Genealogy

Freedom for Cuba

by Joanie Schirm on November 27, 2016 Permalink

With the passing of Fidel Castro, I’m reminded of a time in the early 1960s when my parents offered to house a Cuban refugee family just after their escape from the tyranny of Castro’s regime. In our home in Indialantic came a small, very sad family who spoke little English and wished only to gain…
Adventurers Against Their Will featured in Holocaust Education Book

by Joanie Schirm on October 12, 2016 Permalink

‘Literature Can Help Bring Forward Every Aspect of Human Life.’ (from the book: Essentials of Holocaust Education: Fundamental Issues and Approaches) An author’s life is never dull. After almost nine years, I’ve nearly finished my second and third books (My Dear Boy and Steadfast Ink). As they go through final edits, I’ve entered the stage…
I Love Book Clubs

by Joanie Schirm on March 21, 2016 Permalink

I LOVE BOOK CLUBS As a non-fiction author, it’s particularly meaningful when you have a chance to connect live with readers who’ve had the experience to “meet” your real life characters. This opportunity recently happened for me when I got an email invitation to attend a long standing book club who’d read Adventurers Against Their…
Ready to Meet the World: My Dear Boy – 400 WWII letters. 78 writers. 1 remarkable secret.

by Joanie Schirm on February 24, 2016 Permalink

Ready to meet the world: My Dear Boy – 400 WWII letters. 78 writers. 1 Remarkable Secret. To all who have tagged along on my seven-year writing journey—this is a big day! I proclaim the My Dear Boy 81,000-word Memoir complete. Now all I need is a good literary agent to open the locked door…
Helping Future Peacemakers Understand the Past. A True Story Tells it Best.

by Joanie Schirm on November 4, 2015 Permalink

From the moment I read the last letter that my grandfather Arnošt wrote to my dad, I knew it held meaning beyond the four walls of my writing room. Dated April 21, 1942, just three days before Arnošt and my grandmother Olga Holzer were taken from Prague on a Nazi transport to their deaths, the…
Lesson Plans from Life – Making it Matter

by Joanie Schirm on August 18, 2015 Permalink

LESSON PLANS FROM LIFE – MAKING IT MATTERFrom: Joanie Holzer Schirm, Orlando Author: Adventurers Against Their Will (AATW) Lesson Plan: www.joanieschirm.com/teachers “Hopefully, education and knowledge of history linked together with pure compassion and humanity will let us recognize the origins of old-new dangers and tie down the demons of hatred and evil before they grow…
Earned Title: Author

by Joanie Schirm on January 12, 2015 Permalink

Earned Title: Author Seven years ago, January 11, 2008, I sold my Orlando engineering company. Having left behind the lofty title of President, I entered my next life chapter with a goal: Published Author. It was a position title I had to earn. Befuddled as to how to describe my new endeavor, my husband Roger…
“Shout for Freedom”

by Joanie Schirm on November 20, 2014 Permalink

“Shout for Freedom” A memory from the Velvet Revolution – Twenty-Five years ago – Czechoslovakia, November, 1989 I have a memory that embodies the emotions I felt when my dad’s native land, Czechoslovakia, recovered their freedom. After forty-one years of communist rule, in what is now known as the “Velvet Revolution,” a brave country shouted…