Join author and poet Shirley Cheng (http://www.shirleycheng.com) at her book signing on Saturday, August 12, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. at Borders Books & Music (1820 South Rd, Poughkeepsie, NY). Along with signing her four books at the event, Shirley will give an empowering talk about her autobiography, The Revelation of a Star's Endless Shine: A Young Woman's Autobiography of a 20-Year Tale of Trials & Tribulations, focusing on her trials and tribulations and how she has overcome them with a bright attitude, coming out as a winner each and every time.

Shirley Cheng, (b. 1983), a blind and physically disabled author and poet of three books by age twenty, was diagnosed with severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at only eleven months old. Because of years of hospitalization, she received no schooling until age eleven. Having mastered grade level in all areas after only about 180 days of special education in elementary school, she was transferred to a regular sixth grade class in middle school. Unfortunately, Shirley lost her eyesight at the age of seventeen. After a successful eye surgery, she hopes to earn multiple science doctorates from Harvard University.

"Although I'm blind, I can see far and wide; even though I'm disabled, I can climb high mountains," says Shirley. "Let the ropes of hope haul you high!"

Shirley Cheng is the author of Daring Quests of Mystics (ISBN: 1-4116-5664-4), a soothing read to relax the mind, body, and spirit; an empowering 700-page autobiography, The Revelation of a Star's Endless Shine: A Young Woman's Autobiography of a 20-Year Tale of Trials and Tribulations (ISBN: 1-4116-1860-2); and Dance with Your Heart: Tales and Poems That the Heart Tells (ISBN: 1-4116-1858-0), an anthology of inspirational and fantasy short stories (fairy tales, fables, and myths) and poems for the heart from the heart.

Shirley has recently co-authored a self-improvement book with some of the world's leading experts and #1 international bestselling authors, including Jack Canfield, John Gray, Richard Carlson, Bob Proctor, and Alan Cohen, titled 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. Autographed copies are available via Shirley's website.

Shirley's chapter, Dance with Your Heart: How to Befriend Your Heart and the World Around You, gently teaches the readers how to achieve spiritual affinity with themselves, then with others around them.

"I've made it one of my life's missions to touch as many people as I possibly can to bring humor, hope, and healing," says Shirley, whose personal motto is "A dancing heart teaches true."

She had been published twice before her writing career. One of her short stories, Mary Miller, the Elusive Lady, received Honorable Mention and was published by the Poughkeepsie Journal in 1997, and a poem, The Colors of the Rainbow, earned a merit status and was published in Celebrate! New York Young Poets Speak Out in 1999. At the start of the New Year 2006, Shirley tied for 1st place in the national writing contest for Be the Star You Are! founded by New York Times bestselling co-author, TV/radio personality Cynthia Brian. Shirley's winning entry, titled The Jewel from Heavenly Father, is dedicated to her beloved mother Juliet Cheng, the cornerstone and light of her life, and it can be read on Shirley's site, http://www.shirleycheng.com

Shirley is also an advocate of parental rights in children's medical care, and aide/caregiver monitoring and screening for students with special needs and disabled people. As a parental rights advocate, she wants to help today's loving parents protect and keep custody of their children. "When doctors ask yes or no, parents should have the right to say no," says Shirley, who is the survivor of the 1990 five-month internationally broadcast news of mother's custody case against a doctor. Juliet was on CBS This Morning with Paula Zahn.

Shirley promotes aide advocacy for the disabled because she was mistreated and abused by one-to-one aides when she attended school. "The trouble with the uncaring aides actually lies in the authorities," she says. "If they listened to my complaints and kept a close watch on the aides, I wouldn't have gone through all the suffering."

Shirley is available for interviews, speaking engagements, book signings, and inspirational events. She has been on nearly twenty radio shows, including Cynthia Brian's Be the Star You Are! for three times, The Donna Seebo Show, and Stu Taylor on Business. In 2004, Shirley was featured in World Journal, the largest Chinese national newspaper in North America.