SPOTLIGHT
SHIFTING GEARS
Biomed Children’s Book Writer BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS
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nvariably, around New Year’s Day every year, a TV reporter will ask a random person on the street about their goals or resolutions for the year. Occasionally, the answer will include a response about a dream of writing a book. That dream of many people can be found in personal blogs, literary forums and on social media.
The dream of applying one’s creative skills and abilities to the pages of a book, along with the potential for a modicum of fame, has been a goal for many. Whether fiction or non-fiction, writing a book is often a way to increase social capital. For some, it’s a way to achieve some degree of immortality. It is not only an endeavor that benefits the author, but the resulting product can provide benefits to the readers. That fact is particularly true when the book is aimed at the youth market and provides educational benefits. One recent example of this idea is a book called: “Meet the STEAM TEAM: Coloring & Activity Book.” The book’s author is Douglas Redwine, operations manager of
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healthcare technology management at Texas Health Resources. Amazon describes the book as: “The STEAM TEAM is a group of ordinary teenagers who discover the superpower of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math and use it in magical ways to solve problems and create fun adventure.” The website goes on to say: “‘Meet the STEAM TEAM’ is loaded with action-packed mazes, word searches, things to draw, pages to color and more.” What prompted an HTM professional to delve into the world of children’s activity books? “I’ve had the idea of writing a book for many years and always knew I would one day,” Redwine says. “I’ve made several attempts in the past, but just never completed the task. Once the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it limited my opportunities to work with my students in the after-school program, but gave me more free time to think, and I took advantage by returning to the idea of creating books,” he adds. Redwine is referring to a media arts class for the Fort Worth After
School Program at Dunbar High School that was part of the focus of a 2017 TechNation article. The focus of the after-school class is STEM education. That has been a passion of Redwine’s and he clearly believes in its importance in preparing kids for the future. “My original idea for writing books was to produce books in the self-help/motivation genre, but one day I was struck with the idea that I should work in my area of expertise; science, technology, engineering and math and arts activities for kids. Once I came to the conclusion to create books for kids the idea of the STEAM TEAM suddenly came to me about a week later during a morning drive to work,” he says. Redwine says that before arriving to work that day, he had the names of the characters and knew he was now ready to begin researching and learning how to publish books. The science, technology, engineering and math advocate didn’t jump into the author role head-first; he initially did some research. “As a result of my many years working with students and creating theme-based lessons, I knew exactly
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