Virginia Kidd is a writer who lives in Sacramento, California, just a block and a half from an 80-year-old library. Like her character Mollie Walker, Virginia grew up on the Gulf Coast of Texas. She always loved learning, and she earned degrees from colleges in three parts of the U.S.:
B. A., University of Texas at Austin
M.A., California State University, Sacramento
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
She taught Communication Studies for over three decades at California State University, Sacramento and was honored to be named an outstanding teacher in Arts and Letters in 2003. She is now an emeritus professor.
She has four cats: Trixie Beldon, Hardy, Black Bart, and Honey West. Two came as kittens from a rescue site. Two others just wandered up and decided to stay.
Some writing from my previous life…
Happily Ever Once Upon (three-act play for high school students). Samuel French Publishing. http://www.samuelfrench.com/p/2379/happily-ever-once-upon.
The Capricious Pearls (one-act play for high school students). Eldridge Publishing. https://www.histage.com/Search?Keywords=virginia%20kidd.
“Murder in the Days of Covid-19.” Cemetery Plots. Sisters in Crime, 2021.
“Black Sheep.” Capitol Crimes 2017 Anthology. Sacramento: Sisters in Crime, 2016.
“Murder, Self-Taught.” Capitol Crimes 2013 Anthology. Sacramento: Sisters in Crime, 2013.
“Voices” and “Crawling.” Green River Anthology. Ed. Alice Carney. Irie Books, 2012.
“So You Have to Write in a Group.” Student Writing Handbook. California State University Sacramento, 2009.
Writer and co-editor. Memories of McClatchy Library. I Street Press, 2012.
COP Talk: Essential Communication Skills for Community Policing. Co-authored with Sacramento Police Capt. Rick Braziel [now retired chief]. San Francisco: Acada Press, 1999 [now Rowman and Littlefield; book still in print]. Related articles to promote the book:
“What Makes a Good Communicator?” Community Policing Exchange Online Magazine March/April 1999. http://www.communitypolicing.org. Click "Success Stories," then "Exchange."· The “The Challenge of Communication.” Correctional News (journal of the California Probation, Parole, and Correctional Association) June 1999. 1-6.
“Service Learning at the Graduate Level." Co-authored with Sally Perkins and Gerri Smith. Voices of Strong Democracy: Concepts and Models for Service Learning in Communication Studies. American Asso. for Higher Education, 1999.
"Making Group Decisions."The Practice of Organizational Communication. Ed. Michael Dues and Mary Brown. New York: McGraw-Hill Custom, 2001. 192-216. (Earlier versions of the article were in Communication, Organization, and Work: An Introduction to Thought and Practice,ed. Michael Dues and Michael Burgoon, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, 180-197; and Communication, Organization, and Work: An Introduction to Thought and Practice, ed. Michael Dues and Michael Burgoon, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, 180-197).
"Getting Students Into Groups. (Carl Who?)" Speech Communication Teacher. Summer 1994: 1. Reprinted in Selections from Speech Communication Teacher,1994-1996, edited by Stephen E. Lucas for use with The Art of Public Speaking, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
"Introduction to Message Analysis Through Cereal Boxes." Speech Communication Teacher,summer 1989. Reprinted in Volume 2 of Teaching Effective Listeningby Carolyn Gwynn Coakley. Sonoma, CA.: Coakley, 1996.
"Happily Ever After and Other Relationship Styles: Advice on Interpersonal Relations in Popular Magazines, 1951-1973." Quarterly Journal of Speech61 (1975): 31-39. Reprinted inInter/Media. Ed. Gary Gumpert and Robert Cathcart. New York: Oxford University Press, 1st ed: 1979; 2nd ed: 1982. Reprinted inRhetorical Dimensions in Media: Critical Casebook. Ed. by Martin J. Medhurst and Thomas Benson. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1984.
"Teaching Through Popular Film: A Small Group Analysis of The Poseidon Adventure." Written with Donald C. Shields. Speech Teacher22 (1973): 201-207.
"Visual versus Verbal Rhetoric: A Case Study of the California Tobacco Education Campaign," Visual Communication Conference. Breckenridge, Colorado, June 1991. Published in Feedback, a publication of the Broadcast Educators Association, Fall 1992.
CONVENTION PAPERS/PRESENTATIONS
"Bashing Barbie." Visual Communication Conference, Monterey, California, June 2004.
Chair, panel, "Relax, Rethink, Rewind, Renew." Visual Communication Conference, Sandpoint, Idaho, June 2003.
"Barbie Gets a Social Conscience: Do You Buy It?" Visual Communication Conference, Yamhill, Oregon, June 2001.
"Barbie in the New Millennium: Still Shallow After All These Years." Paper presented at the Rochester Institute of Technology conference "Visual Communication: Rhetorics and Technologies." Rochester, New York, March 28-30, 2001.
"Do Clothes Make the Officer? How Uniforms Impact Communication: A Review of Literature." Visual Communication Conference, Chico Hot Springs, Montana, July 6-9, 2000.
Panelist with Sally Perkins and Gerri Smith. "How To's and Challenges to Engaging in Service Learning." Western States Communication Association. Sacramento, 26 Feb. 2000.
"Teaching Visual Communication." Member of short-course presentation panel. Speech Communication Association convention. San Antonio, fall 1995.
"Using Internet Assignments in Classroom Teaching." Panel presentation. Western States Communication Association convention, Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 1999.
"Images of the Disabled in Preschool Picture Books." Paper presented at Visual Communication Conference. Jackson Hole, Wy. June 1997.
Respondent. "Using Visual Messages to Change Social Consciousness." Visual Communication Conference. Lake Tahoe, June 1999.
POPULAR MARKETS
Photograph included in Ross MacDonald: A Biographyby Tom Nolan. New York: Scribner, 1999. Before page 225.
"Her Every Whim." Sacramento Bee Magazine19 Feb. 1989.
"Caps, Gowns and Goodbyes." Sacramento Bee Magazine5 June 1988.
"Group Creativity." Working Woman March 1984.
"Every Meeting Has a Cast of Characters." SavvySept. 1982.
"When Your Audience Is Small." The Toastmaster. Dec. 1982.
"Visual Parody and the First Amendment." Presentation with Stuart Kaplan of Lewis and Clark University. Visual Communication Conference, Banff, Edmondton, Canada, June 2005.
Coffee and Ink. Co-authored with the Monday Night Writers. 2004.
"Creating Third Spaces: Connecting with Our Students in an Era of Disconnect: The Working Adult Student." Western States Communication Asso. convention. San Francisco, Feb. 2005.
"Communication and Service: Building a Shared Sense of Purpose." With Larry Chase, Josh Guilar and David Zuckerman. Western States Communication Asso. convernsin, San Francisco, Feb. 2005.
"Service Learning at the Graduate Level." Co-authored with Sally Perkins and Gerri Smith. Voices of Strong Democracy: Concepts and Models for Service Learning in Communication Studies. American Asso. for Higher Education, 1999.
Photograph included in Ross MacDonald: A Biography by Tom Nolan. New York: Scribner, 1999. Before page 225.
Respondent. "Using Visual Messages to Change Social Consciousness." Visual Communication Conference. Lake Tahoe, June 1999.
"Using Internet Assignments in Classroom Teaching." Panel presentation. Western States Communication Association convention, Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 1999.