A pencil sketch I made of my dear friend, DS Levy, when she was a child. (Inspired by a childhood photo DS shared with me taken by a childhood friend)
The ‘poem’ above was written this morning after feeling overwhelmed by the news. I wrote it to remind myself that we can’t give up the fight for our country – a country where empathy, kindness, compassion, fairness, equity, science… – you know – the good stuff that makes us human – once prevailed
We are better than the sum of this current government We are much better
(Above, a recent sketch I did of my dear friend, DS Levy. My reference was a photo taken when the amazingly talented writer known as little Deb had a typewriter already growing in her heart)
Man, it has been a long time since I’ve posted. Like you all, I’m juggling coffee mugs attempting to make a Venetian decanter. I’ve been doing quite a bit of writing and ‘arting’ offline. ‘Tis difficult wanting to do it all with the damn clock dictating the days.
I do hope you, your families and friends are doing okay.
Here’s a piece I wrote sometime ago while sipping coffee in the kitchen of my previous home:)
The Lollipop Vanishes
The cold isn’t done yet. It remains bluster-blue out there. Steam from my morning coffee marinates my face while a pen hanging from the calendar on my pantry door doodles pictograms. The wind spirits are still dancing. Shouldn’t have cracked the kitchen sliders open so early. Perhaps the swinging pen is scrawling a message from beyond, should I pray or wipe the door down?
Time flips on its head whenever clouds sail by that fast. Between sips of luke warm coffee, I remember me as a little girl in brown polyester, a tomboy with a pageboy, and a half-shirted party girl. Young woman with a career, an apartment, a sports car, a motorcycle.
As a lefty, I never learned biker right-hand turns. The bike went away. I totaled my car. The car went away. I bought another car. Got married. We moved from New Jersey to New York. We had children. Moved into a bigger house. Our large dog died. We got another dog. Plus a smaller dog for child anxiety. My children earned degrees.
Our family had a bad eleven weeks that killed my father and mother-in-law and gave my mother a massive stroke. My mother died three years later. I don’t remember being her caregiver. My children moved into their new lives. We downsized into a new “old” house. My husband’s hair turned grey. My older relatives are nearly done dying. A box of Clairol waits in the wings for me.
In one of my book clubs, I’m the oldest, in the other, I’m the youngest. I worry the elder members will pass on before reading the next book selection.
The lollipop vanishes, and the goddamn stick can beat you into the ground if you let it.
Look out there, the gray is fading to light purple. How lovely. That’s something I haven’t seen in a while.
I self-published love of the monster in 2016, followed by the ebook version in 2017.
I’d been romancing the silly notion of selling my books at fairs with my vivacious mom who was all in. So, after the ebook arrived on Amazon, I had the physical books shipped home. (to this day, a few print books remain on Amazon through second-party sellers and – a funny story about pricing for another post another time)
But sometimes plans falter, and life lobs a hardball at your chest. Those of you who’ve been kind enough to read an occasional post of mine here – know beautiful Millie had passed away after battling the ravages of a major stroke for three years. During all that time, my books and a large portion of my heart were shoved into a closet.
Fast forward to 2023, and brighter times (life may lob the occasional hardball, but the timeouts help one’s heart to heal). A unique book-promoting site who goes by the name of Shepherd asked if I’d be interested in having love of the monster featured on a page. At first, truthfully, I had no interest. Then one morning I woke up and thought – What the hell. Maybe it’s time. What have I got to lose? Millie never quit.
I thought through the many books in my life that have influenced me. I wrote about five special books, both past and present, that I adore and how their pages help me in my creative process. This is where the Shepherd experience is different from Goodreads or seeking books out on Amazon. The Shepherd site doesn’t just list an author’s book, it lists their personal stories about other books too. Since love of the monster is an illustrated poetry collection, I wrote about books of poetry. Author or reader, you should check out Shepherd for yourself: my book recommendations linked here.
I’m happy to say my enthusiasm for my little monster book has returned. And here I am again. Or rather, here is love of the monster again. This time around I’m only online promoting the ebook. To honor my mom, I’ll do my best to smile her smile as I attempt to peddle love of the monster books at fairs. (If you should want a print book and don’t like fairs, you can always email me, amroselli.writer@gmail.com or you can purchase a book from Amazon which could be cheaper than me shipping a book to you. I’d probably charge 5+shipping. I could write a note inside and add a fancy signature if you’d like;))
In summary: You should absolutely check out Shepherd.com for yourself
love of the monster ebook is re-available on Amazon Kindle. (Going forward, I hope to get it uploaded to Barnes & Noble and maybe Apple Books too. Figuring out file deliveries is quite challenging)
I will be embarrassing myself in an attempt to sell love of the monster books at fairs that have hot coffee in fall and winter and iced coffee during summer and spring. I shall smile like Millie.
I miss my mom like crazy, but rather than get teary-eyed anymore, I smile in the knowledge of how blessed I’ve been to have known and loved such a spectacularly joyous person.
Thank you, am:)
The 5 books I wrote about and shared on Shepherd: the books pictured below are fantastic! It’s wonderful to write about and to share the spectacular books out there in the world!
This piece is near to my heart, as are many of my pieces, but if all my creative efforts remained in my heart heaviness might collect there
I’ve shared this piece before, it’s time to share again
after all, ’tis the season of warmth, good cheer, fellowship and peace – I pray❤️
an old painting from a local art show I’d had titled “Creatured” – an amalgam of critters blended together – some whimsical, others ridiculous and some like that dopey orange bunny
After experiencing several monster-sized issues, my eBook is now available. Truth be told, post-problems it was ready in late January, but at the time, I had not the heart to promote it. So without further ado – some new illustrations and a new poem too – love of the monster – is yours for the downloading (oh and a tiny $2.99)
excerpt and art from, love of the monster, eBook coming soon
I’ve been swapping some drawings in print version with paintings for eBook-
because glorious color costs the same as black and white in computer land😘
how embarrassing, had to redo this because I always screw up “past” vs “passed”
anntogether 