Featued on The AC Daily blog

I post articles on a site called Associated Content. A fellow content producer, or CP, created a daily blog called www.TheACDaily.com which features content, tips as well as a daily interview. I was actually her first interview. Here is the link: http://theacdaily.com/?p=24.

Bylines 2008: I was chosen as one of 53 writers….

There is a really cool calendar for writers called Bylines. Each year they seek 53 writers to tell their story for use on one of the week sections. This year, the editor chose mine. I can’t wait to see what week my quote falls on!

These are all the other writers who were chosen: http://www.bylinescalendar.com/writers_links_2007.htm

Here is a description of Bylines 2008:

The 2008 edition has 53 more great stories, with writers representing 24 states and 5 foreign countries! And we have kept the same low price for 5 years!Available Now! Not your ordinary daytimer, Bylines 2008 Calendar is chock full of inspiration, humor and passion. Just the sort of thing aspiring and working writers need to read on a daily basis to keep the creative juices flowing and the angst at bay. Bylines 2008 Writer’s Desk Calendar:

-Each week features an author sharing his/her insights on the writing life.
-Ample space for jotting notes, and highlighting upcoming events on the calendar
-Weekly calendar; also a “month at a glance” view for planning longer projects

Extra Features:
-Daily listings of famous writers’ birthdays
-Handy resource list of our favorite books and writing-related websites.
-Page to designate writing goals for the year; also pages for writing monthly goals
-Listings of “literary” holidays
-Pages to write down conference notes
-An expanded resources section

Even MORE features in the 2008 edition:
-Handy submission tracker, that can be copied as needed
-pages for recording phone numbers and email addresses
-pages for keeping track of travel/business expenses

http://www.bylinescalendar.com/

My hairband article was referenced!

I’ve occasionally found some of my articles lifted online- nothing was ever done about it.

At any rate, on one of those Google alerts for my name, I came across a blogger who was writing about her new band, Hairband. She must have been researching and came across one of my articles. She cited my article, giving the definition of hairbands:

“According to Donna Talarico, the hair band classification was coined to represent the arena, glam and ballad rock groups that tore up the airwaves in the 80s – bands that looked like chics but rock like men such as Guns N’Roses, Bon Jovi, Scorpion, Cinderella…. “

I thought that was particularly cool that she cited my name– blogging sometimes gets a bad rap, but this girl must have a good teacher– “cite your sources!” Makes me proud. Here is the link to her blog: http://sueyen331.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!5CB51A3AAC3AF7EF!163.entry

Kids Have You Seen My Backpack has lots of Google and Yahoo search results!

This is a repost from my other blog. Figured it actully fit better here.

I am in a procrastinating mode so I decided to Google and search Yahoo for my book (“Kids, Have You Seen My Backpack?” and Other Inspirational Stories of Non-Traditional Students: An Adult Learner Anthology) to see what I could find. It’s been out a few years and sold a few copies, so I just like to search every now and then to see if there is anything new online about it. Here are some tidbits I found:

1) It sells for over $30 in Australia.
2) It is availabe at BooksFree.com which is like a Netflix for books. That’s pretty cool. I should join and “rent” it and write a note in it. Haha.
3) It’s used as a textbook at Drexel University for an adult learner’s program- a class called Strategies in Life Long Learning. That is awesome that the 22 people in my book get to inspire other adult learners- I want to e-mail the professor and see what kinds of assignments she has with it… that’d be cool. I’d like to try them, too! (I’m a nerd; I LOVE homework!) By the way, the Goodwin College at Drexel has, since the book came out, used book snippets as testimonials, as two of the essayists attended the evening program. Coolness. Read them here.
4) And this one- I found a few weeks ago, but figured I’d share here. I am nobody, but this guy somehow got a signed copy and it’s going for like $70. Can you believe that?! Who would by that? Haha! (Who else but me would search for that?!)
5) You can do a search by what Barnes & Noble stores have it in stock, and one on 555 5th Avenue in NYC has it! And, there is one left at the Arena Hub one too.
6) Google Books is the coolest thing- I didn’t even know this, but I guess through the publisher they have a deal to show previews… Check it out here.
7)You can do a national library search at Google Books too- my book is available at 13 that were found, from Penn State Scranton to schools in Florida, Ohio, Washington, Cali, and Colorado.

–I just get a kick out of this stuff. I don’t have a lot of money to put toward marketing my book, so this is pretty cool that it got to all these places with minimal effort- I am thinking about putting out a revised edition soon. What do you think?

Fall Issue of The Westsider

The fall issue of the Westsider is filled with lots of great stuff (as usual)- and this issue focuses a lot on the Back Mountain area of the Wyoming Valley.

The article that I contributed to this edition was “Kingston Celebrates 150 Years.” For the story I interviewed a long-time resident and Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee chairperson Sandra Kase, about all the activities surrounding this milestone.

My story starts out like this:

Atherton. Hoyt. Dorrance. Loveland. Reynolds. Butler. Bennett. Dilley. Pringle. Pierce.
When driving through the side streets of the borough of Kingston, take notice of the street signs. These street names are more than just a way to get from here or there. They are more than just a way of labeling mailing addresses for its residents and businesses. They are a tribute to the history of the borough, many of the signs bearing names of important people who founded Kingston a century and a half ago. Other streets- and landmarks are named for prominent early residents.

And, I was also the subject of an article written by Westider writer and Wilkes U. student Megan Krisanda on the Wilkes book I compiled.

For more on the Westsider, visit this cool magazine online.

Wilkes Book Featured in Citizen’s Voice

The Wilkes book got some ink! Brian Jarvis from the Wilkes-Barre Citizen’s Voice did a nice story on the Wilkes book- and Warren Ruda took a nice picture– and they layout guys did a nice job. I felt very proud!

Here is a snippet:

Donna Talarico knows Wilkes University.

Having chosen the school three times — first as a freshman, nearly a decade later to finish her undergraduate work, and now getting a master’s this fall — Talarico was an ideal candidate to ink a book aimed at giving incoming students the skinny. Though college guidebooks abound at bookstores, most don’t give the information students desire: What are the most popular classes? Are freshmen pressured to pledge fraternities or sororities? How are the surrounding neighborhoods? Does the student body have much diversity? And most important, how many females are available for each male?

Click here to read the rest of the story from today’s Citizen’s Voice

New Book: College Prowler

This post also appears on my personal blog, www.randomthoughtsfromdonna.blogspot.com.

Wilkes University: Off the Record is available for preorder.

The book is published by CollegeProwler.com. This company has a VERY cool history in itself– it was born from a college class project at Carnegie Mellon. ( www.collegeprowler.com) The company has published over 250 student-written guides that give the ‘real deal’ on colleges. I’m thrilled to the gills!!

It took about a year for them to put it out after I submitted it. A BIG HUGE thanks to Nora Jurasits and Stephanie DeBalko who served as the ‘bounce-back’ team, and are also credited in the book. They helped fact check.

The one thing that held up the process was all the edits– as we all know, Wilkes and Wilkes-Barre changed so much just in the past year that I had to add a lot of new things to the book and change many things– the Barons became the Yankees, we got a downtown theater, Barnes & Noble, a pool hall, a Bart & Urby’s, Eienstien’s and so, so much more. In a way, I am glad the book came out later that way we filled it with more cool stuff.The way the book is set up:It’s divided into about 15 sections– food, guys & gals, social life, academics, nightlife, security, etc. I begin each section with an editorial and the the rest is 3-5 pages of student quotes about each topic. I also wrote an introduction and closing statement. Each category is given a grade, which I had no say in, as they wanted it more objective (we all know how much I love Wilkes and Wilkes-Barre!)– so they looked at what I wrote, as well as the student quotes and gave it a grade. Wilkes fared pretty well in everything, except parking!

The book also has a directory of clubs, restaurants, hotels, transportation and more…Final Thoughts:I just like subheads. I don’t know why. At any rate, this is a far cry from a novel– it’s more like a compilation like “Kids, Have You Seen My Backpack.” But it’s one more publishing credit and one more way to get on Amazon.com. I am just thrilled to give back to Wilkes in this way, as they have given me so much the past ten years!