It seems that for some people, the day has more than 24 hours. How do you stretch the time and dedicate yourself to the others with passion and effects? How open minded do you have to be to spread hope and knowledge, and share personal experiences in a strange place?

Originally from Denver in Colorado, Professor Alana James has lived in Kinsale for many years. She is an independent academic, working on improving future of education. Writing about Alana James is difficult. She writes herself, having released a number of publications, and, what's more, she runs the non-fiction writers' group which meets every couple of weeks in the City Library. Since unemployment has risen in Cork, libraries are noting a jump in attendance. Joining the group might be a way to give vent to frustration or just simply to become involved with a group of creative people.

Running the group is a beneficial for Alana too: "I am using the regular meetings to help me to continue towards writing a full memoir on moving to Ireland and embracing living in a multicultural world." "Anyone can write - but it takes dedication and you have to be willing to hear criticism in order to be able to improve.

When asked how writing has changed her life and the lives of the group's members, she emphasises the meaning of change, as a motor of personal improvement and development. Her first draft was on her experience of celebrating Thanksgiving Day in the country which does not have this holiday.

"In any change process there comes a time when you need to cement the concepts and ideas you have been developing as the guiding lights for the life you are building. This takes interaction with people. However, sometimes it is hard to interact from the full power of our ideas when they are fresh. Like a snake that has recently shed its skin in favour of growth, we may find ourselves too tender to interact with others. This is one of the most important times to write, and then to read what you write out loud to yourself, then finally you can move into the world with these ideas."

Ideas seem to be Alana's second nature. Looking on her website, we may get an impression that the whole world's welfare is on her mind. As a Master of Non-Profit Management, she has worked in a blend of educational and non-profit or non-governmental organisations for two decades. She often uses community-based resources to aid educational activities and develop programmes for high-risk populations. She engages with audiences of all types. Speaking on her research in online education she provokes substantive conversation about the similarities and differences of teaching online rather than face-to-face.

Many of us could see ourselves in these words:
"I feel a vague sense that I could be happier, but I do not know why I am not completely happy or how I want things to be different."

The quote comes from Alana's Website, www.reinventinglife.org. Apparently people's greater good is her work's main target. Education, travel and personal development are Alana's main area of interests. She works with doctoral students in Cork.