Speaking and Writing Well Empowering Yourself With Proper EnglishYour Dynamite Guide to Conquering the World

A wacky but authoritative self-help guide to improving your English language skills for speaking and writing. Funny, caring, and unbelievably easy to understand, Dr. Kathy Alba, the author, becomes a trusted friend as she shows you how to speak and write correctly for success in the world beyond "back home"--places in society where Standard (educated) English is expected or even required. The book's sole purpose is to make you, the reader, look good.

Kathy Alba, a native of Los Angeles, received her B.A. summa cum laude in English (with minors in psychology and French) from Oregon State University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English and linguistics from the University of North Carolina.

One of Kathy’s main professional focuses is her teaching, having been an award-winning adjunct professor of English in several colleges and universities across Kansas for some seventeen years. She speaks with authority but always with passion and the belief that only humor can make learning into an adventure rather than a pain in the neck, that if you’re laughing, you’ll probably be relaxed enough to understand and take in new, even complex ideas. In response to the needs of her students and people in the larger community, she has written this off-the-wall book on "empowered" English and another on study skills. As director of Bear Hollow Educational Systems—a nationwide seminar series designed for corporations, college campuses, and city groups—she speaks with compassion and uses the book to inspire, nurture, and help people move closer to their personal fulfillment.

Her other primary focus is writing. Concertos in D Major, a relationship novel about a lovely violinist on the wild north coast of Oregon, may be ordered from Amazon.com or bookstores now. Another one, Releasing Hatshepsut, follows a photojournalist to an archaeological dig in Egypt and an even greater dig into her own soul. Still another, Morgan’s Summit, details self-discovery and an opening of the heart during a rock climbing adventure on Mt. Whitney in the southern Sierra. Beyond these, Kathy’s major work is a seven volume epic exploring the meaning of life and apocalypse through both comedy and pain, romance and supernatural incident, entitled Across the Soul’s Boundary. This life-changing series will start reaching you early next year.

While admittedly an adrenaline-challenged non-athlete, Kathy is passionate about researching the details of her books in bizarre ways if necessary—including rock climbing, white-water rafting, kayaking, sailing (in gale winds), combing European capitols along with the ruins of Greece, Jordan, Israel and Egypt and humiliating herself on the back of a camel—because such adventures force her, ready or not, to grow beyond her natural state of self-avowed wimp-hood.

Kathy is also founder and chief artist of both Bear Hollow Art Works, a studio that makes stained glass and hand-dressed teddy bears, and Frills and Furbelows by Kathy Alba, a line of originally designed hand-crocheted and knitted Victorian ladies’ fashions, heirloom wedding outfits, and vintage accessories.

She currently resides at ivy-covered Bear Hollow in Wichita, Kansas with her husband, several beloved dogs and uncountable stuffed bears. Her son is a medical student and classical violinist.