About
I am an author of Literary Mainstream Fiction. My debut novel, The Secret of Lies, was released in June, 2011,
I grew up in a small town in Dutchess County, New York, the third of five children. Although I started my first novel in 4th grade, I didn't recognize what would eventually become a lifelong passion until several years later as I found my thoughts routinely wandering off to inhabit imagined places - spinning elaborate tales curiously populated by ever-changing collections of mostly peculiar characters that seemed to arrive from nowhere, yet remained, willing to live within my fictitious worlds.
It would be impossible to determine or otherwise explain where the intense obsession to draw pictures and unreel emotion with words on paper originates from, just as it would be unfathomable to ever abandon. It is simply there, deep, unquenchable, eternal.
Influences are everywhere and in abundance - people I've known over a lifetime, as well as those who have merely crossed my path and gone, yet touched in such a way to remain memorable. Places I've been or merely absorbed - fallen into through the pull of a photograph or description in a book. Experiences of love, loss, injury, joy, and impossible tragedy. Events in our everyday world that sink so deeply they cannot be discarded from thought or memory. And more than any single thing, my Divine Creator who inspires me in all things - not simply with the desire to create, but the faith to pursue and persevere for as long as it takes.
Description
<p>Does your child have ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)?</p><p>Meet David, one of award-winning author Sherrill S. Cannon's "Classroom of Kids," who manages his ADHD with the help of classmates.</p><p>David discovers ways to cope with his hyperactive brain, while learning how to calm and soothe his ADHD. Solutions include setting daily schedules and following simple rules that regulate behavior. His teachers and therapists encourage using the computer for academic advancement, and to establish a pattern for study as well as for occasional recreation. David not only learns self-control and communication skills, but is able to fit into the classroom and make friends.</p><p>Once again social values are emphasized in the author's latest illustrated children's story, and classroom friends from previous books are featured. In fact, David has been part of the class for a long time!</p><p><strong><em>"David's ADHD</em></strong><em> is a timely topic for parents and children. A story in rhyme that demystifies ADHD. It explains a youngster's behavior in terms of his inattentiveness and impulsivity and how it impacts those around him. A sensitive way of creating understanding for children with ADHD and their families."</em> - <strong>Dr. Valerie Allen, licensed school psychologist</strong></p><p><strong>Author Bio: </strong></p><p>Former teacher Sherrill S. Cannon has won 76 awards for her previous 11 rhyming books. She is also the author of seven published and internationally performed plays for elementary school children. The author has been called "an absolute master of rhyming" and "a modern-day Dr. Seuss."</p>
Story Behind The Book
It was really the most innocent thing, my motivation to sit down and start writing this book, not at all profound or remarkable and yet it became a twenty year obsession over an intense and rocky highway. I clearly recall standing at the kitchen sink on a late summer afternoon washing dishes and staring out the window at nothing in particular, when this little seed of an idea came rolling through my head, and I found myself wondering what it would be like for someone to just get up and walk out the door - not tell anyone, or take anything, just walk away from their entire life and start-over on a new page somewhere else. And then what circumstance or event in a person's life would compel them to such drastic action. That was it. I had no characters, no
... brilliantly written.
Whispering Winds Book Review
Named BOOK OF THE MONTH at FemmeVip.com, October 2010:
Barbara Forte Abate resolves the conflict and does not leave the readers hanging...The author brought everything to life and made you feel you were a part of the family. The dialogue was enjoyable and true to life. The words were descriptive and continued to propel the story forward.
Barbara Forte Abate has written a creative, entertaining story in The Secret of Lies, which makes any reader understand the hidden secrets in any family.
J.Andrew, Book Pleasures
Barbara Forte Abate has such a gift for bringing to life real relationships between ordinary people that she creates an ongoing challenge to her readers by beginning her book with the lowest point of her character’s life: being drawn to run away and face her inner demons alone...
Barbara Forte Abate is a sensitive writer who knows that there are no neutral observers in a dysfunctional family...
For The Love of Reading Book Review plan, no plot ideas. Just that one little thought that once I started writing it, took off at a gallop. It became so many things I hadn't anticipated when I started.
Reviews
<div class="data_field">... brilliantly written.<br />Whispering Winds Book Review<br /><br />Named BOOK OF THE MONTH at FemmeVip.com, October 2010:<br />Barbara
Forte Abate resolves the conflict and does not leave the readers
hanging...The author brought everything to life and made you feel you
were a part of the family. The dialogue was enjoyable and true to life.
The words were descriptive and continued to propel the story forward. <br />Barbara
Forte Abate has written a creative, entertaining story in The Secret of
Lies, which makes any reader understand the hidden secrets in any
family.<br />J.Andrew, Book Pleasures<br /><br />Barbara Forte Abate has such a
gift for bringing to life real relationships between ordinary people
that she creates an ongoing challenge to her readers by beginning her
book with the lowest point of her character’s life: being drawn to run
away and face her inner demons alone...<br />Barbara Forte Abate is a sensitive writer who knows that there are no neutral observers in a dysfunctional family...<br />For The Love of Reading Book Review </div>
