June is here!

Amazing how fast time flies. It's already June My wedding anniversary is this month. My husband and I have been happily married since 1989. I can't wait to celebrate!

My son has graduated from college with his B.S. in Biology, and he's busy looking for work. We're glad to have him home for visits until the time comes for him to move back home semi-permanently (until he finds a job in his field).

My daughter is continuing to study and work toward her education degree. She seems to be happy with her career decision.

I haven't been writing - at least, not working on a book. Advertising my books has become more difficult to do, too, since the grief support groups to which I belong no longer allow anyone to mention anything for sale within the groups. I have sent out some free copies of my books for reviews, but only a few people actually wrote the reviews. One deli whose owner said she'd try to sell my books, closed unexpectedly - which is a shame, because it was a nice place with nice people and good food. So getting the word out about my books has become more difficult to do. So - once again - here are the books I've written:

Poetry on the Loss of a Mother - This is a book of poems I wrote about grief and the loss of my mother after she died in 2014. I still miss her a lot, and having to put my pet hamster down recently didn't help, because he was ill with the same thing from which my mother died - pneumonia. Also, he had a tumor.

My Poetry Bouquet - A book of poems on a variety of topics: the seasons, my experiences as a substitute teacher and prior daycare aide, my experiences with depression, anxiety, abuse, and OCD, and my experiences as a mother.

Lost But Not Forgotten: My Mother's Life - The contents of a huge memory book she made about her life before she died, along with two stories she wrote about her life (with an eye toward publication), and the letter she left for me to read after she'd passed away with her hopes and dreams for me. Mom grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and played background music on the radio (on the piano, which she played by ear from a young age) and sang in church. Mom's later life consisted of meeting and marrying my father (who I describe in more detail in another book: The Other Side of the Curtain), going through abuse, and leaving my dad to find happiness again in Florida. This book is meant to be inspiration for other women caught up in an abusive marriage.

Poems from the Schoolyard - Poems about attending elementary school

A Child's Poetry Companion: Poems from the Countryside - poems about my summers spent visiting my grandparents at their place on the water in Urbana, Virginia.

So lately, I've been spending time playing Word Feud on my phone, and playing some free point and click games called Alice and the Reformatory and Alice and the Magical Dragon. Both are cute and require some thought. Word Feud is like Scrabble. You can play with friends who also play the game, or you can choose to play against random opponents.

I mean to return to writing a book about my experience of having grown up with abuse and how that still affects me (to some point) today.

In the meantime, I wish my readers good lives, with little worry and happiness. Also, I wish those who are going through tribulations to have courage and persistance, to have hope and comfort. xx00xx