Sheila Rae Boyd

While in elementary school, Sheila Rae Boyd really never had formal education in English or grammar. When she entered the seventh grade at a new school, she was instructed by the teacher to stand before the chalkboard along with several other classmates to "diagram" sentences. Being an A-student, Sheila was excited when her name was called to go to the board, but when the teacher said the object was to diagram sentences, she froze. She had never heard the term before.

When the teacher gave the sentence to diagram, the other students were busily drawing lines in all different directions and placing words from the sentence on those lines. Sheila felt humiliated and embarrassed. The teacher tried prompting her through the process, asking, "What word is the verb?" Sheila had no idea.

After school, the teacher asked Sheila if she would like extra help in English after school to which she gave an enthusiastic "Yes!" In a few short weeks, Sheila excelled at diagramming sentences. From there, she developed a love for English and teaching.

Sheila holds a Doctoral degree in education with a major in English. She taught school for 17 years, including homeschooling her children. She had a desire that each of her own children learn to write well, so she resigned teaching in a school setting, where there was little emphasis on writing, to homeschool her children, where she placed an emphasis on writing. Two of her children are now published authors.

For three years Sheila worked with Robert Butler, one of the world-renowned, 26 original Florida Highwaymen artists, in writing his biography. It was published only four days after his passing.

Shortly thereafter, Sheila pulled out a novel she had barely started some 30 years ago. With renewed passion, she dove into the story and completed Nova Scotia Runner a few months later. Within a year she finished Book 2 of the series, Beautiful Broken, and three months later, Book 3, Rachel's Song.

Recently she finished her own true story, Not My Shame, about her marriage to a sexual predator.

Helping other authors realize their dreams of becoming published, Sheila does full-scale editing, layout for publication, and cover designs for their manuscripts.

Sheila currently lives in Lakeland, Florida. She loves the outdoors, especially enjoying camping, campfires, fishing, and hunting.

Sheila can be reached through her email or Facebook fan page: sheilaraeboyd@gmail.com; https://www.facebook.com/sheilaraeboyd.