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Ann Douglas, pregnancy and parenting author

Ranked #18,841 in Culture & Society, #382,867 overall

WELCOME I'm Ann Douglas -- author, mother of four, Squidoo-er. This lens provides a few basic facts about me as well as some links to my favorite online resources about writing.

Putting Fun in its Place

It took me about 40 years to figure out that the person who said "work before play" had it backwards, so I'm starting out this lens by talking about what I like to do for fun.
  • READING: I read all kinds of books -- and I have a growing collection of vintage pregnancy and parenting books -- so I'm always looking for treasures at places like Abebooks.com. I also keep an eye out for books written by my great-grandfather who was also a writer. (My father and my daughter are also writers. We're a writerly bunch.)

  • PLAYING SCRABBLE: I have loved this game every since I learned to play it at my parents' cottage when I was a kid. You can imagine how excited I was to discover Scrabbleous here at Squidoo.

  • COTTAGING: Once you've got cottaging in your blood, you're hooked for life. My Dad still has our family cottage on Go Home Lake. And now my husband and I go cottaging with our kids on Jordan Lake (in the Haliburton Highlands). It's gorgeous. For more about cottaging, check out Cottage Life magazine. (Now you know where I got much of the inspiration for my Summer Parenting lens.)

  • ART: This is a new thing for me, but I'm really getting into art -- making my own cards, turning unusual things into pieces of art (so that I can decorate my first-ever non-home-based office on the cheap), blending art and words, etc. I am loving it! These are the types of projects I find really fascinating.

  • DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY: This is an even newer thing for me (yes, I just updated this module!), and now I'm addicted to Flickr. You can find me here if you want to check out some of my photos.
  • ECLECTIC AND UNEXPECTED: Earlier this year, I decided to launch my own vintage shop at Etsy -- a vintage shop called Eclectic and Unexpected. It was my way of becoming part of the amazing creative community that is Etsy. I have found the experience to be nothing short of incredible. On a daily basis, I have the opportunity to interact with other people who share my passion for living creatively and making a difference with their life. Every aspect of my life has been affected in a positive way -- including my writing. If you haven't discovered Etsy yet and you love homemade or vintage goods or the supplies required to make your own one-of-a-kind creations, you're in for a treat. Just be forewarned. It's very addictive!

My Blogs

I love blogging -- and I believe that every author needs a blog. In fact, I wrote a post on that topic when my first blog was about six months old.
The Mother of All Parenting Blogs
My brand new blog at The Toronto Star's ParentCentral gets to the heart of what really matters to parents today. Expect the unexpected.
Yahoo! Parenting by Ann Douglas
My blog at Yahoo! Canada Lifesyle focuses on pregnancy, parenting, family, and other related issues.
The Mother of All Blogs
My original blog. A fun and chatty blog that features posts about pregnancy, parenting, and the writing life. I don't post here as often now that I'm blogging elsewhere on a regular basis, but this is where you'll find my link headquarters, my archives, and a lot of other valuable resources.
Amazon Blog: Ann Douglas
My Amazon Blog. Very bookish, as you would expect. I provide my readers with updates on pregnancy and parenting news, behind-the-scenes looks at the writing process, and other things book-related.

My Websites

Yes, I have more websites than children. (I'm a mom of four.)

Having-a-baby.com
This was my original website -- and it's still my biggest website in terms of content and traffic. It contains pregnancy and parenting book excerpts, articles, tip sheets, my author bio, and a list of all of my books.
Pregnancy Library
This website consists of some of my favorite pregnancy-related links. It also hosts a lot of tip sheets that I've created for pregnant women. (These tipsheets are widely used by childbirth educators, doulas, parent educators, and others who work with families as handouts for their clients.)
Parenting Library
This website is the sister site to Pregnancy Library. It's a guide to my favorite parenting-related links on the web. I also have a bunch of parenting-related tip sheets on the site.
Summer Parenting
This website is about the joys and challenges of parenting (or being pregnant) during the summer months. There's a related lens here at Squidoo. The Squidoo lens features some unique content, including a bunch of links to sites where you can learn all about classic summer games like "Mother May I," Simon Says," "Red Rover," and "Red Light, Green Light."

Talk, Talk, Talk

Everything I do involves talking to parents in one way or another...

...whether I'm interviewing parents for a book or for a magazine article, hanging out with parents online via one of my blogs, or getting together with a small group of parents at a book-signing, moms' group, or other informal event.

Sometimes I speak to larger groups of parents and parents-to-be, at consumer parenting shows like BabyTime, BabyBoom and Baby Fair. Or I meet up with groups of parents and childbirth and postpartum professionals at conferences like DONA International, The Canadian Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, or Childbirth and Postpartum Professionals Association Canada or to selected audiences such as a group of parents-to-be at Portsmouth Regional Hospital or a particular employer who has contracted the services of LifeSpeak.

WebMD Course Textbooks

These are the two books upon which my WebMD pregnancy and baby courses are based. I've been working with WebMD for over five years. Some of my courses have attracted upwards of 7500 registrants.
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The Mother of All Books series

These are the US editions of my bestselling The Mother of All Books series. (There are also Canadian editions of the first four books, plus foreign editions of the various titles.) You can find out more about each book at The Mother of All Bookstores.
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Sleep Solutions and Mealtime Solutions

Solutions-oriented books designed to meet the needs of this generation of parents

My two latest books are designed to provide you with the latest research on the issue at hand -- sleep or feeding your child -- while incorporating interviews with real families, so that you can see how different families chose to tackle the same issue in different ways. The books are meant to encourage you to tap into your own knowledge and intuition about will work best for your child at each age and stage (as opposed to providing you with a one-size-fits-all parenting solution), since those types of parenting solutions rarely work well for parents or kids in the real world.
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Trying Again: A Guide to Pregnancy After Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss

A book that is much more than just a book to me

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Childcare Books

I'm also the author of these two books on choosing childcare.
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Writing Courses and Writer Mentorship

I spend a fair bit of my time teaching and mentoring other writers. A number of writers that I have mentored through the process of writing their first book have gone on to become published authors.
Trent University
I teach writing courses through the School of Continuing Education at Trent University. (My next course, Publish and Prosper, will be offered in Spring 2007.) I mentor writers through Trent University's writer mentorship program.
Professional Writers Association of Canada
I also mentor writers through the Professional Writers Association of Canada's writer mentorship program. Note: I am a past-president of the Periodical Writers Association of Canada (now the Professional Writers Association of Canada).
Author Incubator: Links
This is a list of recommended resources for writers that I put together a while back. You can find more in the sidebar of The Mother of All Blogs. For some tips on being a happy and successful author, see my lens on this topic.

Canuck Chicks and Maple Leaf Mamas

A one-of-a-kind book about Canadian women/moms

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Children's Books

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Mother of All Pregnancy Books: Audio Book

This is my first book to make it to the world of audiobooks, so I'm still pretty pumped with the novelty of it all.
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My Article Archive

Some of the places you can find my articles online

@ Canadianliving.com
A mix of articles that I've written and articles (or TV promos) that feature me.
@ Having-a-baby.com
An article archive I created on one of my websites. It's a bit out of date, but there are links to a lot of articles that are available online.
@ Today's Parent
Articles I've written for Today's Parent -- a leading Canadian parenting magazine.
@ American College of Nurse-Midwives: My Midwife.org
Here's a sample of some of the writing I've done over the years for the American College of Nurse-Midwives. This is an article on immunization.
@ WebMD.com
A mix of articles, live event transcripts, book excerpts, and event promos from WebMD.com.
@ Yahoo Parenting
A motley assortment of articles on conception, pregnancy, parenting, women's health, etc., at Yahoo! Parenting -- part of the new Yahoo! Lifestyle Channel @ Yahoo! Canada.

Misconceptions

Conceive Magazine
I write the "Misconceptions" column for Conceive Magazine -- a publication which was recently named one of the Top 50 magazines by The Chicago Tribune. You'll find it on the very last page of the magazine.

My Strangest Claim to Fame

(and the thing that impresses my kids the most)

Is the fact that I've been on a Cheerios Box. Go figure.
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My Photos from Flickr

Me @ Flickr.
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Let me know what you think of this lens....

And let me know where I can check out yours, particularly if you're a fellow author, book lover, etc.

  • wmccave Apr 3, 2007 @ 11:46 pm | delete
    I thought that you have a very good "about me" lens here, so I added you the the feadured lenses section of my about me lens http://www.squidoo.com/linksnmore/. Thanks for sharing some great content.
  • Mar 25, 2007 @ 1:54 am | delete
    This is a very good lens. I've been thinking about doing one on myself so I'm trying to get some ideas and inspiration. Thank you.
  • zuzanna Nov 3, 2006 @ 3:05 pm | delete
    Hi, Ann, great lens! You're a very busy lady and I see that all you do is always perfect. Congratulations!
  • just_Dawn Sep 2, 2006 @ 1:54 pm | delete
    Very nicely done! I'm off to go check out your "Back to School Guide" lens next!
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anndouglas

I am the author of numerous books about pregnancy and parenting, including The Mother of All Pregnancy Books, The Mother of All Baby Books, The Mother... more »

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