Book Tour for Girls' Book

Posted by: Allison on: February 3, 2012

• In: Nonfiction Books | Religious | Social Issues | Teasers
• 2 Comments

Book tour time again! From January 9 to March 1, Daree Allen will appear on thirty-five different blogs and websites as part of her official “What’s Wrong With Me?” blog tour! You can find a list of hosts with their links and features on the right-hand side of my blog.

Daily Teaser Archives

Writing has always been part of Daree Allen’s life. She wrote short stories for fun and in high school even filled out a few composition books writing a soap opera for her friends. Papers were the best part of her university work. Like me, she enjoys collecting and organizing research. Since that time, she has been a contributing writing for several magazines and blogs. Her perseverance paid off! Allen has recently received some kudos for her writing work. In 2009, she was one of the twenty-five essayists selected to have their work appear in Rev. Dr. John E. Guns’ devotional book, Journey to Wholeness: The Immersion. In 2010, Allen was one of the top 100 winners of the Writer’s Digest 79th Annual Writing Competition in the Magazine Feature Writing category. Tomorrow I’ll share some trivia about other aspects of her life.

Slated for release on Valentine’s Day, Allen’s book What’s Wrong With Me? is a mentoring book for teen girls. Part memoir and part self-help, the book encourages girls to embrace their uniqueness and to learn to love themselves. After a session, Allen had in 2008 with her life coach, she started compiling stories from journal entries that she has kept since age thirteen. With the publication of What’s Wrong With Me? Allen hopes to help other young women who struggle with issues of self-esteem and coming of age.

As you can see, through my teasers this week, I’ll introduce you to Daree Allen and her first book. Of course, on Saturday, I’ll share my thoughts about What’s Wrong With Me?. On Sunday, I’ll be fortunate enough to share a guest post from Allen. As a bonus, after my review is posted, Allen will be available to answer questions. Come join me all week!

Setting Goals

Do you like to set goals? On the right-hand column of Daree Allen’s Insights blog, she lists her regular topics in a wordle format. (Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.) One of those topics is goals. Allen considers herself to be  someone who sets and achieves goals.

Some of her goals for this upcoming year are:

• Build a minimum 6-month emergency fund
• Join the NSA Academy (for aspiring professional speakers)
• Attend a writer’s conference

Some of her accomplishments have been:

• Place in the top one hundred in the Writer’s Digest Annual Competition
• Publish her mentoring book: It comes out on February 14!
• Win a Toastmasters competition

Some of her gusty changes have been:

• Relocate to Georgia to have a new start
• Cut her hair short to allow it to grow back in natural

What are some of your goals? One of mine is to finish a Teaching of Writing certification. I’m half finished!

What are some of your accomplishments? Every month, my husband and I publish a family newsletter. Then at the end of the year, we compile the best entries into an annual highlights newsletter.

What are some of your gusty changes? In 1998, I moved from Canada to the United States for work and love. Now I’m happily married.

Giving Feedback

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to evaluate someone’s performance? How do you handle giving feedback?

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Besides writing, Daree Allen also presents. To help with her speech skills, Allen participates in Toastmasters. On her blog, she shared some insights that she learned from the educational conferences at a Toastmasters Regional Conference. I liked her notes about a couple of those presentations, because the advice given could apply to any critique situation.

Finding Joy in Evaluation, Speaker Joy Lewis

• “Tell and Sell”: The evaluator simply gives recommendations and comments without any feedback.
• “Tell and Listen”: The speaker gets to respond to the evaluator’s comments and recommendations.
• “Problem-Solving Method”: The evaluator asks the speaker to share their concerns before the speech. During the evaluation, the evaluator identifies the speaker’s strengths and problem areas by asking non-threatening questions.

Mental Flexibility, Speaker Kevin Spaulding

• The PIN model: List and consider the Positive, Interesting, and Negative aspects of the statement or idea
• The HELP model: The acronym stands for Humor, Engage with a child, Let it go, and Practice doing things differently

For me as a writer, my husband is my first critic. He reads my writing in stages. Initially, he reads just to get the big picture. He tells me if my manuscript holds his interest and what he likes or does not like. From this feedback, I know whether to invest more time in this manuscript. The next time, he reads to understand the structure. He pinpoints areas which make sense or which confused him. From this feedback, I know how to revamp my organization. Last, he reads to evaluate the style. Basically, he rips it apart how I phrase things. By this point, I am ready to see corrections all over my precious manuscript, because I believe in what I have written. Now, I want to make my manuscript the best I can.

What are some of your experiences?
Have you ever wondered “What’s wrong with me?” Daree Allen says that her book title came to her while on the phone with an old friend. She was talking about the contents of her book’s contents, and her self-doubts. Her friend wasn’t actually trying to help her come up with a title. However, when he used the phrase “What’s wrong with me?” with regard to someone’s feelings, Allen stopped him. That was the perfect title!

Video Promos

How do you feel about book trailers and video promotions? Do you use them? Are they easy or hard to make? Should I include more or less of them?

Tomorrow I will review What’s Wrong with Me? by Daree Allen. If you haven’t checked out her tour yet, you can find a list of hosts with their links and features on the right-hand side of my blog. For now, I will leave you with a sneak peek by including a couple of Allen’s videos on topics related to her book.

Related Posts

• Review of What’s Wrong with Me?
• Guest Post: “How Do I Look?”

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Tags: Allison's Book Bag, blog tour, book trailers, Christian self-help, Daree Allen, reviews of books for young people, self-help for teen girls, Toastmasters, video promotions, What's Wrong with Me?