About
Maegan Carberry has been a provocative independent voice in our national conversation, working as a journalist, media strategist, and digital entrepreneur for 15 years. She provides media strategies to organizations and individuals, and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. In 2016, Maegan will release her first novel, Do I Have To Vote For Hillary Clinton? The book chronicles the rise of ambitious political journalist Amy Underwood, her English bulldog Mindy Kaling, and a variety of adventures that would make Susan B. Anthony proud and Bridget Jones giggle.
Maegan began her career as a reporter and columnist with the Chicago Tribune, where she wrote some amusing columns she really hopes you won't google and interviewed exciting folks like Jennifer Lopez, Hugh Hefner, and an up-and-coming senator named Barack Obama. She later worked as Arianna Huffington's Chief-of-Staff during the early days of The Huffington Post, was Communications Director of Rock the Vote, and the first curator of Upworthy.
When she is not working, Maegan is designing and sewing dresses for 100 inspiring women through her project, birdbrain. birdbrain benefits the creation of The Long-term Guide to Surviving Sexual Assault.
A Dime Is a Sign: Poems of Love and Loss (Feelings Into Words)
Description
<p>A psychic medium once said that if you find a random dime, it is a sign that someone that you have loved and lost is thinking of you.</p><p><strong>A Dime is a Sign Through Time</strong></p><p><em>If you find a dime, </em></p><p><em>You will know that I'm</em></p><p><em>Sending thoughts of love</em></p><p><em>Through the veil of time.</em></p><p> </p><p><em>Ten cents with a silver shine, </em></p><p><em>A sense sent you to help remind</em></p><p><em>That someone who left you behind</em></p><p><em>Is always living in your mind.</em></p><p> </p><p><em>Sending love and vibes, </em></p><p><em>Felt as psychic sighs ...</em></p><p><em>The ones that you miss, </em></p><p><em>Send you a kiss ...</em></p><p> </p><p>Sherrill S. Cannon's second book of poetry contains messages written through the years in poetic form that put feelings into words. As a teacher, many of her poems helped counsel troubled teens and friends.</p><p>There are three sections in the book: Heads, Spinning, and Tails ... (Love & Loss: Coin Toss?). The variety of lyrical poetry forms include free verse, blank verse, haiku, and sonnets, while some are just playing with words!</p><p>Hopefully, this is also a book of healing.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Sherrill S. Cannon, a former teacher and grandmother of ten, is the author of nine acclaimed rhymed children's books, plus a recent award-winning book of poetry <em>(A Penny for Your Thoughts), </em>which together have received 63 national and international book awards since 2011. She also wrote seven published plays for elementary school children that have been performed in over 25 countries. Most of her children's books emphasize consideration for others. Married for 58 years, she and her spouse are now retired, live in Pennsylvania, and travel in their RV from coast to coast, spending time with their children and grandchildren, and sharing her books along the way!</p><p> </p>
Story Behind The Book
After 15 years of working in politics and media, when people started asking me if I supported Hillary Clinton for the presidency all I felt was a gigantic brain fog and the tugging of my heartstrings. I couldn't tell which way was up anymore. I've worked with some of the most traditionally-powerful women in the world, studied the field and the issues, and had my own experiences with misogyny and violence. They all blurred together. Hillary Clinton was my childhood hero, and inspired me to be an ambitious woman. At 35, it feels like feminism and gender roles are at a critical turning point in America — one which some of our predecessors aren't quite wrapping their heads around and my generation may be taking for granted. It comes at a time when the pros and cons of identity-based voting are emerging as a serious factor for the country's electorate, commensurate with our changing demographics. Many Americans will have to face oversimplification just to gain representation, while ultimately trying to cast ballots based on the best possible policy approach. It's a welcome-but-murky science at best.
Before I could have anything interesting to say on the subject, I sought out first to process my own life. In the fall of 2015, I fled my life in Los Angeles and rented a condo in the beautiful Palm Desert a couple hours east, where for weeks I spoke only to my pilates instructor and scribbled notes all over the walls like the guy in A Beautiful Mind. It was a weird-but-good time. The result was a unique story that came from my heart. The book's characters and themes are all composites and variations on my real experiences. Writing was cathartic and eye-opening. I opted to write fiction for several reasons. Foremost, I didn't want to be another blowhard pundit preaching to the choir. I also wanted to create an alternate universe where difficult conversations had room for gray areas; this is the kind of reflective opportunity we no longer experience in mainstream media or crowd-sourced internet hysteria. And, of course, I'm a book nerd. This moment has been in the making since I read Anne of Green Gables back in second grade.
As I started to understand what happened to me, I pushed myself to attempt to articulate broader societal trends. I teach college students, so I thought about the kinds of questions I get from them. I prioritized providing them with a story that would illuminate their unique moment as young voters. However, this book is one that folks of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy. Frankly, it doesn't fit in one genre or on a specific shelf in the bookstore, which is exactly why I opted to self-publish. It was scary, but I'm a populist. I listened to Macklemore's song Victory Lap every morning, savoring the words: "Nowadays make good music, the people are your label." I wrote a compelling story, and now I entrust it to those souls who will find it.
Don't be fooled by its chick lit vibes. While certainly a zany adventure, this book is rigorous, serious, and sometimes quite dark. Just like me. :)
