Life Perspective: Reviews & More

Veteran journalist and publisher Kathryn E. Darden has been officially selected for inclusion in the international Influential Women directory under the Publishing & Journalism category. The platform serves as a global professional network honoring female media founders, executives, and authors whose work shapes industries and leaves a lasting impact across print and digital media. For Darden, the selection highlights a media career spanning more than three decades and follows hot on the heels of her recent inclusion in the prestigious 2026 edition of  Who’s Who  of America registry.   Since founding ChristianActivities.com in 1992, as well as starting a web presence in 1994, she has guided the outlet into one of the longest-running independent Christian news portals on the web. Beyond her flagship publication, her reporting and feature writing have appeared across a broad mix of regional and national outlets, including The Tennessean , The Westview , Barbie Baza...

Author, poet, and publisher Kathryn E. Darden, will be autographing copies of the 2008 edition of The Mayberry Poem - A Tribute to Mayberry and her new book How to Promote Your Book on a Shoestring Budget during this year's Mayberry Days in Mt. Airy, NC. Darden will be the special guest of Mayberry on Main on Thursday night, and again on both Friday and Saturday for morning and evening book signings. The book signings will take place on Thursday, September 25 from 7 to 8 PM. Book signings will also take place on Friday, September 26 from 11 to noon and from 6 PM to 7 PM; and Saturday, September 27 after the parade to noon and from 5:30 to 7 PM at Mayberry on Main, 126 N. Main Street (across from Snappy Lunch), Mount Airy, NC 27030. Phone: 336-719-0405 The Mayberry Poem - A Tribute to Mayberry is a compilation of poetry about "The Andy Griffith Show" that celebrates the characters and the show that made millions of viewers laugh during the turbulent 60s as they watche...

I signed a publishing deal today! How to Promote Your Book on a Shoestring Budget, will be published by Darden & Associates through NovelMaker, and printed and distributed by NovelMaker. The reason Darden & Associates will show up as publisher is... I already had everything, including the ISBN number and bar code. Since the ISBN and bar code are registered to Darden & Associates, we remain the technical publishers. However, NovelMaker will do everything for me from printing to distribution, getting me on Amazon.com, and putting the book in their own book store, doing fulfillment, etc. I am not having to pay a fee for a "publishing plan" where the publishing company charges me an arm and a leg for doing things I can do or already have done myself at a fraction of the cost, but I am getting the support, placement, and fulfillment I could not easily do on my own! And my books will cost slightly less per book to print, since they are a smaller size, so I will be able...

It is like being back at square one again! Well, not really, but still.... I am still in the process of negotiating with a new publisher, but things are taking a bit longer than I anticipated, because I am having to reformat my text, side bars, and graphics in hopes of going with a slightly-smaller, less expensive book size. And since I am having to go back in to reformat, why, of course I am going back in to the text as well, adding, tweaking and updating! I am not making any big changes, but if I can save a little on the cost per book, and make some small improvements to the text, I might as well take advantage of it! Reformatting it myself saves me the cost of hiring someone else to do my layout. If I have done all this reformatting and decide NOT to go with the new publisher, I will be VERY ticked with myself. I am still not even sure I am going with them, because they need to see the book in its new, improved, tighter, reformatted state to tell me what the cost per book will be. I...