With 7 million Americans receiving unemployment benefits, and many counting the years - instead of months - since their layoff, author Darlene Quinn says now is a good time to reinvent yourself.

She cites James Sherk, a senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, who says the jobs people held two or three years ago often simply aren't there anymore.

"People are trying to find jobs similar to what they had previously, when those jobs completely don't exist," he told Reuters recently. "So they will spend a good portion of their period unemployed looking for jobs that they are unlikely to find."

Quinn is a master of personal reinvention. She started her career as a teacher, then became a contractor, developing self-improvement and modeling programs for hospitals and a store. That segued into a position as a top executive at Bullocks Wilshire department store and "retirement" as a freelance journalist.

And now, the 74-year-old is an award-winning novelist. She published her third book, Webs of Fate (www.darlenequinn.net), this fall, continuing her series about deceit and intrigue in the high-end retail industry.

She says she was always a story-teller; she just never thought about putting her stories on paper.

"Being a victim of the short-lived educational phenomenon called sight-reading, which did not include phonics, I had always been intimidated by the written word," she said.

"Somehow none of my teachers appreciated my creativity when it came to spelling.  Therefore, my creative writing efforts were sprinkled with so many red marks, they appeared to have broken out with the measles."

Maybe, she added, she just needed a great story to tell and a passion to tell it that was stronger than her fear.

Quinn became a schoolteacher after earning a bachelor's at San Jose State University. Much later in life, while working as a department store executive during a time of tremendous upheaval in the retail fashion industry, she found her story. But before she tried to tell it, she first sharpened her wit and her pen by writing articles for trade journals, magazines and newspapers.

That led to her being drafted by actor Buddy Ebsen to help him with his first novel, a love story called Kelly's Quest. Ebsen was working on a second, a mystery based on his popular TV persona detective Barnaby Jones, when he died in 2003. His widow asked Quinn to finish the book, Sizzling Cold Case, which was published in 2006.

By now, Quinn was ready for her own tale.

"I felt compelled to tell the story of our vanishing department stores," she said. "Instead of writing a dour tell-all about the business, I decided to chronicle my experiences in one of my fictional worlds and I filled that landscape with the realistic and dynamic characters that inhabited my daily life.

"The age of computers with spell-checking software helped me get over my fear of a red-inked manuscript."

By 2008, Quinn had finished her story of intrigue in the retail fashion business. Webs of Power won a 2009 National Indie Excellence Award the following year.  Twisted Webs followed in 2010.

"One thing I've learned in my life is that things change," Quinn said. "People change and, sometimes, their dreams have to change with them.

"To be releasing my third novel at age 74 is the fulfillment of a dream I never knew I had. Until now."

About Darlene Quinn

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

WASHINGTON - Senator Chuck Grassley today called on the Secretary of Health and Human Services to rescind the Obama Administration's health care rule that will force religious affiliated organizations to either abandon their freedom of conscience or pay a fine of up to $2,000 per employee.

The rule issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, as part of the department's implementation of the sweeping Affordable Care Act of 2010, mandates that religious-affiliated charities, schools and hospitals provide coverage for controversial contraceptive products.

"The federal government does not have the right to tell religious groups to provide a service that violates their faith," Grassley said.  "This rule emphasizes one of the many concerns Americans have with the 2010 health care law, that it is a dramatic overreach into personal freedoms and liberties."

In a letter to Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Grassley said the mandate as written will result in litigation that could be avoided with a regulation that shows respect for religious freedom.  Here is the text of his letter.

February 7, 2012

The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius

Secretary, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Secretary Sebelius,

I write to express serious reservations with the rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on January 20, 2012, mandating that religious-affiliated charities, schools, and hospitals provide coverage for controversial contraceptive products.  This decision would force many groups, including charities, schools, and hospitals, to provide coverage of contraceptive and abortifacient products despite strong objections to these drugs rooted in religious beliefs.

The federal government does not have the right to tell religious groups to provide a service that violates their faith.   It is disturbing that under the broad HHS requirement and narrow exemption, religious affiliated organizations will face a choice that Americans should not confront: adhere to their freedom of conscience or pay a fine of up to $2,000 per employee.  As currently written, this mandate will result in litigation that could be avoided if HHS issued a regulation that showed greater respect for religious freedom.

This rule highlights this Administration's continued invasive role in designing the health care benefits available to Americans and underscores one of the numerous concerns Americans have with the Affordable Care Act.  That the definition of a preventative benefit services has morphed into a requirement to force Americans to buy a product that violates their conscience demonstrates the dramatic overreach of the law into Americans' personal freedoms and liberties.  This burdensome and morally dubious regulation stands against more than 200 years of our nation's proud history of religious and individual liberty.  I strongly urge you to rescind this rule and ensure that any future issuance of a revised rule respects the conscience of not only medical providers, but healthcare consumers and faith-based organizations as well.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley

CANTON, MO. (02/07/2012)(readMedia)-- Culver-Stockton College theatre students will take the stage Feb. 16, 17 and 19 for their production of "Much Ado about Nothing."

Cast members for the production include :

Ian Sodawasser, a sophomore musical theatre major from Davenport, Iowa, as Conrade.

Kirsten Sindelar, a junior musical theatre major from Sherrard, Ill., as Margaret.

The production will be staged Feb. 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. The Sunday, Feb. 19 performance will begin at 3p.m. All performances will be held in the Black Box theatre inside the Robert W. Brown Performing Arts Center on the campus of Culver-Stockton College. Tickets are $6 for adults. Admission is free with Culver-Stockton College identification.

GALESBURG, IL (02/07/2012)(readMedia)-- A deployment ceremony is scheduled for approximately 120 Soldiers who are scheduled to deploy to Kuwait this winter. The ceremony for the 444th Chemical Company will be Feb. 12 at 1 p.m. at the Galesburg National Guard Armory, 362 N. Linwood Road in Galesburg.

The Soldiers will train for a brief time at Camp Shelby, Miss. before deploying for approximately nine months in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Soldiers with the 444th Chemical Company will provide base security and command cell operations. The unit will provide support for other units stationed in the area and provide sustainment and command for a Michigan-based military police task force in northern Kuwait.

The unit will be mobilized for approximately one year, returning home in early 2013.

For more information, contact the Public Affairs office at ngilstaffpao@ng.army.mil or call 217-761-3569.

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