Spirited Woman Bloggers

SPIRITED WOMAN BLOGGER TEAM

GREAT NEWS! Our blogger team just keeps on becoming more popular. We now have nine talented inspired women "covering the beat" for Spirited Woman everywhere - on everything from entertainment, travel, fashion, food, humor, inspiration, health & well-being to being a Spirited Kid. Meet them. They're fantabulous! Plus, we have an array of top guest bloggers, too!

KRISTIN FLANNERY

A bonafide lover of all things entertainment, Kristin Flannery was really bitten by the entertainment bug when she took the leap and moved solo from Rhode Island to Los Angeles. Her first "in the biz" job was at Paramount Television, as the assistant to a powerful, top female marketing executive – her first Spirited Woman role model. After more than a decade of rising through the ranks in the entertainment industry, Kristin now owns her own marketing and PR company and happily works from her home office, which affords her the opportunity to take on clients that she really, really likes.

One of four sisters, she lives in Redondo Beach, California with her two "spirited" young daughters. Her e-mail address is: kristintflannery@yahoo.com.

KRISTIN'S BEAT: ENTERTAINMENT

Listen to Kristin Flannery in a 5-min. audio clip

DAWN Z BOURNAND

Dawn Z Bournand is a Spirited American Woman living in Paris, France. Founder of Fabulously Successful, a motivational company helping women around the world create success their way, Dawn is a published author, success mentor and international speaker. She has lived in the city of lights for eleven years and is a proud mother of three Franco-American boys.  As a former photographer who studied in France, she has been able to learn about French style first hand. Her website is www.fabulouslysuccessful.com  and e-mail: dawn@fabulouslysuccessful.com.

Dawn looks forward to sharing her enthusiasm for spirited style and Spirited Woman profiles, with you, through her regular Spirited Woman blog posts.

DAWN'S BEAT: SPIRITED WOMAN PROFILES, EX-PAT IN PARIS

Listen to Dawn Z Bournard in a 5-min. audio clip

KELSEY COLLINS

Kelsey Collins, is a spiritual counselor, volunteer Hospice Chaplain, eldercare advocate, and author of Exit Strategy…Leaving this Life with Grace and Gratitude. In her book, she reminds us that we have control over how we think about death, and possibly even the way it will look when we transition from this world to the next.

Ordained as a Unity Minister in the early 70s, Kelsey Collins, M.A., began a lifelong journey through many other faiths and perspectives to broaden her internal awareness, inviting others to always look to their own hearts to discover their Universal Truths.

Kelsey speaks regularly at the Spiritual Awareness Community at the Old Stone Church in Bend, Oregon on a series entitled “What are We Waiting For?” and at the Wholistic Compass Workshops with Partners in Care. She is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association and Small Publishers Association of North America.

"Being asked to write for the Health and Wellness portion of The Spirited Woman site is both an honor and a fun challenge for me. I am neither a physician nor another authority in the medical profession, and therefore will not be writing from that perspective. The context of health and wellness IS what I will be writing about essentially, i.e. what lays underneath our various illnesses, diseases, and assorted maladies." Kelsey's website is: www.kelseycollins.com.

KELSEY'S BEAT: HEALTH & WELL-BEING

VICKY DECOSTER

Award-winning humor writer Vicky DeCoster has over 25 years of writing experience including humor columns in two magazines. She is the author of Husbands, Hot Flashes, and All That Hullabaloo! and The Wacky World of Womanhood: Essays on Girlhood, Dating, Motherhood, and the Loss of Matching Underwear. Her work has been published in over 60 magazines, books, and on several web sites. This new-age Erma Bombeck is a spirited woman in heart, soul, and body and loves telling a funny story more than anything in the world.

Vicky lives in Nebraska with her husband and two children. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, cycling, running, and of course, laughing at herself. Visit her web site at www.wackywomanhood.com.

VICKY'S BEAT: HUMOR

Listen to Vicky DeCoster in a 5-min. audio clip

ALICE

Not all kids stop to think about others every day, but that is only a small part of what makes 13-year-old Alice unique. Alice truly tries to help other people and animals every day. In 2nd grade, she used her entrepreneurial and creative spirit to start a business that generates funds to make this possible. With some help from her web designer mom, she started selling decorated flip flops at www.froufrouflipflops.com to make money for charities.

To keep her imagination in tip-top shape, Alice enjoys running, reading, writing, acting, playing the clarinet and beading jewelry. She’s in 7th grade. Her hero is Dr. Seuss.

ALICE'S BEAT: SPIRITED KID

Listen to ALICE in a 5-min. audio clip

MINGMEI YIP

When she was a child, Mingmei Yip made up stories like “how the moon reached to slap the sun” and “how the dim sum on my plate suddenly got up to tango.”

At fifteen, she was thrilled that not only her article got published but she was paid ten dollars for it. Now Mingmei is a best-selling novelist and children’s book writer and illustrator. Her debut novel Peach Blossom Pavilion is the story of the last Chinese Geisha and her new novel Petals from the Sky, is a poignant Buddhist love story.

Mingmei is accomplished in many other fields. A professional player on the Guqin, an ancient Chinese stringed instrument for over 30 years, she was recently invited by Carnegie Hall to perform in “A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture” in a program with cellist Yo Yo Ma and pianist Lang Lang. She had her solo Goddess of Compassion painting exhibition at the New York Open Center Gallery to great acclaim, taught calligraphy at the City University of New York, and Taichi at the International Women’s Writing Guild.

Mingmei has also lectured extensively on Chinese art and culture at venues including Oxford University, Columbia University, Beijing University, University of Paris, Amsterdam University, Vassar College  and Williams College.

Now on the Spirited Woman’s blogger team, she is thrilled to share her experiences on creative arts with other enthusiasts. Visit her at www.mingmeiyip.com to learn about her books, music, illustrations, paintings and calligraphy. Mingmei would love to hear from you, please email her at mingmeiyip@aol.com.

 MINGMEI'S BEAT: CREATIVE ARTS

BZ RIGER

BZ Riger is a Spirited Woman and creative entrepreneur, with a zest for life and a vibrant joyful attitude. The author of The Soul of Success, and principle of Inspiros, her company provides life coaching, small business success training, content creation, inspirational videos and multimedia products to women over 40 who want to shift to thriving in their life and small business. BZ also has a weekly radio show called, change your life. You can listen live every Thursday from 1-2 EST or download archived shows.

A resident of Martha's Vineyard, BZ specializes in helping women become unstoppable, embrace their passions and rejoice in their personal power from the inside out. “my mission is about women reconnecting to inspiration, confidence, empowerment." BZ Riger, www.artofallowingmindset.com, www.internetradiowithjuice.com  Email: BZ@in-spiros.com

BZ'S BEAT: INSPIRATION

Listen to BZ Riger in a 5-min. audio clip

LINDA JAY GELDENS

Linda Jay Geldens is delightfully surprised by her life. Happily married, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and works with authors all over the U.S. and in other countries as a book manuscript copyeditor. In the past two years, Linda has completed more than 60 manuscripts, on topics ranging from business to science fiction to novels to memoirs. She is also a promotional writer, and works with clients on Web site text, brochures, newsletters, and articles.

Linda survived a huge “personal earthquake.” She was married for 25 years to a multimedia pioneer, who died unexpectedly in 1994. The following year, Linda moved from Silicon Valley to Marin County, kept working, traveled, made new friends, dated when she was 55 to 60, met her new husband in 1999, and remarried in 2001. The couple went to Paris on their honeymoon!

Linda loves jazz and classical music, visiting art galleries, and meeting new people. She looks forward to hearing from her blog readers.  Her e-mail address is: LindaJay@aol.com, and her website is: www.LindaJayGeldens.com. 

LINDA'S BEAT: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Listen to Linda Jay in a 6-min. audio clip