Mara Linaberger – Book Journeys Author Interview – September 28, 2017

On this episode of Book Journeys, Maggie McReynolds interviews Mara Linaberger, author of Help! My Child Hates School: An Awakened Parent’s Guide to Action.

Dr. Mara Linaberger is an educational consultant with years of experience as an educator. Her calling is to create a new school system for children to give these an alternative way to learn from that used in the present day educational system, so that parents whose children aren’t thriving in the present-day system have an alternative venue for learning that would be more suited to the way they learn.  She hopes to set up a hundred “micro-schools” within the next twenty years, and while her initial intention, when joining the Author Incubator program, was to create the book so that she could, with the proceeds, create the “micro-schools” she intended, she changed the book’s direction to that of the people she would directly serve, namely parents and children.

Mara notes that children who like going to school will usually come home talking about what they did to the point of distraction, where the parents are concerned, and that a child not talking about her day is an indicator to the parent that something is wrong. The book is about helping parents get a rough idea of what their child’s learning style is, and includes some exercises for that purpose, but it is also potentially useful for parents whose children might be getting bullied or who have other issues with the school they go to.

Mara had published and edited before, for professional educational journals, but the experience of writing the book with the Author Incubator gave her a totally different way of looking at the writing and publishing process for a book. Mara noted that the process used in the Author Incubator program helped her out greatly, noting that, while the materials are standardized, the support received was differentiated to respond to differing authors’ needs. She note that enrolling in the program was an expensive proposition, and when she remarked that her sister noted that undergoing the program was like getting an MBA, Mara also de facto noted that enrolling and attending in an MBA program would be a lot more expensive. Writing the book was also a cathartic experience for her, in that she was able to get a lot of things off her chest, and she noted that viewing the book as a love letter to her ideal reader was what kept her on track where her voice was concerned, noting that it enabled her to get her ego out of the way.

Mara remarked that, as a public educator, which is her area of expertise, she was used to giving away her intellectual property “every day,” so her book being a low-cost way to solve the problems of another person who desperately needs some answers appealed to her. She is also aware that her book has some grammatical errors in it, but for her it is a way to enable people to better connect with her by showing them that she isn’t perfect.

The printed version of her book is due out on May 1, 2018.

 

Listen to the Mara Linaberger Interview on Book Journeys Radio

Interview Transcript: Mara Linaberger – Book Journeys Author Interview – September 28, 2017

DOWNLOAD the PDF: Book Journeys Author Interview – Mara Linaberger – September 21 2017

Watch out for the next Book Journeys interview with another exciting author.