My writing career began at 8 years old when I hand-wrote copies of a series I called The Mr. Oink Stories and sold them to my family and friends. I wish I had them now. What fun it would be to give them to the grandchildren! (Not that I have any yet.)
My name is Annabelle Howard. I've survived cancer three times, recovered from a brain tumor and am still standing. When I was in a nursing home in 2015, recovering from brain surgery, my 94-year-old mother became seriously ill. It inspired me to finish a novel and self-publish it so that she could definitely see that I had published a novel. I also created an audiobook so that she could hear my voice reading it. The last picture taken of her shows her holding up a glass of champagne and my book! I'm so very glad she saw that book.
Recently, friends have approached me to help them shape their writing and get it onto Amazon so that their memories and thoughts become a legacy. I am honored and delighted to help. Also, being a widow of one year, I can use the income.
I created a nonprofit called Big Fun Education. Grants from Google, The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation, People's United Community Foundation, The Big Y and the Frances R. Dewing Foundation allowed my nonprofit to create a series called Big Fun PLAYS for K-12.
I am currently working on a new non-profit project called Reading Without Borders. The idea is to have volunteers read to children using Google Hangouts or Skype.
I have self-published two novels: Our Perfect Mistakes and Only Crazy Sometimes that are on Amazon, along with some plays for children.
I trained as a teacher in England and have taught in France and the U.S.A. I want to continue helping children express themselves. To make vocabulary acquisition more likely to happen consistently across the curriculum for K-12 I am creating a vocabulary app and beta testing it with 4th graders. Sign up to test if for free if you like: CLICK HERE FOR FREE 4th Grade Vocabulary App.
I started desktop publishing with a Mac in 1985. I created and sold a series of plays and related board games called Classic Theater for Children. After coverage in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, the plays sold to all 50 states and 10 other countries. In 1991, I sold the company to Sundance Publishers. Later, the rights reverted to me.
In 2009, I created an online motivational learning community for Connecticut. We had almost 70,000 paid subscribers and reliably raised test scores. 20% of our players stayed on our site for over an hour. 6% of our target demographic was enrolled. We gamified the work ethic and taught basic skills. People's United Community Foundation funded our initiative to reduce the loss of skills over the last two summers.
In 2009, I created an online motivational learning community for Connecticut. We had almost 70,000 paid subscribers and reliably raised test scores. 20% of our players stayed on our site for over an hour. 6% of our target demographic was enrolled. We gamified the work ethic and taught basic skills. People's United Community Foundation funded our initiative to reduce the loss of skills over the last two summers.
