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Meet Randi D. Ward

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Randi D. Ward.

Randi, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My teaching career began in September 1971 as a Remedial Reading Teacher at a junior high school in Moundsville, WV. My mother was an amazing high school teacher and inspired me to follow in her footsteps. During my teaching career, I taught writing skills for 37 years as well as grammar, literature, journalism, drama, gifted education, and public speaking. When I retired in Georgia in May 2008, I became discontented and desperately needed a new path to pursue. I had always been active and now felt uninspired. In November 2011, I was fortunate to be offered an ESOL teaching position at an adult English language center in Cairo, Egypt, by a Facebook friend. The next three months changed my life forever. My Egyptian teaching became the greatest experience of my educational career. I not only taught the most motivated and highly intelligent young adults but once again became a student as well, and with the generous help and guidance of my students and other friends there learned how to become an Egyptian woman in an unfamiliar and dangerous but exciting new culture. Egypt was in the middle of a violent political revolution, and I was living three blocks from Tahrir Square, the center of the numerous violent protests. Finding ways to remain safe was often a challenge.

When I returned to the USA on February 6, 2012, from my 2011-12 teaching experience in Cairo, Egypt, my second career began. In the spring of 2012, I wrote my first book—a memoir about my living and surviving as a teacher during Egypt’s political revolution. (I consider myself an expert on Egyptian culture now.) I was not the same Randi. My entire outlook on life had changed. I had been reborn in a way. I knew I had some unique and important new insights and messages to share. I decided to write the book I had always dreamed of doing but never had time to do during my many years of teaching in American public schools. I have traveled to 60 countries and have many stories I could share, but this was the story that had to be told. Within one week after arriving at my home in Georgia, I began reliving my life-changing experiences through my words and with the help of my many personal photos. Two months later my memoir BECAUSE I BELIEVED IN ME (MY EGYPTIAN FANTASY CAME TRUE) was born. It includes 153 photos that enhance my incredible adventure.

I then started my business as an author and entrepreneur in December 2012. With the assistance of several Egyptian partners, two English language schools were opened in Cairo between 2012 and 2014—an adult center and a nursery school. Both sadly had to close due to the continuing economic and political problems in Egypt and the fact I could not be there to monitor these businesses in person. Trying to teach via Skype with the six-hour time difference did not work well. I have no regrets opening the centers. While they were open, the rewards of helping young people learn some English skills with the lessons I created was rewarding.

My love for writing was now deeply embedded in my heart and mind. My current writing genres include poetry, adult and children short stories, blogs, motivational YouTube videos, non-fiction magazine articles, song lyrics, and a 400+ page world adventure novel. I am also currently serving as the Chief Editor for the online magazine “Morocco Pens”.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Becoming a writer was the easy part. Finding the best ways to share my words with the readers required much research and tedious work. Being a veteran English teacher did not provide me with the experience I needed to be a publisher and marketer so I felt compelled to seek out professionals for assistance. After discussions with many publishers, I finally chose a well-known self-publishing company. The costs were much more than I had expected, but my enthusiasm for my book on my life in Egypt steered me not only to purchase a large publishing package but also the very expensive marketing program. Overall, the staff of the publishing company was helpful and efficient; however, I never felt the desired connection with the marketing agent chosen for me. He did not follow up on his promises, such as an American magazine article, a TV interview with Aljazeera, and a chapter of my book in Huffington Press. He always complained about being too busy to do this and would not permit me to contact these businesses. I am now learning ways I can promote myself in more effective ways. As previously stated, I am a blogger as well as a poet, short story writer, and novelist, and have my own YouTube channel. On my own, I have been able to get two magazine and two newspaper articles in Egypt, a podcast interview with Women of Distinction and a magazine article about me, a YouTube video with IWLA and an article I wrote called “Taking the Needed Risks” in its Choices magazine edition for June 2016, a video on me done by IAOTP and an article in its T.I.P. magazine, a magazine interview article in “Morocco Pens” plus several of my articles in , 8 additional USA radio interviews plus numerous, prestigious awards by various top organizations, such as IAOTP, NAPW, Worldwide Who’s Who, ISBL, Strathmore’s Who’s Who, Marquis Who’s Who, Continental Who’s Who, and International Association of Who’s Who. I am featured on page 68 and on the cover in the Marquis Fall 2019 “Millennium” magazine which just appeared online. Soon a second magazine article will be released to honor me as Female Georgia Editor by Top 100 Registry, and a live radio broadcast with Doug Dahlgren will be done on November 8. My new short story “A Baker’s Half Dozen” will soon appear in the anthology “A Cup of Cyanide” (a book being published by my writing group Walton Writers in Monroe, GA). A letter I wrote will be in the anthology “Letters Never Meant to Be Read” before the end of 2019. I am still trying to find inexpensive ways to publish my own books. I will not give up and will find the right path to achieve this.

One year after my first book was out in publication, I suffered from some new serious problems with my left knee. On June 23, 2014, I had surgery for a total left knee replacement (the problem knee from my teenage years). I had almost completely recovered from physical therapy when a major life-threatening event occurred on December 29, 2014. I had a nearly fatal automobile accident that broke eight bones, including my neck, my left arm, and my ribs and pelvis, and caused some internal injuries to my left lung and spleen. I was almost totally incapacitated for the next eight months and needed eight months of physical therapy on various parts of my body. While wearing my neck brace and using my right hand, I began writing my new novel (yet to be published) in February 2015. This helped to keep me sane and enabled me to focus on positive things and not on my intense physical pain. I finished this 400+ page book “Random Wanderings” the last week in January 2016. If I had not forced myself to be productive by writing, one year of my life would have been wasted. As always, I am a fighter so I found a way to continue my writing. Currently, my right knee has now decided to be a problem, but I do not allow it to keep me from continuing to achieve my dreams. I am working diligently on my writing business and hope to accomplish much in the future.

What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
My company Randi D. Ward, Author, is obviously a writing business. My staff consists of two people. As the main author, I am also the president, CEO, and editor. My husband Bill is the vice president and a co-editor. We have also co-authored several short stories.

My life philosophy and my “copyrighted” business motto is the following: Believe! Don’t dream big; dream bigger! The sky is the limit so reach for the stars! Although I write in almost all genres, they have one basic characteristic in common. They teach important life lessons and inspire others to do their best and never to give up. My stories and novels depict characters who overcome difficult problems and obstacles many people may experience in their real lives. I pride myself in that my stories always have happy endings. I believe we need more stories with happy endings. I avoid gruesome violence and sexually explicit content. Readers need a place to escape from life’s trials and tribulations and hopefully discover how to improve their own lives. My poems, non-fiction blogs, and YouTube videos also teach but are meant to inspire the reader. I attempt to stay neutral and not discuss religion, politics, or other controversial topics. I have readers in over 51 countries who tell me how my positive writing has motivated and inspired them and in some specific cases has changed their lives. This is the greatest compliment any writer can receive. Since I will always be an educator, being able to teach through my words now and reach people, especially the younger generations who follow me on my social media, are my favorite personal accomplishments. As a dedicated animal activist in the past few years, some of my writing has been devoted to saving endangered African animals. I now work with several groups in Zimbabwe and Swaziland. I also support the Egyptian environmental, non-profit project World Peace Forest (Africa) founded by my friend Ambassador Mahmoud Hassouna. Finally, as the Chief Editor of the online magazine “Morocco Pens”, Founder and President Ayoub Ait El Kady and I encourage and guide non-native English writers to write in English and be published in our magazine.

Where do you see your industry going over the next 5-10 years? Any big shifts, changes, trends, etc?
As stated earlier, I was badly “burned” by a big self-publishing company. I spent large sums of money on publishing and marketing with this company but did not receive the high-quality service and results I had expected. It was a great learning experience though and one I hope never to repeat. Several of my stories have been published in anthologies with other writers as well as some of my non-fiction articles in “Morocco Pens” and other magazines, but I have just recently decided to try self-publishing on my own. I hope to learn how to format my many books of children and young adult short stories, poems, and novels ready to publish in the next five years. Once I have more books on the market, I hope to become a motivational speaker to share my knowledge of writing, beginning in local school systems in the metro-Atlanta area and then branching out to new authors and want-to-be authors in other areas. I still dream of creating my own podcast network to highlight young people around the world who are not famous but are doing amazing things in their communities.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
As I look back at my childhood, it wasn’t wonderful. Until my college years, I never felt I truly fit in with my classmates. Outwardly I appeared confident and extraverted but inside I was shy and introverted. I successfully hid the real me from the outside world. I was intelligent so I forced myself to participate in activities with classmates but never considered myself as a leader or a real member of any group. Academics consumed much of my time. I loved to read and study. I was curious about everything. Graduating as Valedictorian of my high school class was the result of this dedicated work. When I was selected as “Most Likely to Succeed” by my classmates, I was shocked since I usually felt invisible.

My mother was a teacher and my role model. However, my father was a cruel man who contributed to my low self-esteem with his harsh and degrading words to me. He made me feel ugly and unloved. My parents divorced when I was a teenager, but the damage was done. My mental scars were deep. At times I still suffer inwardly, but I now have effective coping methods to deal with these moments plus a wonderful, supported husband who makes me feel special and loved every day.

My creative side began as a young child. I had a special doll, named Diana. She became the woman I wanted to become as an adult through the many imaginative stories I created for her. I have always been a dreamer. Through Diana, I became successful people, such a life-changing doctors, humanitarians, respected teachers, and famous celebrities. She enabled me to travel to the faraway places I longed to see. As an adult, my dream to travel has been fulfilled. As previously stated, sixty countries have been explored by my husband and me.

Singing and dancing were also my passions and ways to express myself. I did belong to our high school chorus, but most of the time these activities were done in privacy. I secretly longed to be a movie star but knew that would never happen. At age 15, I seriously injured my left knee in gym class and struggled to walk for five years. I literally taught myself to walk again at the age of 20 after surgery and many complications. These were difficult years, but I never gave up. I was determined to walk again.

The main reason I chose teaching as my career was to help students not only academically but in other special ways. I never wanted any student of mine to feel unloved, unappreciated, and invisible as I felt when I was a teenager. I tried my best to make all my students feel loved and special.

If I could relive my childhood, would I do that? Probably not! Because of what I have endured and overcome, I have become a strong, independent woman who is not afraid of hard work, now believes in myself, and dreams bigger than most people. I have learned taking risks in life is often essential, so I welcome challenges outside my comfort zone. Becoming a writer was one of those challenges.

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