once the test tubes are produced, 14- sterilization is usually required before they can be used in test kits. Sandia National Laboratories, a Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration lab with headquarters in 15- Albuquerque, N.M., is using its Gamma Irradiation Facility and a team of radiation science experts to 16- develop protocols for sterilizing the preforms without damaging the materials.

"This collaboration is going to be key for plugging gaps in the supply chain for COVID-19 tests," said 17- Randy Schunk, lead engineer for Sandia's COVID-19 advanced manufacturing projects. 19-  "Gamma irradiation is an efficient and common way to sterilize medical supplies in bulk. Sandia is 18- doing the research and development to find the right level of gamma radiation to sterilize the tubes without damaging the components, plastic or the tubes' seals.

20- Sandia's protocols will be shared with medical sterilization facilities around the country that receive tubes from Southeastern Container to sterilize.
​
11- ORNL engaged a diagnostic company, Longhorn Vaccines-Diagnostics in San Antonio, Texas to confirm that the soda bottle preforms are compatible with their COVID-19 testing systems. Five testing companies that conduct COVID-19 tests within the US are currently in line to begin using the preforms. ORNL conducted 14- additional testing on the tubes confirming that the preforms were leak proof and that bacteria growth could be prevented by heating to a high temperature or cleaning with an ethanol solution.

The preforms will be manufactured by Southeastern Container (SEC), based in North Carolina, which is a co-operative funded and managed by a group of Coca-Cola bottlers. SEC can produce over 7 million test tubes per week, helping to reach US testing goals.
​
ORNL's collection tube manufacturing research efforts are conducted in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and funded in part by the DOE Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of DOE national laboratories focused on response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES Act.

Source:https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/coca-cola-bottlers-dedicate-production-capability-to-support-covid-19-test-kits-2020-06-01-818413

                                                                   Part I – The Beginning of a Story - The Problem
​I found this story when I was watching local news, channel 6 WAITE in Knoxville. The story – how Coca-Cola is fighting Covid-19. Coke! I was hooked!

​All stories start with a problem, and this one was global – a shortage of test tubes for Covid-19 testing. How could test tubes ever be a world-wide problem?
​
These tubes are special. They start life as plastic preforms, small plastic tubes that are heated and blown into shape. But there’s more . . .  They can’t leak. They have to be large enough to hold any size swab, and millions must be made every week. It’s a BIG problem!

​   Part 2 – The Middle – Step 1

​This could be a set of Covid-19 tests. Do you see the swab and the vial? Back in May there were not enough test kits around, and something had to be done.

The US Department of Health and Human Services reached out to the Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), which is near Knoxville, Tennessee. They talked to Lonnie Love, the lead coronavirus scientist, about options.
​
​Step 2    Lonnie knew the people at Coke, and talked to them about what they needed. They decided the preform from Coke looked like a perfect match for the testing kit. 

​  Step 3 Lonnie and ORNL asked Coke for preform samples, like that first tube. They worked together to decide if the preform test tubes could be used in the kits.

Look above at the kits again. Those packages include the swab, saline solution, and the test tube. The tubes have to be big enough for the swabs to fit inside, and the cap has to seal on top. Coke’s do!
​
Coke preforms have a screw-top lid that’s tamper-proof, and it seals so there won’t be any leaks.

Step 4 Lonnie’s team checked out the preforms first. Then they picked Longhorn Vaccines-Diagnostics in San Antonio, Texas to do more testing.

Lonnie wanted Longhorn to double check to make sure the preform met all their requirements. They’re one of the five companies that make covid-19 tests.
​
Step 5 Within 24 hours, Lonnie got a call from Longhorn. They said, “Coke is it!”

​Step 6 Lonnie’s team did another set of tests to make sure the preforms were leak proof. They also made sure bacteria couldn’t grow inside. How? They either heated them to a high temperature, or cleaned them in an ethanol solution. Ethanol is a grain alcohol.
​
Step 7 Lonnie also reached out to Sandia National Laboratories to work on sterilizing the preforms. It has to be done before they can be used in testing kits.

Sandia uses Gamma Irradiation for sterilization. It’s the best way to safely and economically sterilize huge amounts of medical equipment. Randy Schunk led the Sandia engineering team. Their job – to figure out the right amount of gamma rays. Enough to sterilize the tubes, but not so much that it damaged the preforms, their caps, and their contents. Then they’d be useless.

​ 
Look at the Y line. It shows how gamma radiation works. The waves can travel through paper and aluminum, but only a third of them can make it through lead or concrete.
 
STEP 8 Sandia’s job is to figure out the right amount of gamma radiation to clean the preforms but not damage them. They’ll share their results with the other companies around the country who sterilize the coke preforms.   

​
Step 10 That was 8 weeks ago. Since then they have produced 56 million tubes for covid-19 kits.

Thanks to Coke, the US Department of Health and Human Services, Oak Ridge, Longhorn, and Sandia working together, 56 million people have been able to find out whether they’re positive or negative for covid-19. Each of these companies must feel proud of what they’ve done for their family, friends, communities, and country, and I’m proud of them. I hope you are too!

My Main Source for this Post
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/coca-cola-bottlers-dedicate-production-capability-to-support-covid-19-test-kits-2020-06-01-818413
Other sources
1. https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/covid-19-test-tubes-shortage-coca-cola-bottlers-offer-a-solution
2. https://www.beveragedaily.com/Article/2020/06/02/Coca-Cola-starts-producing-test-tubes-for-coronavirus-testing-kits
3. https://www.vendingtimes.com/news/coke-bottlers-produce-test-materials-for-covid-19-kits/
4. https://www.fb101.com/2020/06/coca-cola-bottlers-dedicate-production-capability-to-support-covid-19-test-kits/
 

I wonder if that’s why someone invented the TILE.  They needed it, and so did I.  I wrote about it back on July 22, 2018. I titled the post Lost . . . and Found. Here’s the link: http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/lostand-found

Part 1 – What Worked!
Back then I kept losing things, like my keys or my purse.
​
Do you see the tile on my key ring? I haven’t lost them since. If they’re not where I think they are, I pull out my phone, click on the link for my keys, and wait for them to sing. The song usually comes from the depths of my purse.
​
Do you see it in the cosmetics bag? I always keep it in my purse. I haven’t lost it since, thanks to my tile.

Part 2 – What Didn’t!
Look below. I used all three of these things back in 2018. The Tiles workd, but not perfectly. When I’m not satisfied, I edit till I am . . .  or till I think of something better.
​
I glued my first tile onto my Kindle. It worked . . . till the battery died. I ripped it off, and it left a hole in Van Gogh’s STARRY Night. I fixed it by taping on the next tile. That worked until the mailing tape got gross. I think I changed it two or three times  . . . till I thought of something better. Tomorrow I’ll tell you my invention.

The bag in the middle was my subbing survival kit. I kept kleenexes and mints inside for when my allergies flared up. It helped at the lake with pollen too, and that’s where I lost it! I looked everywhere but my tile refused to sing. Maybe my signal couldn’t reach it, or maybe someone threw it away. Either way, it’s time to try something new!

Last year another problem cropped up. I needed my phone  to track steps, but I couldn’t remember to carry it with me. Time for a new idea.  
​
Tomorrow – I’ll share my three new solutions. Necessity might be the mother of invention, but  I think it’s related to creativity too!
​

​New Idea #2 – Wear it Around Your Neck
​​I  have a new phone and a new way to keep track of it. Can you guess what it is?

​I found my bag online. Soon I’ll have it in three more colors. I can’t wait! I love when my accessories and clothes match.
​

                                                              New Idea #3 – Attach it to Your Lapboard
This is my laptop. I work on a lapboard so I can take my computer where ever I want. It’s lovely! I can work in a car, or on my couch in Ohio, or Tennessee. Anywhere, even outside! But, when my work started moving around with me, that’s when a problem popped up.
​
My mouse, the computer kind, would slide off my board and hit the floor. Then the back would pop open, and the batteries would roll every which way. I’d search, but they always found the most difficult place to hide. I bet if you look carefully you’ll see my solution.

Did you guess those three things at the edge of the lapboard? They’re actually pencil holders, and they work!

I found the idea at CVS when I had to sign my receipt. They had a pen in a holder to keep it in place. I thought about it. Then I wondered, could it work on my lapboard? It has! For 3 or 4 years! But then I found a problem – isn’t there always a problem? Can you guess what it is?

It’s the top!  Occasionally the mouse slides off, but not often. If I redid my board, I’d add another holder at the top. But then I’d have to move the bottom red one down, probably an inch or two. Before pasting, I’d play with my mouse to make sure I allowed plenty of room.
​
Sometimes, the way it is, I don’t have enough room. I have to pick up the mouse. Then I can move the arrow to the right spot. That’s why editing is a GREAT THING! Take your time! Editing pays you BIG dividends!!

How can you learn to listen to mother and her necessities? You need to look at problems as opportunities. I pulled up this photo so you can look at the necklace.

Do you see the octopus? That’s easy! But look closer . . . closer . . . can you see what the octopus once was?

If you guessed a fork, you have problem-solving eyes. So does Karen from Yellow Cat Spoon Jewelry. She turns old silverware into amazing things. If you start looking around and thinking about what something could be, you’ll learn to think like Karen. If you’d like to check out her jewelry, head into Riverside Art Center in Wapakoneta, OH. You can also find her at this link:
​
https://www.facebook.com/Yellow-Cat-spoon-jewelry-205504649471296/

Meet the designer of NEIL’s book trailer, Anthony Jones. He just finished his junior year at Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio. I think he did an incredible  job on my  trailer, and I believe great things are ahead for him. I’m hoping I can schedule him to do the trailer for LAKE FUN.

I wanted to feature Anthony in an interview, so here are my questions, and his answers!

​1. Here’s a toughie to start you off! Describe your style in ten words or less!
 
Anything that makes me happy and feel like a kid.
(I try to stay attached to my childhood)  
 
2.   Can you tell us about your creative work space with us and talk us through what your typical day at work there consists of?
 
This also relates to the idea in the first question about me being inspired by the things that make me happy and feel like a kid. I surround myself with items that I feel nostalgic for.
 
I’ve been collecting retro electronics for a long while now, it’s just something that I really enjoy doing. Learning about the history of a certain video game or a piece of audio equipment is just something that peaks my interests. This is also because of the media I grew up on. I had my Dad’s old game consoles to play and the cartoons I watched would reference a lot of the culture from the late 70’s to the early 90’s. So oddly enough, I’m nostalgic for these items that were before my time because I still grew up with them or would learn about them.
 
It would probably be best to start with my game room, which also serves as my main editing room. I took over this room in my house in 2013 and wanted to make it into a place where I could store all of my video games, in a way that when I had people over it would be impressive and cool. When I started to get into video creation with my dad, we decided to put the computer upstairs and it has always been the same since. I’m definitely starting to outgrow the space, especially with its height, though I definitely can look back on many great memories over the 7 years.
 
My second place of work would be my bedroom, where I have an old computer setup that I started to learn music making on. I would like to combine these two setups into an all in one soon, that way it raises my productivity in both areas giving me a faster computer for making music and a better sound system to help with editing audio for my videos.  
 
3.  I know doing the trailer was pretty great, but what would be your ultimate dream project?
 
I don’t know if I have one ultimate dream project, but I have more of a bucket list. My goal is to go into video and audio editing, and to respect all of my childhood dreams I would like to do this job in various media, such as Cartoons, Movies, and Video Games. I remember when I was around 6 years old and I wanted to make video games, and I remember when I was 10 and I wanted to make cartoons. Most recently with getting into video editing and the idea of making movies, I realized that this role can fit into all of those categories, which seems really neat.  
 
4. Where do you want to be in a year? In 5 years?
 
In a year, and it’s hard to wish this because of the amount of variables that this year has created, I hope to be living in California. I hope that I either find a good school or just make due with home schooling and use the extra time to make videos. I hope that my dream college/university accepts me. In 5 years I hope to then graduate from that same college, and either find a great job in the industry working for a company or freelance and try to make a name for myself to work for many different places.  
  
5. Tell me 3 fun facts about yourself!
 
I’m surprisingly (surprising to myself) good at the puzzle video game Tetris. I’m trying to self-teach piano, a little bit more of the harder stuff now that I’ve got some of the basics. One thing that I have not collected yet is vintage computers, and I would love to own an old IBM computer.
 
Here’s the link to Anthony’s trailer for NEIL ARMSTRONG’S WIND TUNNEL DREAM. It’s on my book link. Enjoy!  Link:   http://www.rindabeach.com/books-775072.html
​

​Part 1 – The Wrong Way to Find Them
The images I use on my posts are half the story. Tonight I’m taking you behind the scenes. I didn’t know back when I wrote my first blog  in November of 2016 that you have to be careful where you get your images.

​Do you remember the Great American Eclipse? It happened on August 21, 2017. I wrote a post about it. Back then I used Bing to find images. That’s where I looked as a teacher, then as a new writer. I loved my images . . . until I got caught.
​
It seems like sometime in March of 2018 I got a letter from a group of lawyers.YIKES!  I opened it up and  saw . . .  one of the images from my eclipse post. DOUBLE YIKES!!

​This isn’t that image. The original was way better! It featured the Trump family – Donald, Melania, and Barron. They were standing on a White House balcony, wearing the special eclipse glasses to see the event safely. The photo was copyrighted to a French source.

​
I live in Wapakoneta, Ohio. I couldn’t believe someone in France could find me! It was actually a legal team with a great search engine. They stated in simple legal terms what I needed to do to clean this up.
​
I’m a retired teacher, and I don’t make money on my blog. I thought I was immune, but I’d been warned about this by writing friends. I looked at the letter again. I knew I’d done something wrong, and this time I couldn’t ignore it. So I called the number, confessed, and asked for mercy. 

​The legal team asked for two things. 1 – I had to pull down the image from my blog. That was easy. 2 – I had to pay a fine. That was harder. BUT, I confessed my error, and my fine was cut in half. Thank goodness!

I spent part of a year dreading the mailbox because I could have had more fines. I took a chance – I didn’t change the other images on my blog, but I would have if I’d gotten another legal letter, or two.
​
But, I did learn from my mistake. I only use public domain pictures or my own now. I advise you to do the same, but it’s your choice. You’re allowed  to learn from your mistakes, but it’s not fun. Not at all!

                    Part 2- My Biggest Source of Pictures – Look What I Found, With a Little Searching
Have you heard of Pixabay? If you haven’t, you need to check it out! Every picture is public domain, and that means they’re all FREE! I gave myself a research project for this section. I did a post about my mother, the bird lover. She named a few of the birds she’d seen. But about a week later, she wrote out a full list of her winter birds, with a brief description. I found all of their pictures on Pixabay, except one.

You can google Pixabay, or use this link: https://pixabay.com/
​
Here’s my link for my mother’s post if you’d like to read it: http://www.rindabeach.com/blog/my-mother-the-bird-lover

I couldn’t remember when I wrote it so I checked my Pinterest Boards. If you have research to do, you can check it too. Here’s the link: https://www.pinterest.com/rindabeach/boards/
​

My first problem, the bird doesn’t exist, but, there is a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. I clicked the link and found this image on Wikipedia. It’s Public Domain and FREE!

Sometimes Wikipedia asks you to attribute the source, and sometimes they don’t. This one did:
​
By Steve Maslowski - Cropped from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library System, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48297
​
Article Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby-throated_hummingbird#:~:text=The%20ruby-throated%20hummingbird%20is%20migratory%2C%20spending%20most%20of,Panama%20or%20Mexico%20to%20the%20eastern%20United%20States.
​

​Remember those first 4 birds from Pixabay? One is in that first picture. It looks ruby red to me so I wondered if it could be my mother’s bird.

​​​My source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufous_hummingbird
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​These pictures were taken by my sister-in-law two years ago when she came to the lake. The first one is the view from our dock. I know! Gorgeous!It became the background for many of the illustrations in LAKE FUN FOR YOU AND ME. 

The second one’s our house and dock. I love to stay here. It’s gorgeous, and so peaceful! It’s my favorite place to write. I bet you could too! It’s easy to be inspired with this kind of view.
Both photos were digitally manipulated to look like illustrations. That’s what makes LAKE FUN so special!
 

Some pictures I take myself. They’re of the things happening around me that I want to share with you. These two found their way into my first book, NEIL ARMSTRONG’S WIND TUNNEL DREAM. I needed them for the back matter. Their job is to help you build your own wind tunnel. 

BTW – if you know someone who has to do a science fair project, this is a great one. I googled and found this wind tunnel on Instructables.com. Goalie Guy made the original one for his 7th grade science project.
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I asked to use his photos, but I didn’t need them. I’m a writer so I wound up editing his project to make it simpler. To say thank you for his help, I sent him a copy of NEIL as a gift. I discovered that Goalie Guy graduated from college last year. This year he was busy on the job designing and building robots. WOW!
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​​​I write a book review for every post you see. I try to pick a book that matches the post. Where do I find the covers? Amazon!

I haven’t had to worry about copyright. Tomorrow I’ll write and post my review for BORN TO FLY  on My Reads. I’ll also copy and paste it onto Amazon. Then I submit it for acceptance.

I’ve never had one rejected, but maybe they accept them all. I usually get an email the next morning telling me that my review was accepted and posted.
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PS- If I can’t give a book 4 or 5 stars on Amazon, I won’t review it. I can only think of one book from My Reads that had a 4. I only picked it because it fit the post. Every other book has gotten a 5. That’s because I keep a reading journal. It has  295 picture books and  110 chapter books, for now.

PPS- I started the journal in 2011 because of something I heard from a panel of agents. They said if they’re interested in you, they’ll ask what you’re reading. I knew I’d never remember titles or authors so I started the journal. It’s helped me with My Reads. Maybe someday it’ll help me find an agent for my writing.

My official bio, from when I was #On the Scene in 20 1 9: Rinda was a second-grade teacher who read and told stories, until she met a bat in Germany. She learned to edit, thanks to SCBWI classes and critique partners. Rinda substitutes to stay connected to the kids she wants to write for. She established Beach Girl Press to publish her first book, NEIL ARMSTRONG’S WIND TUNNEL DREAM.
 
This year I added: Now she has a second one, LAKE FUN FOR YOU AND ME. Visit her blog and book review at www.rindabeach.com And I’m one of the 2020PB Stars

photographed. It’s more natural for me to grit my teeth than smile. but this photo was important. When you open my web site, it’s your introduction to me.
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So I googled smiling instructions. My husband took a shot, but we flunked! My web designer asked me to retake them. I roped my daughter into a few shots, and somehow, she got me to relax and smile. It was almost painless for both of us. ​

A Lake Photo Shoot:  Thank goodness my daughter was at the lake. It was perfect timing. She took one look at my hair and knew I was up to something. When I’m at the lake, I put my hair up in a messy bun. It’s easy to do, easy to fix, and it’s not in the picture. This is my new cover shot. We retook it the next day. That’s when I discovered my arms looked like chicken wings in the original. YUCK!

This was another original shot from that first day. I loved my arms and smile, but I couldn’t use it as a cover shot. There’s no book!

But it gave me an idea. I practiced holding the book with my arms looking like human ones. It worked! My daughter got the shot, without the chicken arms.
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There’s only one difference that no one will ever know, but us. The originals were taken down at the boat dock. The new cover shot was taken from the deck, but it’s still at the lake.

​This is the last shot my daughter took. I wanted one with me reading at the lake. This one’s good, but not great.

​Why? I was half-laughing when we took it. That’s good, but I wanted to look up in the shot at you. It’s close, but not quite perfect. I always try for perfection, but this was good enough for one blog post.
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I’m sharing it with you because I love to read like this – on my kindle. I pick books and load them onto it. Would you believe that I’m holding 274 books in my hands? Technology is amazing!

​This is my first published book. I self-published it last May. Here’s its blurb from Amazon –

Most people know that Neil Alden Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon, but very few know how it all started . . .  with a dream to build his own wind tunnel.

Read how Neil’s love of planes took him from the Cleveland air races at age two to the Wright Brothers’ wind tunnel at age sixteen. Discover how Neil made his wind tunnel dream come true.

Read the back matter to find the facts behind this story. Continue on to build your own wind tunnel and conduct your own experiments so you can study the wind, just like Neil did.
 
I got the idea for this book when I met a small piece of Neil’s original wind tunnel in his museum in Wapak. My proudest moment – A NASA scientist wrote on the back of my book, and on Amazon too, that this was a book for young people. I hope that’s you!

This is my newest book. It came out last month, in May of 2020. Here’s the blurb I posted on Amazon:

This book is part story – part souvenir. Follow Zoe and her family on their lake vacation on the left side of each page. On the right side, there’s room to record your own lake vacation story. When Mom reveals Lake Hunt Fun, the adventures begin. Maddie, Nick, and Zoe explore the lake while they look for answers to Mom’s questions. The more answers they find, the more points they earn towards winning a prize. Zoe is the youngest in the family, but she’s determined to beat her older sister and brother. Read along as she records her answers on the right side. That’s also where you’ll start your own Lake Hunt Fun. There’s room for you to write, room for you to illustrate your own adventures. You can draw and color them in, or paste in family pictures and postcards. You’ll be my co-author and illustrator. Either way you’ll have two stories in one book. Happy reading, writing, and illustrating!

This book came from my lake, Norris. The cover is the view from our dock. Look inside – can you find my house? Lake Fun is full of all the things my family did at the lake, except – have a treasure hunt. Maybe someday I’ll do that with my granddaughter!
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My favorite part of the book – you can write and draw your own adventure at a lake. It doesn’t have to be Norris! If you do, please email! I’d love to hear about your lake adventures!

This is the main character from a story I’ve worked on since 2011. Her name, Poppy Minor. I’ve had lots of great comments about her story, lots of great suggestions. But I’ve never gotten it quite right. Maybe this spring I will.
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In mid-April Callie Metler-Smith from Writing Magic started advertising a class, Write Your Own Book Now. It was a little pricey for me, so I asked a few questions before making a decision. 
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​My first question – which story to work on? Callie did a free conference for anyone considering her class. I was torn between two ideas. A new picture book or good old Poppy Minor. Callie suggested Poppy.  
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The WRITE YOUR BOOK class was scheduled to run for nine weeks, from May 1 through June 29. Callie thought I’d grow more as a writer from working on  Poppy.

​I can write a picture book in a week or two, but it takes a year to work out the bugs, to make every word count, to make it submission ready.
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Callie was right. My chapter book is a better fit for her class. Poppy’s middle grade story is 30 chapters long. When I did the math, I could do 3 chapters a week and still finish on time. 

This is Queen Antinet, another character from Poppy Minor’s story. If you’d like a coloring page of my favorite ants, click on this link: http://www.rindabeach.com/for-kids.html

I’m on week 6 for this class. I should be on chapter 18 by the end of the week. I’m working on 13/14, so I’m a little behind, but I’m in the ballpark.
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I have learned a lot from this class. The plot is working, so far. When I finish the whole book, I’ll go back and do some character building in the first 5 chapters. Five ants appear repeatedly. They each need to have their own voice, their own unique character. Sounds easy, but it’s hard to do. I’m learning!

​​I've worked on characterization since chapter 5, and I must be getting better because Callie hasn’t left notes about it for a while.

I plan to finish 13 & 14 tomorrow. My next goal is chapter 18 by Sunday. If I fall short, I won’t worry. It’s OK. My best is all I can do. I’ll just set a new goal to keep me moving toward the final deadline, the first week of July.

PS – I’ll update this post in July to let you know if I finished on time. I’ll also let you know what my next step will be. Poppy has waited a long time to go out on submission again, and I want her in top writing shape.
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​If you’d like to learn more about Callie, my writing mentor, here’s the link to her website: http://www.calliemetlersmith.com/

​​Part 1 – This was me at the Mazza Museum on March 1st. It was a lovely day. Crowds enjoyed what this museum had to offer. It was their last open house before the Coronavirus shut everything down.

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Mazza isn’t an ordinary museum. It’s extraordinary! It’s a museum just for picture book illustrations. I am not, nor will I ever illustrate them so I was thrilled to be invited to share NEIL ARMSTRONG’S WIND TUNNEL DREAM.
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I brought my wind tunnel along. These kids were kind enough to get their pictures taken. I wish I had one when the wind tunnel was in action. Those kids were so excited to see it work. It was that way with every single kid who stopped to see it in action. 

​Part 2 – This is my wind tunnel on the dining room table. It’s almost as long as the table is. When kids stopped for a demonstration, I had them look at the red shape first, then peek in the window. 

​Look in the window below, and you’ll see a model airplane. It has a stick running through it. That’s to hold the model in place. It’s anchored in a cup of sand.

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The red shape is a digital scale. When kids came over, I turned it on. The scale always started at 10 units, the weight of the sand/model. Then I reset it to 0, and took the kids to the end of the tunnel. 

​Not the one with the fan. I took them to the opposite end. It’s open. You can look down the tunnel past the model and into those black tubes. They’re really used in golf bags. You stick your club inside to protect them. 

​I had them look down the tunnel, then we went back to the scale.  I told them to watch its numbers as I turned on the fan. ​

Every single time I turned on the fan, the number dropped below 0. Sometimes it went down to -2, to -5, even to -10. Then I asked the key question – what happened? How could the plane weigh less after I turned on the fan? The weight of the plane and sand never changed.
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Part 3 – The answer in one word – LIFT! Did you figure it out? A first-grader did. He said, “The wind lifted the plane.” He saw it and explained it in simple clear words.
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Here’s mine. It’s a little more complicated – when the plane lifted up, it shifted its weight up too, so the scale went down. It was an example of Newton’s law of motion in action – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The plane goes up, and the scale goes down. Simple physics! 

​​I think Neil would have loved seeing another wind tunnel in action. I hope I learned enough from researching Neil and wind tunnels to do a good job answering that first grader in March, and to write about it tonight. Wouldn’t it be lovely if that first grader, or a blog reader, wound up working in the space program? What a lovely dream!

​ Part 4 – The Mazza set up.  I came in and got my station ready first. Then I took a walk around the building to see what the museum was going to offer its guests. There was an amazing range of activities,

​ I couldn’t leave my station, but I saw so many kids and their parents around me having a wonderful day, thanks to the Mazza volunteers. 
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​​​This activity came from The University of Findlay College of Sciences. They took up half the room beside me with table after table set up like these two. Whenever I peeked over, I saw families engaged in science experiments. My only regret – I didn’t get to ask or try out their activities. I was curious before the kids got there, and I was still curious after they left.

​This is a Rainy Day Craft, thanks to the University of Findlay Japanese Student. It’s so simple and cute. I think I could make it at home. I bet you could too!

​This was one of the most popular places to visit, Pawsible Angels Therapy Dogs. Who doesn’t love dogs, and these two were so well trained!

​Yum! They had snacks too! Rain drops and ice. And books, of course!
Mazza is a Picture Book Illustration Museum.

​And best of all, I’m not an illustrator, but Neil and I were welcome too!
It was a thrilling day!