VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

Molly Nero loves to sing, dance and read. She spent over 18 years teaching elementary school.   Reading to her own children, she was inspired to write. The second book in the Smarty Pig book series Smarty Pig and the Test Taking Terror releases in Spring 2012. VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today, Molly. To get things started, what do you do to help balance your writing life with your family life? Molly: My family has to come first. My daughter is a sophomore in high school, so the realization that she will be off to college in a couple of years is looming overhead now. I try to write during the day since I am not working at this time, so when the kids come home from school, I’m available to them. My husband is retired and helps keep things going around the house, so it’s a blessing to not have work because I finished not only Smarty Pig , but the 2 nd in the series and have begun writing the 3 rd one also. It’s not uncommon to find m...

Molly Nero is the author of Smarty Pig, a children´s book geared toward ages Kindergarten through 3rd grade. As the youngest of seven kids growing up in Texas, Nero kept busy protecting her dolls from five brothers by curling up in her closet with a good book from the library. Nero said, "This was always a wonderful way to escape the onslaught of G. I. Joe and his army." Nero also has a love for music and dancing, so during college, musical theater was a huge part of her life. Realizing it wasn´t a strong career field, she went to her second love, children and teaching. Nero spent 17 years teaching elementary school in Texas. After 5 years in the 4th grade classroom, she became the music teacher giving her the opportunity to work with kids from Kindergarten to 5th grade. Nero shared, "Because music is not the same as academics, I was able to teach kids in a different way. To pass out papers, I would fling them across the room to a chorus of squeals, as my ...

Blog Talk Radio’s World of Ink Network Show: Stories for Children with hosts VS Grenier, Kris Quinn Christopherson and Irene Roth will be chatting with debut author Molly Nero about her Smarty Pig picture book series. The first book in the series, Smarty Pig and the sequel, Smarty Pig and the Test Taking Terror releases in Spring 2012. About the Book: Smarty Pig is about the pig family and one little pig who hasn’t given up on school and doing her homework. Although she is teased, her report card shows her hard work, while the others fail. The other pigs reach out to her and she becomes their tutor, by creating games in their home. They all realize learning can be fun and that it’s not just for school, it’s for life.    Get a sneak peek of the book at http://youtu.be/E2L_NS2QqgM About the author : Molly Nero loves to sing, dance and read. She spent over 18 years teaching elementary school. Reading to her own children, she was inspired to write. The second book i...

It’s 5 am, and my house is silent.   With coffee brewing, the fireplace warms the chilly room where I sit snuggled under a blanket getting my hands to work through their cold stiffness to begin typing.   A small loving dog joins me on either side as another story begins, an idea is polished, a word is changed, or a character comes to life.   Before anyone else is awake, before anyone calls “Mom”, before the world begins to glow with the first rays of morning light, this is my writing time.     Of course, then the usual get the kids going, pack lunches, feed the dogs, and make sure anything that needs to have my signature is signed and put in the correct backpack takes over, and the day begins.   Writing continues after the barrage of morning Mom/wife duties has been completed.   It is a definite change from when I actually started this journey. As I read to my kids during Christmas break seven years ago, the ideas of Smarty Pig began to simply flo...