Today's Get to Know You interview is with Valerie J. Steimle. Valerie writes a wide array of personal non-fiction, covering areas such as home schooling, being a single in a family-oriented church, and memoirs on being a single parent.
JDP: Welcome, Valerie! Did your mother read to you as a child? Interesting question.
Valerie: Yes, my mother read to me as a very young child but I did not like to read in school and growing up. (Even with weekly visits to the library) I think that difficulty was due to poor learning in public school in my early years but I have since recovered. I love to read.
JDP: Do you remember a favorite book from your childhood?
Valerie: Yes, it's called The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, which I still own.
JDP: Name a favorite author as an adult.
Valerie: James Harriet of the All Creatures Great and Small series
JDP: Share a book you’ve read multiple times.
Valerie: I don't normally read books over again. Once I read it, that is it unless I use something for research. I'm weird that way.
JDP: Kindle, Nook, or good old hard copy?
Valerie: Good old hard copy.
JDP: What’s your favorite place to read?
Valerie: Curled up in bed.
JDP: What are your three favorite reading genres.
Valerie: Non-fiction, clean romance and action adventure.
JDP: What’s the last book you read?
Valerie: Just finished Dressing Your Truth by Carol Tuttle---it's fascinating.
JDP: What are you reading now?
Valerie: The Waterfall Concept by Roger Stark for a review I need to do.
JDP: What’s next on your reading list?
Valerie: I have Freemen and Dreamers by LC. Lewis lined up and Hometown Girl by Michele Ashman Bell
JDP: What you would like to read more of? (author, genre, etc)
Valerie: I have several Glenn Beck books that I want to get to as well as other non-fiction books about how we can improve our country. So many books....not enough time.
JDP: Share a favorite book that you’ve read in the last 12 months
Valerie: By far this non-fiction book that has opened my eyes. Stand For The Family by Sharon Slater has been a Godsend to me in the way of information and how I can use her facts to improve the weekly editorial writing I do for a local paper. Ms. Slater has incredible experiences and the book is fantastic.
JDP: Thank you so much for joining us today, Valerie!
More about Valerie! : Valerie J. Steimle was born in Brooklyn , NY , to a close-knit Jewish family. Her mother searched for many years to find what was missing in their lives. When Valerie was 9 years old she was baptized, along with her parents, sister and brother, into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It had brought an incredible change in her life but her parents would not tell the rest of the family for 10 years which made for an interesting life.
Valerie graduated from Ricks College in 1979 and attended Brigham Young University from 1979 to 1982, where she met Robert Steimle. They married and had nine children. Though she grew up in New Jersey , she found southern Alabama to her liking and has lived there for the past 17 years with her family. Her husband of 25 years passed away suddenly which left her to raise her youngest five children on her own until she met James Foy two years later. They happily reside in southern Alabama.
While she was raising her children, Valerie felt compelled to write about the family and started with a newspaper column in the local paper. She then published her first book, called Home Is Where The Heart Is, which is a collection of those articles. Her next book, Home Is Where The Learning Is: Homeschool Lifestyles from Homeschool Moms, includes seven other homeschool moms contributing their story in understanding the lifestyle of a homeschool family. Her third book is Of One Heart: Being Single in the LDS World which was written to help all those single and belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints. Besides writing and reading, Valerie loves to spend time with her family, watches movies, embroiders, and gardens.
Learn more about Valerie on her website, Strengthen Your Home, and blog, Blessings of Family Life
Books by Valerie J. Steimle (available from her website or Amazon.com)
Home Is Where the Heart Is
Home Is Where the Learning Is: Homeschool Lifestyles from Homeschool Moms
Of One Heart: Being Single in the LDS World
Dogs, Blogs and Hobbits; Writings from a Widow's Perspective
Summary of Dogs, Blogs and Hobbits: Writings from a Widow’s Perspective:
Becoming a widow at the early age of 46 was not what Valerie J. Steimle expected. She still had five of her nine children at home in her care with aspirations of a fullfilling life with her husband. After she buried her husband she went to work and wrote every day for three years. This collection of 60 articles is part of that work. Ms. Steimle writes about everything from dating jerks to the power of positive thinking. Her outlook on life is inspiring and she writes about what is really important in life.
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