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"Okay, so I don't get a lot of sleep. I've always been like this --- busy finding ways to help others promote their dreams. I've learned that I'm here to open doors. I'm guilty of loving life and liking people just as they are. That's why I was an educator for 25 years. That's why as a book publisher I published 95+ titles for authors all over the world in just 7 years. That's why I've been hosting a radio talk show for authors over the past 5 years. It's all about helping others check another item off their bucket lists. I have a few more things to do before I move on, too. So, enjoy my art, music and books. May they ring a bell for you."
RADIO TALK SHOW / HOT BOOKS --- GREAT AUTHORS
Listen to HOT BOOKS --- GREAT AUTHORS. This show is fun and information rich, but the pace is fast and focused on the books. Why? To sell books! To appear as a guest on the show, just click on the Radio Show Sign Up link on this page, complete the booking form to let Valerie know you'd like to appear on HOT BOOKS --- GREAT AUTHORS. You'll hear back quickly.
BOOKS/PUBLISHING/AUTHOR
In 2003, Valerie founded Nightengale Press, now part of Nightengale Media LLC. As a book publisher, she has helped over 70 authors from all over the US, Canada, Australia and Europe bring their books to life, and if you want more information about this revolutionary publishing firm, go to www.nightengalepress.com or www.nightengalepublishing.com for more information. Valerie has authored four titles herself, two novels, a children’s book and a myth-busting guide to the book publishing industry. Recently, she brought together twenty authors to develop The ART of Grandparenting, which is an anthology of letters to newbie grandparents about Loving, Spoiling, Teaching and Playing with your Grandkids, as the subtitle states. Available at www.theartofgrandparenting.com and www.grandparentingbook.com.
ART
Valerie founded BlockArt Prints Inc, in the mid-1990’s, and created hundreds of custom-designed, hand-carved block printed images for greeting cards and note cards for Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo and Lincoln Park Zoo, American Express, NASCI, and many small and medium-sized businesses in the Chicago area. She patented the Glowbox, which is an illuminated box that holds interchangeable panels of these images. In 1999, she began painting again and in the intervening ten years, has created a large portfolio of work, STRANGER IN THE WILDERNESS, which continues to expand monthly. The GALLERY here shows the breadth of her paintings, and both originals and prints are available for sale online and directly from the artist. Commissions welcome.
MUSIC
From her earliest memories, Valerie has loved music. She studied piano for seventeen years, voice for five years, learned to play guitar, and has been composing songs since she was fourteen years old. She has written over a hundred copyrighted songs, is a member of ASCAP since 1988, performed in Chicago and all over the Midwest, as well as in England as a young woman. She collaborated on and promoted a full musical (Nothing Is Ours but Time 1996), recorded two albums in the 1990’s, and continues to write songs and instrumental music today.
EDUCATOR
Valerie started her teaching career in 1969 in Togo, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She taught English as a Second Language (ESL) there for two years. She returned to the United States, earned her Masters Degree at Northwestern University in 1981, and taught French Language and Literature from 1974 – 2005 in public high schools, middle schools and community colleges in the north-suburban area of Chicago for twenty-five years. She also taught ESL to immigrant adults in the early 2000’s. She was nominated to the Who’s Who in Education five times during her teaching career, and was elected Teacher of the Year by Phi Kappa Delta, receiving the OUTSTANDING EDUCATOR AWARD 2005, in Recognition for Extraordinary Dedication, Commitment and Service to Education.
INTERNATIONAL TRAVELER
Valerie has traveled extensively in France, Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Spain, West Africa, and Iran. She traveled in England as a teen. She joined the Peace Corps and lived in Togo, West Africa right after graduating from college. She designed the first curriculum and set up a school teaching ESL in Iran in the early 1970’s before the fall of the Shah. In 1981, she founded the non-profit Overseas Alliance to take American students to France on a month-long immersion language study program which she wrote and taught. During the five years Overseas Alliance was in existence, more than eighty American youth met then President François Mitterrand, who was an acquaintance of Valerie’s from her college and Peace Corps years.
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