One Degree of Lu Ann Staheli

If you’ve ever played the popular game “The Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” you probably know that the premise states because actor Kevin Bacon has been in so many movies, you can link him to almost any actor in seven or less steps.

An example from the internet illustrates: John Travolta was in “Look Who's Talking” with Kirstie Alley who was in “She's Having a Baby” with Kevin Bacon. (http://www.geocities.com/theeac/bacon.html).

Last week I went to the season wrap party for Everwood, the WB television series my husband works for. (http://thewb.warnerbros.com/web/show.jsp?id=EW) The entertainment included a woman reading life cards from a tarot deck. Although I’m not sure how much credence I put in the activity, my husband and I decided to have some fun and see what she had to say.

Imagine my surprise when she read my cards, telling me about how many people around the world either know me personally or recognize my name, and how they had been influenced by me. “You ARE Kevin Bacon,” the woman said. At first, we laughed, but then my husband and I started to realize that she might be right.

Here are a few of the lines of reasoning:

1. I have taught school for 27 years. In that time I’ve had over 6,280 students in either Indiana or Utah. They, of course, have moved on into their own adult lives—several are even teachers themselves with students of their own who learn from what I taught their teachers.

2. I worked for Alan Osmond Productions for 10 years, writing newsletters for both The Osmond Brothers and Osmonds: Second Generation. The newsletters went to hundreds of fan club members worldwide. I did a short stint writing for both Merrill Osmond and Marie Osmond’s newsletters as well.

3. I write book reviews for the SIGNAL Journal (a publication of the International Reading Association), The ALAN Review (a publication of the Adolescent Literature Association of the National Council of Teachers of English), and NCTE Selects program. These publications go to organization members all over the world. Twice I’ve run for national positions with NCTE and had my name and photos sent on ballots to them.

4. I published a chapter in Teaching Ideas for 7-12 English Language Arts: What Really Works from Christopher Gordon Publishers that language arts teachers might have read. I have colleagues who use my chapter in the college methods courses they teach to prospective language arts educators.

5. I was a Christa McAuliffe Fellow and presented my project at a special symposium in Washington D.C. I’ve presented at many other workshops for educators and writers as well. I was the Utah English Language Arts Teacher of the Year, and a nominee for the Disney Hands Award, Utah Reading Teacher of the Year, and listed in both Who’s Who Among America’s Outstanding Educators and Who’s Who Among Outstanding American Women, introducing me to members of those selection committees.

6. I’ve published in other national magazines, including Grit, Scouting, the LDS Church News, Superteen, and 16. I’ve placed in writing contests from Writer’s Digest, the Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition for Juvenile novel, the League of Utah Writers annual writing competition, and the Montgomery-West Literary Talent Agency Competition. I earned the Diamond Quill Award for Collected Works from the League of Utah Writers and. was named the Utah Valley Chapter Writer of the Year.

7. I worked as a freelance editor for Covenant Communications, editing books for Rachel Nunes, Brenton Yorgason, Annette Pierce, Jennie Hansen, James Rada, and Charles Davis. I’m in a critique group with Covenant authors Jeffrey S. Savage, H. B. Moore, and Annette Lyon who have been gracious enough to list my name in the acknowledgments of their books.

8. I write two weekly newspaper columns that go to a bevy of subscribers, and even make their way onto the internet. Previously I was a freelance writer for two other newspapers with different readerships. Currently, I have a successful E-zine and this blog that takes my work to a wider audience.

9. I’m involved in the Utah Council of Teachers of English Language Arts, the League of Utah Writers, The Society for Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators, the International Reading Association, Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, the National Council of Teachers of English, Children’s Literature Association of Utah, and the Children’s Literature Association of Utah, as well as several local affiliates of these organizations.

10. I graduated from high school in Alexandria, Indiana. I graduated from college at Indiana University Bloomington. I’m an avid genealogist, who has attended church in Alexandria, Anderson, Bloomington, Terre Haute, and Brazil, Indiana, plus Orem, Provo, and Spanish Fork, Utah, when I have lived in or near those cities.

When you count up all the people I’ve met, even that number alone is astronomical. I have no way to ever know how many others might have “met” me though the work I have done. I still haven’t touched the surface here of all the daily contacts I make with friends, writers, neighbors, family, and students.

So perhaps the woman is right, I AM Kevin Bacon to hundreds of people who have lived on this earth.

By the way, my own connection to Kevin Bacon is as follows: Lu Ann Staheli did “Alan Osmond’s Stadium of Fire” for America’s Freedom Festival at Provo with Keshia Knight Pulliam who was in “Beauty Shop” with Kevin Bacon!

Welcome to My World

In the 35 days since I last posted a message on my blog, I’ve:

• taught 21 days of school
• read and reviewed 10 books
• written 6 newspaper columns
• started an e-mail list and sent 5 messages to the over 200 subscribers
• sent 6 query letters
• attended the 2 day Forum of Children’s Literature conference at UVSC
• presented at the Nebo Young Writer’s Conference
• participated in a Picture Book workshop taught by Rick Walton
• completed a night of parent teacher conferences for work
• attended a board meeting for the Utah Council of Teachers of English
• sat in a training session for foster parents
• posted final grades for over 125 students
• watched my sons play in 4 league championship basketball games
• kept track of my 5 sons for school, work, church, and play activities
• and somehow managed to keep at least a thread of my sanity.

Now you can see why I said I wouldn’t commit to updating my blog on any kind of a schedule. If the rest of you are as busy as I seem to be, you probably don’t have time to check in regularly either, so don’t feel bad if it’s been awhile since you stopped into the blog site.

I’m pleased to announce that my newsletter subscriber list has been growing by leaps and bounds. If you are interested in reading, writing, teaching, or adolescent literature, I hope you’ve signed up for these weekly e-mails. If you haven’t, and you’d like to try it out, just send an e-mail to me at LuAnn@LuAnnStaheli.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject heading.

I’ve started working on Volume 2 of Books, Books, and More Books: A Teacher and Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Literature. For those of you who are not familiar with my first CD-Book, in addition to chapters on how adolescent literature can be used with students, successful teaching strategies, and choosing books for multiple purposes, there are 100 Book Study Guides included in the text.

Volume 1 features guides for books by the following authors: David, Almond, Laurie Halse Anderson, Avi, Lois Thompson Bartholomew, Joan Bauer, Gary Blackwood, William J. Brooke, Bruce Brooks, Meg Cabot, Orson Scott Card, Eoin Colfer, Ellen Conford, Caroline B.Cooney, Sharon Creech, Chris Crutcher, Christopher Paul Curtis, Paula Danzinger, Kate DiCamillo, Sharon M. Draper, Alane Ferguson, Paul Fleischman, Susan Fletcher, Gail Friesen, Jack Gantos, Amy Gordon, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Mary Downing Hahn, Bruce Hale, Betsy Hearne, Sid Hite, Will Hobbs, Kimberly Willis Holt, Betty Horvath, Kathy Kacer, Ron Koertge, Gail Carson Levine, Ann M. Martin, Norma Fox Mazer, Joyce McDonald, Lois Metzgher, Carolyn Meyer, Walter Dean Meyers, Claudia Mills, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, John Neufeld, Naomi Shihab Nye, Gary Paulsen, Richard Peck, Rodman Philbrick, Randall Beth Platt, Phillip Pullman, Kristin Randle, Louise Rennison, Ann Rinaldi, John H. Ritter, J. K. Rowling, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Louis Sachar, Gloria Skurzynski, Lemony Snicket, Jerry Spinelli, Todd Strasser, Ross Venokier, Will Weaver, Gloria Whelan, Carol Lynch Williams, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Jacqueline Woodson, and Lawrence Yep.

If there are any books you would love to see in a future edition, please let me know. It is always my goal to produce a user-friendly and helpful product. Thanks!

I can be reached either by leaving a message here, or send me an e-mail at LuAnn@LuAnnStaheli.com. Thanks again for checking in.

Lu Ann

Welcome to LuAnn's Library

Welcome to the first message in my new blog. I'm glad you've come to visit. It's my plan to share information about the recent books I've been reading or writing, ideas for teachers and parents to use with adolescents when it comes to language arts, or just share what's on my mind through regular postings. Hey, I've learned from reading other blogs that it's not a good idea to commit to a specific number of postings in a week or month. Life happens, and deadlines pass all too quickly to make that kind of commitment, so just check in once in awhile and read previous posts if you've missed something.

Without sounding like a braggart, I want to let you know why I'm qualified to write about both reading and writing. Here are just a few of my awards: Utah English Language Arts Teacher of the Year; Nebo Reading Teacher of the Year; Utah Valley League of Utah Writers Writer of the Year; Utah Arts Council Juvenile Novel Author of the Year; League of Utah Writers Diamond Quill winner and Juvenile Novel Author of the Year; and Christa McAuliffe Fellow for my project on adolescent literature.

I hope I'll have something to share that will be meaningful to you and your situation as a reader, writer, student, teacher, parent, friend, or family member.

Feel free to leave me a message here, or contact me via email at my new website at www.LuAnnStaheli.com. While you are on my home page, be sure to sign up for the free e-mailing list. I’d be happy to send you my regular column on issues of education and literacy, as well as keep you informed of upcoming events and new publications.

Until next time, thanks for checking in.