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Tuesday, August 21, 2001

By Monica L. Haynes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Think you're frantic?

Between them, Mary Jo Rulnick and Judith Burnett Schneider have six children, two husbands, two households, one part-time job, two teaching gigs, a writer's group, seminars, consulting work, a pending book deal and a new Web site.

Just reading about it tires ya out, doesn't it?

	Judith Burnett Schneider, left, and Mary Jo Rulnick, co-founders of franticwoman. com, browse the Web site during a launch party for their Internet site last week at Rulnick's home in Plum. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

Yet, you won't find this dynamic duo running around in circles babbling about how hectic their lives are. They've embraced the frenzy and want to help other women do the same via the Web site -- http://www.franticwoman.com/.

The site offers practical advice for getting things done, funny slice-of-life tales from fellow frantics, a message board, seminar information and more.

"We wanted a place for women to be able to go for support, for direction, for balance," said Rulnick, who lives in Plum.

"We're just racing through life, and I think it's because we all want so much out of life," said the 42-year-old self-described "Type A personality."

While many of the latest self-help books are about slowing down, Rulnick and Schneider believe it's time to help women keep everything going.

"We're suggesting you don't have to give anything up," said Schneider of Franklin Park. "You've wanted the house, the kids and the job."

To keep it all going, the 39-year-old doer extraordinaire and mother of Jacqueline, 10, Juliana, 8, and Timothy, 4, doesn't waste time on the telephone, television or other frivolities.

"My time is better spent working on a productive project, like the frantic woman, than going out shopping for curtains," she said.

That's not to say she and Rulnick don't enjoy an unfrenzied moment, but "when we have time, we're definitely getting something done."

	Mary Jo Rulnick and Judith Burnett Schneider will hold a free seminar, "Unknotting the Frantic Woman's Tangled Life," 7 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at Panera's in Penn Center, Monroeville. For reservations, call 724-325-4964.

The two superwomen met seven years ago in Cranberry at a writer's conference.

"We had a lot of the same goals; we had children. We started doing things together," Rulnick said.

They co-authored a book, "Write Well and Sell: Self-Publishing Made Simple." They wrote books separately as well. Schneider's book is "Write Well and Sell: Changing Life's Simple Stories Into Sales"; Rulnick's is "Write Well and Sell: Easy Writing, Easy Money."

Rulnick and Schneider also conduct writing critique retreats at St. Joseph Center in Greensburg and teach writing at Community College of Allegheny County's main campus on the North Side.

Neither woman would know how to live any other way. Rulnick, who also does a lot of volunteer work, has a 15-year-old son, Josh, who's active in sports. Her daughter, Deanna, 19, is in college.

She grew up in Garfield and graduated from Wilkinsburg High School. She earned an associate's degree in business but spent 17 years as a stay-at-home mom, keeping up a hectic pace of caring for children, the house and her volunteer work commitments. Then, she began working part time, running an activities program for senior citizens at Beatty Point Village in Monroeville. Her husband, Stu, a developer, coaches varsity hockey for Plum High School and a 40-and-over softball team in West Mifflin.

"It helps because he likes to be busy, too," Rulnick said. "I'm not a very passive person, but we never put our family second."

Schneider grew up in Ross. She has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Dickinson College and a master's in organic chemistry from Notre Dame University. Before her children were born, she worked as research chemist. Her husband, Timothy, is a CPA.

Schneider said she and her partner have found a niche. Of the 1,000 people surveyed via e-mail from their seminar mailing list, fewer than 1 percent of the respondents said they weren't frantic.

In addition to the Web site, the writing partners are working on another book, "The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life."

Last Friday, as if their lives weren't hectic enough, the two women hosted a launch party for the Web site.

Women of varying ages and degrees of franticness took a respite to enjoy hors d'oeuvres and the official Frantic Woman Cocktail ( 1/2 ounce Frangelico, 1/2 ounce vodka, 1/2 ounce amaretto with cream and ice in a highball glass).

Calling herself the "epitome of frantic," Linda Tempalski, 49, of Plum was enjoying the leisurely gathering of women grouped in twos and threes throughout Rulnick's kitchen, living room and family room.

Tempalski, who has a daughter in college and a teen-age son at home, recently returned to working full time. "It's really different juggling everything," she said. An activities director for a senior living facility, she's looking for help in keeping things balanced.

"I'm still trying to find what works," she said. "I'm much better at work. The home, that kind of gets pushed by the wayside."

Adrienne Fabrizi of Ligonier retired in December, but that doesn't mean her life's not hectic. The 51-year-old mother and grandmother has three businesses. She does motivational speaking, is a special events coordinator and organizes the homes of other busy people.

In addition to all that, she's working on a book about getting through divorce.

"I want to do things, not sit around," Fabrizi said. "I decided when I quit working I wanted to do things I truly enjoy."

It took work-at-home mom Denise Stewart two days to get through the information on the frantic woman Web site, but it was well worth it, she said.

"It already gave me good ideas and tips," said Stewart, 44, another Plum resident.

Cindy Closkey, 34, of Butler, doesn't have any children, but she has a full-time job, she's a writer, and she designed and maintains Rulnick and Schneider's Web site. "So I'm pretty frantic," she said.