Ronelle Smith
Since retiring from teaching, Ronelle has been putting her time to good use, doing the things she loves best – water colour painting and writing.
Now it was time for her to put her skills to good use.
Not a lady to do things by half, Ronelle is not just writing one book, but a series of five books with ‘Encounter’ being the first. Each book will contain its own adventures and messages.
From her 40 years of teaching high school students Ronelle came to recognize the causes of self-destructive behaviour as expressed by individual teenagers. In some instances unsettled home situations frequently trigger anti-social activities and resentment for any form of authority. With an unwillingness to comply with rules and regulations and general lack of cooperation the teenagers find themselves in greater difficulty with an accompanying defeatist attitude. From her interviews with these specific young people she learnt two things of paramount importance. Firstly, they feel desperately lonely and yearn for support of some kind, and secondly they hunger for help to achieve their goals. Yes! THEY DO HAVE GOALS, in spite of what the media would have us believe about our wayward teens. They have dreams of achievement, some so secret, they have difficulty expressing them to a listening adult.
Ronelle wrote “Encounter” to gently encourage young people to believe in themselves and reach for their goals no matter what their circumstances. Life presents lessons from which we are to learn and grow. How much we learn or, for that matter, completely ignore, is entirely up to the individual choices made along the way.
Living on the south coast of NSW, Australia, Ronelle spends many hours of research before putting pen to paper, the ensuing book giving a very accurate documentation of any facts throughout her stories.
Aurora House has been given the privilege of republishing ENCOUNTER and is looking forward to a long association with Ronelle.
