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Voices on Unity: Coming Together, Falling apart is a collection of essays, stories, poems and song dedicated to the theme of unity. The contributors thought about what it meant to be voices for a culture, for society, for community, or for a country. Writing about what’s going on around them, means in the end, no matter that it’s local, it’s also the world. Stories in this book are about friendship and family; death and divorce; how to form a past when it’s been stripped away; about women’s marches and even sharing memory with river rocks. This collection forms a family of stories about unity—that elusive state of being for individuals and countries alike.

Excerpt from my short story, Mattresses

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Pleasers, they were both pleasers, but how could they be anything else, him being a minister, and her his helpmeet for twenty-five years? Marjorie had long ago meekly accepted her husband’s call and her secondary role taking care of him so he could tend to his flock. Recently, though, she’d become obsessed with wanting a new mattress. It started out, as usual, with her trying to keep Samuel comfortable and healthy. She never would have guessed where dust mites could lead.

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The dust, all over the dresser, on the night stands, and on the poster, You Are A Lamp Unto My Feet, above their double bed, shocked Marjorie. Perhaps not the best housekeeper, she was at least adequate. Now, she stripped the sheets and blankets. Hands outstretched, fingers together, she slapped the mattress. White flakes filled the room. The more she pounded, the more the dust arose in clouds. She seemed to remember people used to take bedding outside and beat it with brooms. Now she understood why. She got out the sweeper. Climbing up on the bed, she ran it back and forth, almost losing her balance and falling. It seemed a sign, but of what, she didn’t know.

Tales of Loss, Love, Finding Your Own Power

NEVERTHELESS WE PERSISTED is a special audio-first anthology of

poems, essays, and stories that explores themes of loss, love, and

finding

your own power.

It's an astonishing collection filled with heart, tears, laughter, and

ultimately hope.

This collection was created from writers across the United States and

also in Australia, England, India, and New Zealand.

Each piece is performed by a talented narrator.

Listening to Stories is powerful. 

Earthmother is my essay published in this amazing audio book. You can get a free download by signing on for a free 30 day trial with audiobooks.com

--excerpt

Out in the ocean black triangles bob up and down like the fins of sharks, but I soon realize that they are surfers in dark wetsuits waiting to catch a wave. I stare at the deep tracks from someone who’s walked on the beach before me. It must have been a guy. The cleats from his shoes are wide, and his insoles look enormous, enlarged by the saltwater filling them over and over again. My old scruffy sneakers, the ones I use for hiking, leave barely an imprint. Hardly a mark. A mere scratch on the surface of the sand, not even an outline, so slight that the first foamy wave will wash away all traces of my presence...

READ my essay in Appalachian Magazine: Kindred Spirits
Excerpt:
It may seem hard to believe that a person raised in England would come to love living in Appalachia, a place that as a child I’d never even heard about. After I moved to the United States, I enjoyed watching the comic antics of the snobbish banker, Milburn Drysdale, versus the commonsense mountaineer, Jed Clampett, in the TV sitcom the Beverly Hillbillies--in part because it revealed the stereotype of dumb hillbillies as false. And I certainly could identify with being unjustly labeled...
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