Bøger af Jeffrey Underwood

Life through the eyes of a vintage sock monkey and her friend, Kate. Colorful photos and quips about sock monkey life

Highland Gals is a work of fiction about four middle aged women who have worked together at Highland Crossing Care Home. As Licensed Nursing Assistants, Dolly, Maria, Peg, and Rusty have been caregivers to residents for over twenty years. Day after day, year after year, they have shown kindness, caring, and compassion. Now, as each woman faces her own life's challenges, it is time for these women to care for themselves and one another. Join Rusty, Maria, Dolly, and Peg, affectionately known as the "Highland gals", on their nurturing journey through life, together.

I walked around the gallery and stopped to look at various paintings, but when I came upon one piece in particular, I lingered and pondered within my spirit what I saw. A couple was so focused on their individual feelings that there was nothing that would call their attention away to anything but what was hidden within them. They wouldn't hear or mind the rattles, clacks, and the metallic clunks of the train. Neither people buzzing with conversation, nor a camera flashing from across the aisle would stir them. Most importantly, they didn't even turn to one another. Why? One photograph frozen in time held the emotion that lay beneath their outer appearances. It was the perception of an artist who held that photograph in her hands to paint, years later, what she saw and felt from her people watching experience. She neither knew the couple nor did she know their plight, but something in her heart was touched by their silent sounds. The painting of the nameless couple was born of her hands. She carried it until it was time to release it to me. I saw what she saw in the couple. However, I saw more. As I mindfully looked at the painting, I collected symbolism from all over the canvas. The artist wondered how I could see so much. Every time I looked at the painting, I saw something else. Their faces were turned away, forever locked into position on the canvas, yet they spoke to me. This is where the story of Yvette and Milt Campbell begins. Yvette Reveur and Milt Campbell met as young children playing in the same neighborhood. They sat in the same living room listening to the radio, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that the United States was at war. The children survived the harsh realities of WWII. During their teenage years, Yvette and Milt began the mating dance. At Manca's Market, he put his unusual talent to use as he entertained her and showed off, hoping to catch her attention. He knew in one wink that she had noticed. They began dating and their infatuation with one another led to the intimacy that would cause her to become pregnant. They wed and waited. The birth of Joseph was a joyous experience, however the joy became struggle, and that struggle lasted for many years. It lasted through the birth of their first daughter, Catherine. They suffered with the community, the country, and the world when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated A year later, their last daughter, Cynthia was born. She sprang from a fracture within their bond which greatly subdued their love. Ironically though, this child brought them a satisfaction and that glimmer of hope to stir their relationship again. Eventually, their children, Joe, Catherine, and Cindy, became adults, moved out, began their careers, and their own families. Yvette and Milt were in the throes of empty nest syndrome. Life seemed to be going in different directions for Milt and Yvette. Their marriage was a train ride with no stop at a station to let them off. Within the pages of Tracks of Lost Tears, you will come to know Yvette and Milt intimately. You will experience what they experienced and feel what they felt. Let yourself be open. Your heart will truly be touched.

An hour or so of creative writing could be a short story on its own. Elders from all walks of life, most over the age of eighty gathered as a group and shared together and built short stories or poems, or even an exercise in a quick collection of thoughts. Their experiences, environments, cultures, traditions, and upbringing within their backstories brought flavors that when combined and stirred together produced the most delicious results. It might have taken several meetings to months of sharing thoughts and pitching ideas back and forth before final sentences joined to form their stories and more. "Elderberry Pie Homemade Stories" took more than two years of creativity to complete. Kate Taylor and Jeff Underwood, partners and collaborative authors brought the book to life. Kate connected the members' words. Jeff edited their completed works. And that is how a group of the members of the Imaginative Elders Writing Club became writers, became authors. Now, peek inside and then settle back to read their stories, poems and all the rest. Picture those elders sitting 'round the table enjoying ginger ale, coffee and cookies as they called out their ideas. Picture the camaraderie as they looked forward to being together to laugh, sort out thoughts, and have a good time doing it all. And feel their pride when they knew that "Elderberry Pie Homemade Stories" was really and truly a book, a book written by them. Likewise, you will sense their joy.

A little girl hides behind a frightened young woman's skirt. A distance away, two men talk. One of those men puts money, what would be the equivalent of $35.00, into the much younger man's hand. A woman who has been standing an even further distance away is motioned to come closer. She reluctantly puts out her cigarette and sidles up to the woman and child pair. The stranger man nods to the woman; the young people nod to each other. The no longer frightened young woman nudges the little girl from behind her skirt and then places the little girl's hand into the alien woman's hand. She will become the little girl's new friend. This friend coos and smiles to the little girl with an effort, promising sweet food and a shiny bicycle. The little girl only smells the foul cigarette odor on the breath of the other. And so, another child submits to the awful circumstances of hard and harsh labor in the cocoa fields. She is four years old. Her name is Yene. She will suffer for two years. Meet Professor Catherine Anne Campbell. Students at Basrouge University in Johnston, Pennsylvania have filled seats in her lecture hall for years to learn about Women's Rights. How does it come to be then, that a stubborn, willful woman from Johnston, Pennsylvania would meet a shy little girl from Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa? Once she becomes aware of the abominable conditions of a child as she toils over the cocoa pod, Cathy's passion to enter those cocoa farms to investigate and to save the children virtually imprisoned there causes her to make many a move. Cathy makes her move to rescue Yene. She takes her from Côte d'Ivoire into Mali. Anywhere in the world, taking a child without permission, even without malice aforethought, is damning. Capture might easily place Cathy in harm's way. Will she face a trial in the Cote d'Ivoire? Will she be caught by rogue others who might beat and brutalize both her and her newly found treasure, Yene? Can Cathy escape the country? If so, will Yene accompany her? Yene is held captive to cocoa. Can she truly find release? Trust me when I say, chocolate will never ever taste the same

Entertaining, hilarious, tongue in cheek rules of texting in illustration form for folks in all walks of life.

It all began when Rusty passed away. The grief gnawed at Kete's soul and he sought relief in New Hampshire. He was so pleased and felt so lucky that he found that little shard of glass when he visited Rusty's old house. He would have something to keep as a remembrance of his sister. Once he was released from that sadness, his desire to develop his relationship with Dolly opened up and continued his joy. Their trip to Salem had proved fruitful to bring back his itch to write. Back at home in Maple Valley, Washington with Dolly by his side, Kete felt the thrill as he started to write again. Tituba the slave, Ann Putnam, and the Circle of Girls would provide the flavor for his newest book, A Thunderstone in Salem. ...The next morning, when Kete sat at his desk, he opened up the document for chapter one. He scrolled down to add more and there were words at the bottom of the page that he had not written. The words were written in red. ...When he opened the template, he found at the top of the opening page, there was another message written in red ink. He cocked his head to the side, wondering how Dolly could have known about the template to begin with. It was a conundrum. If not Dolly, then who were the messages from? Ponder your own thoughts about the afterlife. Do you believe in spirits? Have you been visited by a spirit? ... For the first time, Kete and Dolly got to see Rusty, albeit in a vaporous mist... They reached for her, but Rusty's spirit began to depart. She didn't leave entirely until Kete and Dolly felt her touch and kiss. Dear reader, are all spirits so peace filled? Within these pages you will find the answers. A word of advice: don't read Sonnet in Red Ink while standing up; you'll fall into your chair or onto the floor.

An hour or so of creative writing could be a short story on its own. Residents from all walks of life, most over the age of eighty gathered as a group and shared together and built short stories or poems, or even an exercise in a quick collection of thoughts. Their experiences, environments, cultures, traditions, and upbringing within their backstories brought flavors that when combined and stirred together produced the most delicious results. It might have taken several meetings to months of sharing thoughts and pitching ideas back and forth before final sentences joined to form their stories and more. "Elderberry Pie Homemade Stories" took more than two years of creativity to complete. Kate Taylor and Jeff Underwood, partners and collaborative authors brought the book to life. Kate connected the members' words. Jeff edited their completed works. And that is how a group of the members of the Imaginative Elders Writing Club became writers, became authors. Now, peek inside and then settle back to read their stories, poems and all the rest. Picture those elders sitting 'round the table enjoying ginger ale, coffee and cookies as they called out their ideas. Picture the camaraderie as they looked forward to being together to laugh, sort out thoughts, and have a good time doing it all. And feel their pride when they knew that "Elderberry Pie Homemade Stories" was really and truly a book, a book written by them. Likewise, you will sense their joy.

Clotho is the goddess of time and fate. She has bestowed her cruel demonic kiss of eternal life on two friends.Many would presume the kiss a gift. The two friends know differently. The Kiss of Clotho is a curse. Eugenie, born in 1814, has lost husbands, lovers, a child and dear friends as her age never changes. Sarah, born in 1979, senses the horror of it.Mark, Sarah?s husband, has been brought into the wild fray. They will try anything. They follow dreams, attempt to locate the goddesses? temple, delve into Eugenie?s past in 1863. They explore stick-pin dolls, curse reversals, mirror reflections, consecrations and purification. Abject failure is all they find to remove the curse.Clotho watches without concern.