A Heartwarming Letter

The letter below appeared in my email and filled me with joy. Nothing inspires me more than to learn my work has touched someone. I am not including the sender's name out of respect for privacy, but I'm so grateful for the effort taken to reach out to me. 

"Hi, Arleen!

You might not remember me; it HAS been a while! ... In the meantime, I have purchased and read all your books: the trilogy, "The 39th Victim", and just recently, "Pandemic Baby", and I've enjoyed all of them!!

I'm dropping you this note to tell you how much I've LOVED your 'journaling' about your life, the birth of your grandson, and all the peripheral events around your time with him in the following several years!  

You have entertained me with your activities, relationships with your daughter, your folks, husband, and especially, baby Jack.  I remember those years with my first grandchild and honor all the feelings you expressed about that, as well as the fun of being around him and his family, and especially, the way you loved him -- allowing him to explore, get dirty, express his excitement with new things, and just let him be an active, curious little boy, loved by his family. I appreciate and enjoy your poetry in these regards also.  

The challenges and worrisome times of Covid you shared were appreciated because I had forgotten some of them. I wasn't around a child at that time but your fears (for Jack, his mother--especially during her pregnancy--and the world!), confusion about the vaccinations, and general care for your family, the environment, and for the world touched me, and I wanted to tell you that!  And, I wanted to compliment you for sharing your experiences and thoughts in the way you did, in your 'Letters to My Grandson before He Could Read'!  I love that title too; it says a lot -- and set the stage for your concentrated care for him at such a vulnerable stage.

Good work, Arleen!!  Your books have inspired me to write, and while I DO journal, I've never published anything but YOU inspire me too; I might someday yet."

I also want to take a moment to thank Librarian Zlatina Encheva for sharing the flyer above announcing the reading at Fairwood Library this Sunday. If you're interested in memoir writing and want to hear some passages from Pandemic Baby: Letters to My Grandson Before He Could Read, please join me. Books will be available for purchase at a discount. 

Fairwood Library 
17009 140th Avenue SE
Renton, WA 98058
3:00pm Sunday, May 4

For more information, click HERE.

Mark Your Calendars!

 

Growing up on undeveloped woodland in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, my family was high on adventure and love for our few horses but low on cleared pastureland to feed our beloved four-legged friends. From a very young age, one of the chores my siblings and I were given was to lead the animals to the cleared right-of-way running under the Bonneville powerlines and stake them out to graze.

When I opened the bedroom curtains to a beautiful spring morning after being away from home for several days, the first thought that surfaced in my sleep-fogged brain was The horses will love all that lush, overgrown clover and grass. In quick succession came I need a horse.

But no, I do not need a horse though I do love my memories of childhood horses. I also find joy in my little, metal pony who now inhabits my garden.

My latest memoir, Pandemic Baby: Letters to My Grandson Before He Could Read, focuses on more recent memories of the birth of my first grandchild during the COVID pandemic and Trump’s first term. The story unfolds in a unique combination of journal entries, letters, and poetry. 

I’m happy to announce two upcoming events. I hope you can join me! For the first, I’ll be returning to the King County Public Libraries. 

Author Event

Fairwood Library 
17009 140th Avenue SE
Renton, WA 98058
3:00pm Sunday, May 4
More Information HERE
Registration recommended but not required

I’m also pleased to invite you to the It’s About Time Reading Series. This month it will be a tribute to longtime Seattle area poet Millie Renfrow. Her daughter, Barb Renfrow-Baker, and poet Miriam Bassuk will read some of Millie's poems. There will also be four featured readers: Griffith H. Williams, Katy E. Ellis, Sybil James and me.

It's About Time Reading Series
Ballard Library
5614 22nd Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107
6:00pm Thursday, May 8

More Information at the It’s About Time events page on Facebook. 

You may also be interested in this article on HistoryLink.  

Ask Your Librarian

Do you use your public library? In Seattle and the surrounding areas, we are fortunate to have wonderful neighborhood and small-town libraries. As a schoolgirl the Issaquah Library was a common place for parental after-school pickups. Later as a mother with a young daughter, we frequented the West Seattle Library on a regular basis. Now, one of my grandson’s favorite rainy-day outings is a visit to the wonderful children’s room at the Bellingham Public Library, and I continue to visit my local library to pick up to request books or download audio and eBooks from home. These services are privileges I do not underestimate.

As a writer, libraries serve another purpose. My biggest challenge – and I am not alone here – is getting my work into readers’ hands. I am uncomfortable asking people to purchase my books or to write reviews – I do it, but I don’t like doing it. I didn’t become a writer to become rich and famous. I’m too much of a realist for that. Still, having readers is important to me.

I was reading an email from a niece the other day when a thought came to me. I suggested she request my new book – in fact all my books – from her own local library. Libraries exist to serve the reading public, and they want to know what you want to read. Using our libraries and letting our librarians know what we’d like them to shelf helps keep our libraries viable, especially in difficult times. My niece generously offered to take her sons to the library – one of their favorite spots – and make the request.

Would you be willing to do the same? To visit your local library and ask for a copy of Pandemic Baby: Letters to My Grandson Before He Could Read? 

Or, there might be an easier way. Perhaps you’d be willing to check your library collection online and see if any of my books are listed. If not, there should be a link on the website to allow patrons to request specific books be added to their collection.

Here are the links in my area:

The Seattle Public Library https://www.spl.org/books-and-media/suggest-a-title 

King County Library System https://kcls.org/faq/interlibrary-loan-suggest-a-purchase/#suggest-a-purchase

Sno-Isle Libraries https://www.sno-isle.org/suggest-a-purchase-ill/#suggest 

Bellingham Public Library https://bellinghampubliclibrary.org/ask/request-an-item

You will likely need an active library card as well as the ISBN and publication date of any book you’d like to request. Below is a list of my books with the required information. For other books you can’t find in your library, you can find ISBN and publication date on Amazon.

Pandemic Baby: Letters to My Grandson Before He Could Read (ISBN 979-8304136532, December 19, 2024)

The Ex-Mexican Wives Club: A Memoir (ISBN 978-1701090576, October 19, 2019)

Mom’s Last Move: A Memoir (ISBN 978-1730764233, November 2, 2018)

The Thirty-Ninth Victim: A Memoir (ISBN 978-1717582072, April 29, 2018)

Walking Home (The Alki Trilogy) (ISBN 978-1974165742, April 20, 2015)

Biking Uphill (The Alki Trilogy) (ISBN 978-1974164738, May 6, 2014)

Running Secrets (The Alki Trilogy) (ISBN 978-1974128150, December 30, 2013)

Thank you using your public library and for considering this request. If you decide to give it a try and suggest your library purchase a title, would you please let me know how it goes? 

Coincidence or Cautionary Tale?

Shortly before the recent publication of my latest memoir, I received an interesting email – a series of probing questions really – from a friend. These questions prompted me to dig deep to find some answers.

During the five years of writing, you questioned when to end the book... when the crisis is "over"? At the vaccination release? And here we are - just entering Round 2 of who knows what fresh hell awaits and the book is ready to be released. A key point is the crisis ISN'T over. It seems like it will never be over. So what do we do with that? Is your book a caution? A reminder of how bad it was so we maybe don't repeat the same mistakes? A warning that we can't just check out because we are weary of crises? The timing of the release of PB right after Trump 2.0 begins seems like something to take note of - a significant coincidence? Perfect timing? And to hopefully achieve what?

Needless to say, this friend has become a bit of a muse – a muse I have learned not to ignore. So how do I answer that stream of questions?

First, I write to understand, clarify, remember, create. I write because it calms my soul, allows my brain to stop and sleep. I am not a writer who writes to convince anyone of anything or even to entertain. I do not think of “audience” when I write. And I certainly don’t think I’ll ever clear a cent of profit from my writing. So why publish at all?

I have been journaling off and on for over fifty years. In 2002 I began writing what became my first book, published in 2008 and re-released in 2018. Why did I seek that first publication? Because The Thirty-Ninth Victim gave voice to a silenced past. Without publication, without voice, I believed – and still believe – I would have remained an incomplete woman.

Three memoirs and three novels later, I have written and published Pandemic Baby: Letters to My Grandson Before He Could Read. What began as a coping tool of journals and letters during a dreadful pandemic gave voice to my political and social beliefs in a more direct manner than anything I had written prior. A clarifying of my beliefs. To publish was to give voice to those beliefs. And though I am no one famous or important – a retired ESL teacher, a cyclist, reader, gardener, wife, mother (always), and a new grandma – my beliefs matter. Just as yours do. 

So I published. I published on Amazon. I’d prefer my books be in every independent bookstore and library across this country. But I am an elderly white woman of average talent, with a limited writers’ network and minimal means. I have published with three small presses that all went out of business. No major agent or publisher has expressed interest in my work. Publishing on Amazon allows me to hold that work in book format and share my voice with a small audience of devoted readers. For this I am grateful.

Why now? Why publish a story about the tragedies of Trump’s first term just after he’s been re-elected to a second? Pandemic Baby was never intended as a cautionary tale; I wasn’t trying to convince anyone how to vote in the 2024 election. It is, however, an accurate description of the period from early 2020 when COVID hit the Seattle area to summer 2022 when my grandson could finally be vaccinated. The book opens with an overview of the Trump years prior to his birth in June 2020. It was a time unlike any other in the history of our democracy. I wanted to document the world as I saw it, the world into which he was born. 

But Jack was only one of over three million babies born in the United States during the first year of the pandemic. The story I wrote goes beyond him and me. It is a story for all the pandemic babies, their parents and grandparents. It is a book I published to give voice to a unique yet universal story. The publication just after the Trump re-election was a coincidence, and yet if it serves as a reminder of what we have been through and what we need to prepare ourselves to endure once again, the timing may indeed be perfect. I hope you will read it and let me know what you think.

Just Released!

 Joy and fear intertwine in this grandmother’s journey through the time of Trump, Covid, social injustice, and climate change as she guides her privileged white grandson to be an antiracist prepared to inherit a changing world.

I'm excited to share my exciting news. Pandemic Baby - Letters to My Grandson Before He Could Read was just released! 

This new memoir chronicles my journey into retirement and grandmotherhood during a deadly pandemic and the most profound socio-political upheaval of our times under a president unlike all who preceded him. Now we face four more years. As George Santayana stated in 1905, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

You can now order your eBook HERE at the special price of only 99 cents. If you prefer paperbacks as I do, yours is available HERE. And don’t forget – books make terrific holiday gifts!

In today’s world, reviews and chatter make or break the success of a book. Please help me spread the word about Pandemic Baby. Could you post a review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, or any other review site you use? Comments on social media are also helpful. And talking about books with friends and family is also wonderful. If you belong to a Seattle-area book club, I’m happy to visit to discuss my work. 

Coming Soon!

Have you ever procrastinated on a project for reasons you don't fully understand at the time? That is the case with the publication of Pandemic Baby - Letters to My Grandson Before He Could Read. If the finished book is released by March 2025, and I hope it will be, it will have taken five years to complete. 

Through the slow process of eight deep revisions, the story morphed from a simple, often humorous, and always loving memoir about becoming a grandmother during the COVID pandemic to a statement on the condition of the world my grandson was born into during the first Trump presidency. Now Trump has been re-elected.

Pandemic Baby takes us back to a time we may want to forget but never should. I do not want a repeat of the pandemic years or of the first Trump term. That is not the world I want my grandson or his generation to grow up in, to inherit as young adults. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of denial or oversimplification, of ignoring the hardships we endured, of convincing ourselves that it's over. It's not. 

This memoir began as my mode of coping. Four years later, I still write letters to Jack, letters he may never read, but writing still helped me find my center as we dealt with another turbulent election and now face another period of extreme discord. Perhaps that explains my procrastination, perhaps my fear of what lies ahead has slowed down my willingness to release this book. But we can't let fear stop us, can we?

I do not have a release date, but I do have a cover! Perhaps you remember this image from a prior post.

 

Why Cycle?

Summer cycling has ended. According to Mission Control, the tracking system on my Specialized e-assist bike – I covered almost 385 miles and climbed just over 20,000 feet during the month of August. Since buying this bike last September, I’ve clocked 1,595 miles, and not including the times I forgot to hit “Record”.

Why? I realize that some may wonder why I cycle so much. It’s a valid question I find myself asking as well and I don’t always have a satisfying response.

I suppose on a bike, the breeze in my face, on city streets, rural roads, or trails, I see the world around me in a manner different from either walking or driving. In an odd way, it’s a bit like wandering the foothills of Issaquah Valley on the horses of my childhood.

I also enjoy the camaraderie of other women cyclists, women I ride with through sun and rain, good times and not so good. Each ride is different and never quite what I expected. Case in point, I worried that we’d face high temperatures and possible forest fire smoke during my last organized ride of the summer, the 210-mile ride from Seattle to Vancouver called RSVP. Instead, it rained non-stop, letting up as we crossed into Canada.

I credit cycling for pulling me out of my pandemic slump, from the physical and emotional quagmire I allowed myself to sink into for longer than a healthy lifestyle allows. I had to find a way out, a route back to myself. I knew exercise, for me cycling, was the ticket.

Ten years earlier I had trained with a former work colleague. She was an experienced cyclist, quite the opposite of my newbie status. We were turning sixty within a month of each other and decided to do RSVP to commemorate the occasion. I met that goal head on and rejoiced by suggesting we do it again for our seventieth. “But next time,” I said, “We’ll do it on e-assist bikes.” That was 2014.

I continued to cycle, though not at the same level of intensity, through 2017 when I rode Obliteride, a 100-mile ride to support Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research. Then I hit a wall. I was physically exhausted and simply couldn’t keep up with my friends. Holding them back, feeling like the weak link, was emotionally draining. I stopped cycling but for short neighborhood rides. Then COVID hit.

Jump forward to late 2023. I remembered my comment to my cycling buddies about doing RSVP again, but on e-bikes. I’d been thinking about the e-assist option for several years and finally made the decision to try one, a decision more about admitting the physical limitations of my age than about the expense. It turned out to be the best purchase of my life allowing me to joyously re-enter the world of cycling. It’s a great place to be.