Good Morning Ladies,

This month our Featured Author and active forum member is Jane Carroll, author of Bertha-Size Your Life! Jane is a member of the NABBW, a Radio Talk-Show Host, a nurse, and also a Life Balance Coach. Wonder when she sleeps?

So let's get started with some words from Jane and give everyone time to visit her site and consider buying her novel, Bertha-Size Your Life! This is the book she'll be discussing in December. I gladly recommend this book. I loved it!

Take it away, Jane!


Hello Ladies,

I am so excited to be December’s featured author! Most of you have been getting to know me through the forum but I thought I’d give you “The rest of the story . . .”

I joined the boomer ranks back in 1954, putting me smack dab in the middle of our generation. My life has followed a similar course to many of yours. I’ve been married twice and essentially raised my two daughters on my own while working as a registered nurse.

I know what it’s like to cry myself to sleep over lost or fragile love and to laugh incessantly over nothing at all. I know what it’s like to not be able to pay the bills at the end of the month and to spend with extravagance (hence why I couldn’t pay the bills!) I know what it’s like when my girls were driving me crazy and wonder how in the world I would make it when they were gone. I’ve lived in a 100 year-old Victorian house (I prayed every night that it would still be standing in the morning) and in a brand new patio home near the beach. Somehow, during all of that I found the balance that I’m enjoying in my life today. I sold the patio home so I could leave nursing to pursue my lifelong dream of writing, coaching and motivational speaking fulltime.

I tell you all of this because these are the experiences that led to the writing of Bertha-Size Your Life! I started writing as soon as my youngest got married. It was going to be a book to encourage other women who were experiencing an empty nest and didn’t know what to do with themselves. I was actually looking forward to my years without the total responsibility for the girls, so I thought I had a lot to share. However, the book was boring, even I didn’t like it.

The character of Bertha came about as a joke between my life coach and me but BERTHA had other ideas and took over my manuscript and my life.

Bertha is the voice of wisdom in all of us…and she is never quiet, usually dispensing her wisdom from strategically located soapboxes while wearing vibrant spandex capris and high-heels. I laugh and say she’s a cross between Lucy and a talk show host.

Bertha-Size Your Life! hit the streets in October 2005. Where the Joys Are: Bertha’s Guided Journal is due out any day and the next book Putting Your Best Foot Forward: Bertha’s Guide to Life and Shoes is on my desk for editing (more like total re-writing). I have loved the entire process of writing and book signings while building a life coaching practice and speaking career. Check out my website for more details www.berthasize.com

My newest endeavor will be hosting an internet radio show Loving Life Radio Show. The show will feature anecdotes from my books and other writings as well as featured guests, all with a message of loving life in some respect. You can check it out at www.lovingliferadioshow.com

Now, for the important stuff, I’ve been a Grammy for four months to adorable Bailey Kate. What a treat! My favorite movie of all times is It’s a Wonderful Life. I love walking dogs on the beach…did we mention my love life? My favorite color is green…the shade of money. I’m a good cook, although I don’t do it very often . . . oh, wait, I got this mixed up with my personal ad . . . carry on!