A Tribute to Helen Steiner Rice & others who inspired me!

“The best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping-stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better.”
― Enid Blyton, Mr Galliano's Circus

I've discovered that in order to make big changes in the world, we have to begin at home -- within ourselves”

― Ann M. Martin,

When you are in troubled and worried and sick at heart
And your plans are upset and your world falls apart,
Remember God's ready and waiting to share

The burden you find much to heavy to bear--

So with faith, "Let Go and Let GOD" lead your way

Into a brighter and less troubled day”
― Helen Steiner Rice

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Ever since I knew myself I loved hearing stories from my granny, I adored reading and I started writing and telling stories at a young age. I remembered after school my friends and I would go to the Library and I would borrow books and take them home and read them to my granny. Which she sure did enjoy , she'll will ask me to tell her stories at bedtime, these were the ones i made up, it was so much fun back then.

when I was about thirteen or fourteen years old I started writing stories in a book and saving it , because I had this feeling that one day I would like to publish a book. My dad enjoyed reading my little stories and he realized I had a gift. However due to the demands of high school and the work required of me I sort of stopped writing. I just engaged myself in reading and learning interesting stuff, Enid Blyton and Ann M. Martin were my main story tellers back then. Oh how I loved their books! As I grew older I started to shift more towards Danielle Steel books, although I am not a romance reader I enjoyed Danielle’s way of writing.

Eventually I finished high school in 2005 I got my passes/certificate and shortly after I started working, but it was really in 2010 when my desire to write re-emerged. The strange thing was something had happened to my co-worker which triggered me to get my writing skills back on track.

One morning she came to work looking very sad and I asked what was wrong, she told me that her boyfriend and her had called it quits. Our boss on hearing this sad news offered her a book by the name of “Joy for the Heart” by: Helen Steiner Rice. Something about that book drew my attention and I borrowed it, this book was filled with encouraging poems that would lift any dreary soul out of despair. That's why i loved it!

Immediately after reading Joy for the Heart, inspiration started taking me over, I wanted to try writing poetry it was a calling that I never knew I had. I mean I use to write yes but short stories, I made up nice texts to send to people via the phone etc, but poetry wasn't my thing….. Anyway I followed this calling and I realized that a new writing world had open up for me. I desperately started looking for a site to write free online I came across many but the only one that blew my mind was HUBPAGES. It was a very welcoming environment, immediately I got adapted to it I couldn't stop writing. I enjoyed reading other people’s poems, short stories, articles and reading their comments to my writings. October 2014 would make it four years ago that I started off on Hubpages under a different account/username.

Helen Steiner Rice (May 19, 1900 – April 23, 1981) was an American writer of religious and inspirational poetry.

Helen Steiner was born in Lorain, Ohio on May 19, 1900. Her father, a railroad worker, died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. She began work for a public utility and progressed to the position of advertising manager, which was rare for a woman at that time. She also became the Ohio State Chairman of the Women's Public Information Committee of the Electric Light Association, and campaigned for women's rights and improved working conditions.

Rice became a successful businesswoman and lecturer, but found her most satisfying outlet in writing verse for the prominent greeting card company American Greetings. Her poems received wide exposure in the 1960s when several were read by Aladdin on the poetry segment of theLawrence Welk television show.

The demand for her poems became so great that her books are still selling steadily after many printings, and she has been acclaimed as "America's beloved inspirational poet laureate". Helen Steiner Rice’s books of inspirational poetry have now sold nearly seven million copies. Her strong religious faith and the ability she had to express deep emotion gave her poems timeless appeal.

She died on the evening of April 23, 1981, a month before her 81st birthday, and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Lorain, Ohio.

Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer whose books have been among the world's bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Blyton's books are still enormously popular, and have been translated into almost 90 languages; her first book, Child Whispers, a 24-page collection of poems, was published in 1922. She wrote on a wide range of topics including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery stories and biblical narratives, but is best remembered today for her Noddy,Famous Five, and Secret Seven series.

Following the commercial success of her early novels such as Adventures of the Wishing Chair (1937) and The Enchanted Wood (1939) Blyton went on to build a literary empire, sometimes producing fifty books a year in addition to her prolific magazine and newspaper contributions. Her writing was unplanned and sprang largely from her unconscious mind; she typed her stories as events unfolded before her. The sheer volume of her work and the speed with which it was produced led to rumours that Blyton employed an army of ghost writers, a charge she vigorously denied.

Ann was one of my favorite childhood storytellers i use to indulge myself deeply in her books or the show itself the Baby Sitters Club . I really really enjoyed those series and i believe it was one of the best books around for teenage girls when i was growing up.

I remember anyone who asked for books borrowed i would be so happy to lend them my Ann. M Martin books, I still own a few. The names are coming back to me now , Stacy, Charlotte, Malorie , Jessie , aahh! These were the babysitters i forgot a few but of course that comes with old age. LOL

Ann Matthews Martin (born August 12, 1955) is an American children's author.

Ann Martin grew up in Princeton, New Jersey with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Martin became a teacher and then an editor of children's books; she is now a full-time writer. Martin finds the ideas for her books from many different sources; some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, including the members of The Baby-Sitters Club, are fictional, but many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Martin has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.^{[citation needed]}

I find Maya to be a very bold , courageous and inspiring woman who has came through many perils of her life. Yet she never allowed it to keep her back from achieving what life had to offer her, Maya's poems are very beautiful and soul deep you can feel the words she have coined as though it rocks your heart and makes you enter into her mood and illustrations of the things she spoke about.

Maya wrote a book by the name of "I know why the caged bird sing" telling of her life growing up , when she was raped etc. You know i can relate also to why the caged bird sing, a bird sings to express how free he/she is and only singing can release the heart of its pass. Be it in poems, short stories or songs we just need to sing it out to help someone to be free from their cage. Maya has passed on to be with the Lord I am sure she is living a life of bliss in the beautiful great beyond :) a place call Heaven. Who knows maybe she's sharing her poems there to.

Maya Angelou (/ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an African-American author, poet, dancer, actress and singer. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than 50 years. She received dozens of awards and over fifty honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, prostitute, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. From 1982, she taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she held the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at PresidentJohn F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

As i mentioned earlier i am not into romance stories as most people are , its just not my type of thing however i find Danielle to be a great writer. What i like about Danielle is that she don't always have happy endings her stories end happy, sad and in between but the thing is she always leave you wanting more.. there's always this quest inside wondering if there would be a part two why did it have to end this way etc. She keeps you coming back to see what she's got new on the menu.

The first book of hers i ever came across was "Bitter Sweet" I was digging through one of my uncle's stuff and i came across it and being that i liked to read a lot i took it and started reading right away. It was quite interesting, but the best one that I've ever read from Danielle was " Granny Dan" . My cousin had came by me to spend holidays and i took her to the Library and we borrowed Granny Dan my cousin was a more passionate obsessed reader than I , once she started a book it meant she must finish it in a few hours or days , she would rarely put it down.

I can recall seeing her crying a lot when she was reading this book , i turned to her and i asked what are you crying for she told me it was the book. I laughed at her because what could this book have in it to make you cry so much, when she had finished reading i took it and started to read. To my astonishment i too was crying bucket a drop as though i was Danina in the "Granny Dan's book" . I believe it was the way Danielle wrote it she moved all my emotions in so much that i counted it my favorite and when i got my first Hotmail account i name it after her book danina...@hotmail.com

Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947), better known by the name Danielle Steel, is an American novelist, currently the best selling author alive and the fourth bestselling author of all time, with over 800 million copies sold.

Based in California for most of her career, Steel has produced several books a year, often juggling up to five projects at once. All her novels have been bestsellers, including those issued in hardback. Her formula is fairly consistent, often involving rich families facing a crisis, threatened by dark elements such as jail, fraud, blackmail and suicide. Steel has also published children's fiction and poetry, as well as raising funds for the treatment of mental illness. Her books have been translated into 28 languages, with 22 adapted for television, including two that have received Golden Globe nominations.

I think it’s only reasonable that I do not take the glory for what I have accomplished thus far. I give special thanks to GOD my father above for all His inspirations I can never do it alone. To Helen Steiner Rice I was so grateful for coming across her wonderful soul touching poems, had I not read the book called “Joy for the Heart” I would never know what I possessed inside. Helen died many years ago and I believe someday we will meet beyond that blissful shore I can tell her thanks personally then. Between the years of 2011 -2013 I wrote two books of inspirational poetry which was like a dream came through.

I also received an award from National Library & Information System in my country in 2012 for being a first time author. The name of that book was “Peace of Mind for the Heart”. I write here at Hubpages for free and I do it from my heart as I want to bless someone, to help ease someone’s pains, to make someone courageous like I am. I want when and if I die that I can be like Helen someone can take up my writings and feel inspired also.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this I appreciate it

~ Joanna Chandler 2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED any part thereof of this article must be granted permission by the author for duplication or public use of any sort.