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Gilbert woman’s ‘secret’ life as author

BY PAUL MARYNIAK GSN Executive Editor

By day, she’s Michelle Hoffman, a Gilbert mother of three who owns and runs the My CBD Store in Ahwatukee with her significant other.

By night, she morphs into Dorothy F. Shaw, romance author who this week is publishing her seventh novel – “Trusting the Badge.”

It’s about a sizzling love affair between a female veterinarian and a K9 officer in Arizona and the last of a trilogy that includes two other torrid relationships, each involving a K9 cop.

Hoffman admits the practical motivation for starting the “Badge” trilogy.

“The books are not typical K9 romantic-suspense books,” she explained. “They’re really contemporary romance. A couple of years ago, my editor had asked me to plot and write something more mainstream than my typical books – I tend to be a bit edgy in my writing.

“In response, I asked her what was “in”

or “selling” right now? She advised, law enforcement, firemen, pets – things like that. So, my brilliant idea was a K9 officer and a veterinarian.” “The three books follow three K9 officers, who are also best friends, as they find their true love and struggle to make it work.” Michelle Hoffman of Gilbert, under the pen name Dorothy Shaw, All the three relahas witten the last in a trilogy of”‘K9 cop romance” novels. (Special tionships play out to GSN) against Arizona settings. The first two – “Avoiding the Badge” and “Redeeming the Badge“ – have garnered good reviews from other romance novelists.

For example, New York Times bestselling author Megan Hart raved, “Strong women and the men who love them and a deliciously emotional rollercoaster ride – these are the hallmarks of a Dorothy F. Shaw romance.”

According to the publisher, “Trusting the Badge” brings together a “woman with trust issues” and an “exasperatingly hot, funny, smart-ass K9 officer.”

“The three books are tied together because all of the characters know each other, but they can also be read as standalone,” Hoffman said.

She said that while the two protagonists have been in the previous “Badge” books, “everyone, including me, has been waiting to see what their story was to be.”

The “Badge” books are only part of Hoffman’s repertoire. In all she has

see SHAW page 15

Basha High science teacher Arizona’s best

BY KEVIN REAGAN

GSN Staff Writer

ABasha High School teacher has recently been recognized as one of Arizona’s best biology educators.

Katherine Nall, who’s been teaching biology and environmental science in Chandler for 15 years, was recently selected by the National Association of Biology Teachers as the state’s top science teacher in 2021.

Nall, who was nominated by a colleague, will represent Arizona among the organization’s class of national recipients.

She will be recognized later this year at the association’s national conference in Georgia, where she’ll receive a gift certificate to purchase science supplies and a complimentary one-year membership to NABT.

Nall said it was especially rewarding to be recognized at the end of a difficult year, which forced teachers to figure out how to continue teaching during a global pandemic.

“It’s been a rough year,” Nall said. “So, to get good news like this at the end, kind of lets you know you’re doing it all right.”

As a teacher who enjoys having her students learn through hands-on activities, Nall has struggled this past year deciphering how to safely continue teaching while maintaining social distancing. The first quarter of this school year was the most challenging, Nall recalled, since teachers were forced to teach virtually.

The ordeal ended up being a valuable learning experience for Nall, who has already begun to evaluate how she can adapt her teaching style to conform to a digital-friendly format.

“If I had to do virtual again,” she noted, “I would do it completely different than how I did first quarter.” Nall is often asking questions, analyzing her actions and making logical adjustments – a habit she strives to pass on to her students each year. Her inquiry-based approach to see BASHA page 16

written 14 novels and novellas.

She’s also into a “The Donnellys Series” and hopes to add her fourth novel in that line soon.

Along with her novels, she also writes a blog and poetry.

Hoffman got started writing 12 years ago after the HBO series “True Blood” introduced her to the books the show is based on.

She started reading the books, by Charlaine Harris, “and it became a wonderful escape.”

“I was lost the fun and fantasy of it all,” Hoffman said. “I’m a fan of a happy ending, a hopeless romantic, but more so, I’m a fan of the angst that can be real life. “If fiction, no matter which genre, is written properly, a reader can relate it to their life. Lessons can be learned from it. And it can show a person a world they didn’t think possible.”

She met authors in person and online and “with their encouragement, I started writing poetry in 2009. The poems led me to short stories, which led to novellas and then novels.”

All that time she also was in the midst of a 25-year corporate career in the banking industry as director of technology and quality assurance – until she decided about a year ago to become a small-business owner and open the CBD store that she opened in October.

Her writing regimen might be considered grueling enough by some to require CBD.

“The only way to do this is with a routine and then discipline,” she said. “For nearly 10 years, I wrote five to six nights a week, sometimes seven if on deadline…I also have kids. I would sit down to write at about 10 p.m. each night and write until around 1:30-2 a.m.

“Fortunately, I worked from home, so I was able to sleep until at least 8 a.m. each day and then start work. Needless to say, after 10 years of that, I was tired. But the only reason I was able to maintain that at all and was able to put out 14 published works, was because I was determined and disciplined.

“You sit in the chair and write, no matter how you feel. If you want it bad enough, you do it. And let’s just say, I wanted it bad enough, so I did it.”

Now that she has the store, she hopes to be able to write during the day between customers someday.

“So far, I haven’t been able to, but as things get more settled at the store, I’ll be able to give that some time…and again, it’ll come down to discipline.” While she writes both fiction and nonfiction, Hoffman – whose favorite author is J.R. Ward – admits to having a love-hate relationship with writing. “All in all, writing in general, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, is the hardest thing I have ever done,” she said. “There are times when I think I have no more stories in me, and then times when I think, I will always write. I can’t not do it. Writing opened up something inside of me that can’t ever be shut off again. And I’m okay with that.”

“Trusting the Badge,” published by Kensington Publishing Corp., will be released June 15 at bit.ly/TTB-Amzn and bit.ly/TTB-BN.

For a backlist of her work: bit.ly/ DFShawBooks; her blog is at magicmagnifyingmind.blogspot.com .

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BASHA from page 13 teaching attempts to get students curious about the natural world and thinking about how to solve real problems.

“My hope is that I can teach them skills that they can carry on into whatever they do,” Nall said.

A transplant from Michigan, Nall originally had ambitions to attend medical school and become a pediatrician.

But once she realized that chemistry was not her best subject, Nall discovered she could focus exclusively on biology by becoming a teacher.

After she immersed herself in education, Nall said everything seemed to click and her career pathway suddenly looked clearer.

Her favorite aspect of teaching is getting to see students make discoveries as they conduct experiments. There’s not much engagement happening outside the laboratory, Nall said, so her classroom time tends to prioritize hands-on work.

“I personally get bored when I have to lecture and give notes,” Nall added. “I prefer to teach by doing.”

Nall’s students have the opportunity to learn about a variety of topics that range from agriculture to water pollution.

A popular topic has always been Nall’s unit on antibiotics and the classroom lab that allows students to experiment with bacteria.

Nall teaches the class how E. coli grows and lets them expose strains of the bacteria to different antibiotics to see how the bacteria become resistant against the medicine.

Nall said her students always enjoy observing how the bacteria react to the antibiotics and learning how the process relates to the development of modern pharmaceuticals.

“It’s one of their favorite labs that they do throughout the year because it’s so real,” she said. “I’m not afraid to let them work with bacteria.”

When Nall isn’t in the classroom, she’s taking on extra duties by coaching sports, spearheading Basha’s environmental club and overseeing the school’s science fair.

NABT has been singling out remarkable science teachers across the country since 1961 by selecting candidates who embody innovative, collaborative qualities in the classroom.

Nall’s dedication to molding analytical, inquisitive minds stood out to NABT as an attribute that helped her nomination rise above the association’s other applicants.

Daryn Stover, the association’s Arizona representative, noted how Nall was the right candidate for demonstrating the values of an impactful science educator.

“Nall’s engagement with students through inquiry-based learning is impressive, as is her commitment to staying at the forefront of advances in science pedagogy,” said Stover. “We are pleased to recognize her years of service to biology education and student success with this award.”

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