Hello everyone! I would like to introduce, Deborah Heal. Please give her a warm welcome to the blog. She is a fellow author and she decided to pop in and give us a guest post! (I hope you can see it. It is definitely smaller print than I am used to posting, but with the html it is difficult to resize.) As you know, I post quite a bit about great teachers. It sounds like she had a "Be Great" teacher. Please read her story here!
If You Can Read This, Thank Your Teacher This fall the constant back-to-school sales hype hasn’t been as annoying as usual. Instead, it got me thinking back on my own school days. I hope and pray that all children everywhere have at least one 
teacher as great as my eighth grade English teacher Ruth Fite. She was not the smiley, gooey-sweet sort that gives stickers to everyone one no matter how slipshod the work. She was tough. She didn’t allow any slacking. We WOULD learn how to diagram sentences if it killed us. And you know what they say about that which doesn’t kill us—yes, it made me a stronger writer. But the trade-off for all that hard work came when we got to write stories. I actually wrote my magnus opus there in Mrs. Fite’s class. It was a story about a person being wrongfully incarcerated in a mental hospital. (The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest stole my idea or I would be a rich and famous author today.) I felt pretty good about how my story turned out, and that was its own reward. But I also got a red star at the top and Mrs. Fite’s words, 
Deborah Heal, the author of the Time and Again time-travel mystery series, was born not far from the setting of Every Hill and Mountain and grew up “just down the road” from the setting of Time and Again and Unclaimed Legacy. Today she lives with her husband in Waterloo, Illinois, where she enjoys reading, gardening, and learning about regional history. She has three grown children, four grandchildren, and two canine buddies Digger and Scout. She loves to interact with her readers, who may learn more about the history behind the books at her website www.deborahheal.com and her Facebook author page. Her books may be purchased in paper and ebook formats at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com. (Pssst! Unclaimed Legacy is on sale for your Kindle--only 99 cents until the end of September. [caption id="attachment_1616" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
These are my literary babies. I'm expecting another due in the winter.[/caption]
teacher as great as my eighth grade English teacher Ruth Fite. She was not the smiley, gooey-sweet sort that gives stickers to everyone one no matter how slipshod the work. She was tough. She didn’t allow any slacking. We WOULD learn how to diagram sentences if it killed us. And you know what they say about that which doesn’t kill us—yes, it made me a stronger writer. But the trade-off for all that hard work came when we got to write stories. I actually wrote my magnus opus there in Mrs. Fite’s class. It was a story about a person being wrongfully incarcerated in a mental hospital. (The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest stole my idea or I would be a rich and famous author today.) I felt pretty good about how my story turned out, and that was its own reward. But I also got a red star at the top and Mrs. Fite’s words, “Be sure to give me a signed copy of your first book!”
She probably didn’t realize how important those words were. For all I know, she wrote them on dozens of papers. But those words changed the way I thought about myself and gave me the courage to try. They ignited a dream I never forgot. And so I dedicated my first book to her. Unfortunately, Mrs. Fite was no longer with us when Time and Again came out. But I think she knows. If you have a great teacher like Mrs. Fite in your life, be sure to thank him or her. For after all, you never know how inspiring your words might be to them as well.
Deborah Heal, the author of the Time and Again time-travel mystery series, was born not far from the setting of Every Hill and Mountain and grew up “just down the road” from the setting of Time and Again and Unclaimed Legacy. Today she lives with her husband in Waterloo, Illinois, where she enjoys reading, gardening, and learning about regional history. She has three grown children, four grandchildren, and two canine buddies Digger and Scout. She loves to interact with her readers, who may learn more about the history behind the books at her website www.deborahheal.com and her Facebook author page. Her books may be purchased in paper and ebook formats at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com. (Pssst! Unclaimed Legacy is on sale for your Kindle--only 99 cents until the end of September. [caption id="attachment_1616" align="aligncenter" width="300"] These are my literary babies. I'm expecting another due in the winter.[/caption] I hope you all take a moment to check out Deborah's books and see how her English teacher inspired her. Deborah, thank you for popping in and sharing with us!
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