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Showing posts with label genealogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genealogy. Show all posts

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Book launch Twitter Party!



Yesterday my publisher, Big World Network, hosted a fun Twitter party to launch my new book "Climbing Family Trees."  

Below is the dialogue that trended all morning long:
Trina Boice has been with BigWorldNetwork.com since the beginning of the site in late fall of 2011, and has since published several series and books with us. How to Stay UP in a DOWN Economy, a nonfiction book about earning and saving money from home, is available now in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.

Trina’s newest novel, originally published in 2005, and then as a series on BWN, is a joint effort with her twin sister, Tracey Long – Climbing Family Trees: Whispers in the Leaves.

Climbing Family Trees is a nonfiction/inspirational book about genealogy, with advice as well as personal stories from the twins and others. The book released this past weekend, starting with a Twitter Release Party in which BWN asked the sisters to join us and answer some questions about the book.

BWN: Welcome to BWN’s second ever Twitter Release Party! Featuring new book release Climbing Family Trees: Whispers in the Leaves. This is the 2nd edition of Climbing Family Trees. What originally inspired you and Tracey to take on this book?

Trina: Our own family inspired us to write Climbing Family Trees several years ago. We had been bit by the genealogy bug and loved inspiring stories. It was such a fun book to write! Any time you want to have a spiritual experience, just do genealogy!

Tracey: It was such a fun project to do together. Because we're twins, we think alike so we're already "on the same page."

BWN: How did you go about gathering so many inspiring personal stories about genealogy?

Tracey: We sent query letters to genealogical societies and got great stories.

Trina: Genealogists are VERY giving. Sharing is what they do all day long, so they were eager to contribute. We put a call out for inspirational stories of people who felt help from heaven with their family tree. We received so many heartwarming stories. Heaven truly helps those who want to unite families! So sweet!

BWN: Further proof that writing can be communal! What was the most difficult hurdle while working on Climbing Family Trees?

Trina: We wrote the book before cloud computing and had to email the manuscript back and forth. Our computers crashed TWICE while writing it. Luckily, we each had manuscript versions to email to each other. The two of us are in the process of writing another fun book together. We love the collaboration.

BWN: What new title are you working on? Can you give us a sneak peek on the topic?

Tracey: Because our focus is "families" & "fun" we're writing a book of party games. People often rely too much on watching videos for group entertaining because they don't know what else to do!

Trina: We're usually working on several things at a time! We’re working on a kind of Whose Line Is It Anyway party game book. Our nephew was in a comedy improv group in college and shared some of his group's warm-up games to add! We've tried many of them at parties. Soooo much fun! We'll post videos when the book comes out.

BWN: That sounds fantastic! I know my family get togethers could use some fun ideas for activities.

Trina: Every family has natural hams, so interactive party games at family reunions are always a hit. We have a whole chapter in Climbing Family Trees with fun family reunion party games too!

BWN: Was Climbing Family Trees your first time writing something together?

Trina: Yep, the first official published work. We had collaborated on other projects together and still do.

Tracey: We competed in a National Speech/Debate event together as twins.

Trina: Can you believe Tracey was my live prop once in college for an expository speech about twins? We won 1st! Another project could be to gather fun stories about twins. People love stories about twins tricking people.

BWN: Have you and Tracey ever tricked anyone as twins?

Trina: Of course! We switched classes, and tricked dates. Tracey's husband almost kissed me on her wedding day!

Tracey: The question is how many times have we tricked people! That's a great book idea!

BWN: Agreed! Thank you both for joining us today! Genealogy is something anyone can get involved in, and often engrossed in before they even realize it.

Trina: Absolutely! It's not just for "old" folks. We all have a hunger to know where we came from. Genealogy isn't just finding your ancestors, but connecting with your living relatives and celebrating family.

Tracey: Alex Haley, the author of Roots stated everyone has a deep thirst to know more about their family. Our book helps you start learning how. Many people believe in a guardian angel, and who best but an ancestor of yours to help guide you in climbing your own family tree.

Trina: Climbing Family Trees includes TONS of ideas to honor your heritage and celebrate family every day. It also includes touching stories of adopted children finding their blood relatives. Very tender.

Tracey: We even have a chapter on animals involved in genealogy. And we'd love to know how the book helps readers and listeners find and connect with their own family trees!

To let Trina and Tracey know your thoughts on the book, feel free to respond to this blog post, on their series page, on any episode pages for Climbing Family Trees, or leave a review on Amazon.

Purchase your copy of Climbing Family Trees: Whispers in the Leaves now at: https://bigworldnetwork.com/site/store/climbingfamilytrees/ … and receive a FREE audiobook with purchase of the paperback


Check out the video promo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNSX_yW5f_s …

You can also download and print a FREE bookmark at the Climbing Family Trees series page: https://bigworldnetwork.com/site/series/climbingfamilytrees/ …

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Writing for generations yet unborn

By Trina Boice

 
Want to put your writing skills to REALLY good use?  How about writing an autobiography for your grandchildren to read?  What...they're not even born yet?  Great!  That'll give you even more time to work on it!  How about writing your grandmother's autobiography or one for Uncle Alvin?  While your fiction manuscript may be brilliant, your family history is priceless. 

Here on our blog we don't usually endorse products, but this is a good one and it's FREE, so I thought I'd share it with you!  Here's the link: http://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&tab=wm#inbox/12753f4643888d73

Roots Magic is offering a free download for their genealogy software!  Here's a description of what their program can help you do (and no, I get absolutely no kickback for recommending their product):

Easy to learn and use:  RootsMagic Essentials' friendly screens and menus allow even the most inexperienced computer novice to get up-and running quickly. Navigation is a breeze with both pedigree and family views, and RootsMagic Essentials lets you view and edit every piece of information about a person from a single, easy-to-use screen.

Unlimited capacity:  Enter an unlimited number of facts, notes, sources, and multimedia items to each person and family.

Flexibility: RootsMagic Essentials makes it easy to track multiple relationships such as adoptions, foster parents, and more.

Find People Quickly: Easily find and edit anyone in your file. The RootsMagic Explorer lets you type a person's name to quickly jump to the person, or find people with an easy-to-use criteria search screen.

Multimedia Support: Add photographs, sound bites, and video clips to bring your family history to life. Then have RootsMagic Essentials include your photographs in your printed reports.

Reports Galore:  RootsMagic Essentials makes it easy to publish and share your family history. Create and print dozens of reports, charts, and lists.

Professional Looking Sources: Our unique SourceWizard writes and manages sources and citations for you. Built-in templates based on Evidence Explained make citing your sources as easy as "filling in the blanks".

Power Tools:  RootsMagic Essentials includes tools which make it a snap to clean up your data. Potential problem lists, sophisticated merge techniques, date and soundex calculators are just the start.

Unicode Support:  Don't limit yourself to a genealogy program that can't handle international character sets. RootsMagic Essentials' Unicode support means you aren't limited in the characters you can enter.

Compatibility:  Import directly from Family Tree Maker, PAF, Legacy, Family Origins. Plus RootsMagic Essentials has full GEDCOM 5.5 support for both import and export.

FamilySearch Certified: RootsMagic Essentials bridges the gap between your personal family history data and the New FamilySearch internet site. RootsMagic is also the first software certified to reserve and request LDS temple ordinances. You can find, reserve, and track needed ordinances from the comfort of your own home.

Enjoy!