Motivated by family, friends, and life. Bio:  I am the fortunate mother of an incredible daughter who is a loving neonatal intensive care unit nurse, plus I am the aunt of a wonderful niece and nephew.  I have lived in same city always, love to travel, am a movie buff, a children's author, just turned 56 & still considering tattoo I was to get at 50.  Those things are incredibly expensive.  I had no idea of the cost. My goal with "Benjamin P. Blizzard: Welcome to Christmastown" was to create a story of encouragement for kids as well as adults because sometimes we adults forget about the child in each of us.  I try to show that different is good, beauty can be found everywhere, it just depends on how you look at things, and sometimes great things come out of what we originally viewed as a mess.  I write about a polar bear cub learning what he is good at doing while living at the North Pole. To paraphrase myself, Benny learns that while he does not have the nimble fingers of an elf to make small toys, he is great at filling the toy bags and loading them on Santa’s sleigh.  The story takes you through a minor toy room disaster on Christmas Eve to special children receiving incredible toys because of this mishap. During the journey an upset polar bear cub comes to understand unconditional love, the greatness of differences and miracles appearing out of the most unlikely situations.  I recently came across a quote of Mother Theresa's “I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” found at http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/838305.Mother_Teresa.  In my own way, that is one of the messages I am trying to bring to life through Benny.  Thank you,  Karen Nivens P.S.  Check out my tweets as BPBlizzard on Twitter        

Since I first wrote this I have had one of my poems, "Our Children", published as part of the beginning of an incredible 2 volume set of child care books, "MODERN CHILD HEALTH CARE A GUIDE TO PARENTS" by the world renowned paediatrician Dr. B.J.C. Perera. I am honored to have a place in such an important book giving medical and practical advice to parents on worldwide issues that deal with a child's health from simple issues to more complex ones. Dr. B.J.C. Perera finds a way to bring the complex ones down to earth letting parents know they are not alone while giving great medical advice.

I am a first-time children's book author, "Benjamin P. Blizzard: Welcome to Christmastown", planning on a reprint by self-publication when funds allow with new artwork hopefully by same artist. All art will be new if plan happens. Issues of my previous, original publisher have prevented the purchase of the art rights but I plan to add many more pictures so starting over is best.

My poem, "Our Children" will also be used as an opening by a doctor in his medical book to assist parents with childhood illnesses. His main emphasis is with asthma I believe. When the book is in print, I will give you more details.

Right now the same poem is on http://www.loveourchildrenusa.org/
This is a wonderful organization that helps children and families. They fight against violence and neglect towards children and try to stop the cycles that can be started when a child grows up in a emotionally and sometimes physically unhealthy environment.

I love coming across someone mentioning one of my poems online, using it in a message or story they are conveying.