About Me
Well, thanks for caring to find out more about me! (If you are a bill collector, "Christy Scannell" is a pseudonym...)
Here's the boring bio stuff...
I am a freelance writer and editor, and I teach journalism at Grossmont College. My first novel, Desperate Pastors' Wives, with co-author Ginger Kolbaba, debuted in March 2007 from Simon & Schuster as part of our three-book "Secrets from Lulu's Café" series. The second installment, A Matter of Wife and Death, will be out in March 2008. I am also a featured columnist for the magazine Catholic Couples. I love to teach, so in addition to Grossmont I've welcomed opportunities to be a workshop leader at many Christian writers' conferences, and I am a mentor for the Christian Writers Guild and a staff member of The Christian Communicator. I also taught writing for two years in the University of Phoenix Online program. Previously, I was associate editor of The San Diego Metropolitan, a monthly business magazine, and the North Park News, a quaint community newspaper. For ten years prior to that, I was editorial director at Rainbow Publishers/Legacy Press, where I oversaw the acquisition and publication of Christian non-fiction books for children and teachers. During my tenure, I developed and edited over a hundred books including the best-selling God and Me! and Gotta Have God devotional series and The Christian Girl's Guide to... series. In my early career, I was a public relations writer and event coordinator for a variety of businesses including a university and a bank. I have an MA in communication from San Diego State University and a BA in mass communication/journalism from Anderson University.
Now for some interesting tidbits...
- My husband, Rich, is a newspaper editor. We were married on 02/02/02-his idea-in Las Vegas, but in a real church with a real pastor (no Elvis!).
- I have my own season tickets to the San Diego Chargers because Rich already had his with his guy-friend when we met. This will be the eleventh season for my friend Anne and me in Section 38, Row 14. Go Chargers!
- When I arrived at college, I was registered as a music major. But the night before classes started, I realized I was studying music for everyone except myself. So I dropped my entire schedule the first day and opted for Intro to Mass Comm. That course's professor, Holly Miller, impressed me so much that I became a journalism major. She is still my mentor, 23 years later.
- My great-great-grandmother was an American Indian, but no one in my family knows which tribe. You wouldn't know I have Indian blood from looking at me, although I do tan well.
- My master's thesis was on the use of authoritarianism in the writings of James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson. I wrote to each of them and offered to let them read my findings-not one responded.
- My favorite singer is Elton John. I have a concert poster of his from the Berlin Wall hanging in our sunroom.
- My second-favorite singer is a thousand-way tie.
- I've had fake nails since 1998 because mine won't grow.
- Guilty pleasures: American Idol, fried bologna sandwiches, various HBO series, 70s music (the bad stuff), People magazine (okay, and InStyle, too!), awfulplasticsurgery.com, HGTV, any kind of dip with bread or chips or whatever will hold it, watching a really skinny girl trip on her stiletto heels (oops, did I say that out loud?).
