Welcome

Welcome to my website. Here I intend to post information I find that might help other authors and myself, display the books I've written

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(in the Gallery), and keep my readers up-to-date on what I've been working on.

If I could have found a cup of hot chocolate w/whipped cream, I would have substituted that for the cup of coffee on my homepage. I'm definitely not a coffee drinker - just could never get used to the taste and smell of it. In fact, I'm back to drinking carbonated water, regular water, and diet ginger-ale, now that I have been diagnosed with kidney disease. My food intake has changed, too. Less salt...much less salt.

Then, nightly, I struggle with wearing a c-pap mask. Another new development: I have sleep apnea. It appears that everything hits when you turn 60.

What do I do during the daytime, you ask? Monday through Friday, I substitute teach elementary school children. My favorite subject is music, since music helped me to get through a very dark period in my life and was something I always excelled in. On my weekends, I spend time with my husband in our now-empty nest. Gratefully, neither of my children is very far away. My son is at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, finishing up his under-grad degree in biology and then moving on to become a dentist. My daughter is studying to become a teacher at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

When my husband and I aren't hanging out at home, I can be found visiting estate sales, working on my next book, or spending time with friends. (Don't say that bad word - housework!)

How did i get started writing? Well, I've written poetry - off and on - since I was a child. Mom used to pick up wallpaper samples from decorating stores, scallop cut the ends of them, and put my typed-up (yes, typed-up/I'm that old!) pages of poetry within the wallpaper covers. She'd then send them to family members.

I wrote a few short stories and poems in high school, but then I let it lapse for a while - until my mother died (December 23, 2014). Every day after that during the first year, I wrote one or two poems per day about loss in general and about losing my mom specifically. At the end of the year, I decided to honor my mom by publishing the poems in a book Poetry on the Loss of a Mother. Before Mom died, she made a big scrapbook about her life for me. Mom lived in Richmond, Virginia, in her parents' tourist home, grew up and married my father (who then became abusive), left my father and found happiness again in Florida. The story is all there in Lost But Not Forgotten: My Mother's Life.

Losing Mom was one of the hardest things I've ever been through. The photo at the top of this post is of my mother walking me down the aisle when I got married. At first, I scoured the internet for ways to memorialize my mom. I bought a few heart-shaped lockets, and a necklace with charms inside of it. Then I joined some Facebook support groups, along with continuing going to therapy.

I bought a wooden box at a local arts and crafts store and packed everything that reminded me of my mother into it - shells, sand, cats, etc. I even shrunk down a Richmond newspaper to set in there. Later on, I moved my memorial to my piano and cut down the diorama to fit a small globe-covered dish. Then I began going to estate sales to look for dolls to add to the collection my mother began for me when I was little. I found one doll that was called Pitiful Pearl. It appealed to me, because one of Mom's friends was named Pearl, and the doll had just lost her owner. The doll was based on a popular cartoon character designed by William Steig. The doll came with ratty clothes and party clothes (Well, the doll I bought had only a simple cloth coat.), so she could go from poor to rich. Anyway, I bought her and I felt a kinship with my mother as I carried her away from the sale to my car. "We both lost our mothers, Pearl," I told her.

By going to estate sales, thrift stores, yard sales, stores, I finally filled up the top of my piano with my mom's ashes, candles, and items that reminded me of things Mom had loved - cats, shells, Betty Boop, etc.

I no longer kiss my fingers and then touch Mom's box of ashes as I once did. I got everything from her home to remind me of her. I had the old WWII-era mosaic bracelet restored, and I had her mother's Depression-era engagement and wedding-ring set sized to fit me.

I still hurt when I think of her, but I'm able to function better than I was after she first died. I tell you this to let others know that we all have to travel our own path to coming to terms with the death of a loved one. I chose this path. On that note, I think I'll bring this post to a close. Please see my gallery and videos for mementos from my childhood and covers of my books.