Mother's Dozen: An Easy Recipe for Raising GREAT Kids! (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781499588439)

I started my career as a stenographer at a major utility company, working my way up through supervisor of word processing, then as the office manager for an automotive advertising agency, and, lastly, as an executive assistant at a large non-profit health maintenance organization. I am also a professional proofreader. All of these positions were leading me into writing and becoming an author. In 1982 my first piece was published. I entered a writing contest for a magazine. I didn't win, but they notified me that they still wanted to publish my article. And they paid me $100! They published the article verbatim! I took that as a sign that my writing was publishable. Subsequent to that, I wrote three op-ed columns for The Detroit Free Press. They published all three of them verbatim! I took that as another sign that my writing was publishable. I wrote my first book, Line of Serenity (a memoir), in 1997. Being the oldest of seven, in a very happy family, I wanted to capture the way our parents raised us so that the way they did it would not be lost when we all passed on. (Sadly, our oldest brother passed away on April 28, 2013.) There has never been any sibling rivalry in our family; we all adore each other! Many people read the manuscript and told me that I should publish it. The book goes from 1944 (the year I was born) through 1977 (the year our mother passed on) and includes family recipes and photographs. Recipes, because food was-and still is-an important part of my family's fabric; photographs, so that descendents can see what their ancestors looked like and be amazed to find a resemblance to an ancestor. You don't have to be a family member to enjoy this book! For older readers, it's a walk down memory lane; for younger readers, it provides a peek into the past. Forty-six years ago, I married my childhood sweetheart. We have two grown sons, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Family is everything!