Robyn Corum spent her earliest years, tanned, barefoot, with tangled hair, on a farm in a rural community nestled deep in the heart of Dixie. In the days of penny candy and ten cent sodas, she witnessed the difficulties her parents and grandparents faced to scratch out a living, and then listened, rapt, to unadorned tales of times that had been even harder.

Though society has moved a long way from that hand-to-mouth existence, Robyn feels it's important to remember and honor the hard-working, innovative folks who came before. She loves interspersing those gritty old stories she heard with her own memories in an attempt to bring the past to life for readers.

Born in Decatur, Alabama in 1962, Robyn has been entranced with words as far back as she can remember -- the way they sparkle and dance on a blank white page. Her Aunt Lisa spun tales that prodded and provoked, and then encouraged Robyn to do the same. She dabbles in poetry, fiction, non-fiction and in many different genres.

"Melinda Heads West" is the result of three months of writing and two contests. (One for a western-themed flash fiction piece that GREW.)

Robyn is married to her own White Knight and Hero, Reggie, has three perfect children and one amazing son-in-law. She also enjoys photography, reading (of course!) and decorating. She despises cleaning and ironing.

Favorite Quotes:

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." -- Goethe

"Books fall open and you fall in." -- unknown

"Pieces of Her Mind: Women Find Their Voice in Centuries-Old Forms" is the first anthology published exclusively by contemporary English Language women poets of three types of short Japanese poetic forms (senryu, kyoka and haiga). While readers who appreciate this genre of poetry will be particularly interested in this book, the book will also appeal to men and women who love satiric and ironic " one-liners" (in the case of this book, three to five) that provide insight into how women think.

List of Authors:

Melissa Bickel

Vicki Taylor Bonnell

Susan Galletti Champion

Connie Chiechi

Robyn Corum

Nancy Bravo Creager

Alvin Thomas Ethington

Suzanne Fuller

Lois J. Funk

Dana Furrow

Carol Judkins

Deborah C. Kammer

Nina Marshall(Rama Devi)

Nessi Noel

Phillippa Ross

Joan E. Stern

Karyn Stockwell

Marie Toole

Sally Yocom

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Sue (Susan Galletti Campion) has travelled her entire life, both as a Navy brat and as an executive in the K-12 education non-profit arena. These

experiences taught her to embrace diversity, to be strong, and

to appreciate stability, friends and home. As a middle school

teacher, principal, national consultant and executive in nonprofit

organizations, Sue worked with challenged young

adolescents and teachers in the "toughest" schools in large

cities throughout the United States. She led a $13 million

contract to coach teachers to believe in the capabilities of all

children and hold high expectations. Sue has a doctorate

degree from the University of Washington.

Sue learned and practiced the power of self-fulfilling

prophecy. Her willingness to break rules and create

turnarounds in schools has been documented in multiple

books. Her three younger siblings tell tales she no longer

wants to hear.

At the ripe age of fifty-seven, Sue met her soul mate and has

now been married to her spry seventy-seven year-old John

for four years. Her passion is writing poetry and she has been

published in three anthologies. She also keeps herself busy

with golf, bridge, and reading. Varied life experiences now

help Sue move to her next phase of living life fully.

Visit:

Pieces of Her Mind - Blog

Pieces of Her Mind - Facebook

LOIS J. FUNK was born and raised in the Midwest but has traveled extensively outside the U.S. From lifetime journals, she gleans details of childhood and travel experiences and incorporates them in her nostalgic writings. Below are the individual synopses of her books:

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW critique of BEYOND THE BRIGHT LIGHTS:

From James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief Midwest Book Review, May 2022:

I'm very pleased to announce that the May 2022 issue of our online book review magazine "Small Press Bookwatch" features a review of "Beyond the Bright Lights".

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw/may_22.htm#travel The Travel Shelf

Critique: An ideal and entertaining 'armchair traveler' read, and with a text that often resembles a free verse form of prose, "Beyond the Bright Lights: When Luxury Was Prime: A Travelogue in Time" is an inherently fascinating travelogue that deftly blends contextual details and the kind of narrative driven storyteller that will engage the reader's total attention. A veritable saga of a travelogue, "Beyond the Bright Lights: When Luxury Was Prime: A Travelogue in Time" is highly recommended as an addition to personal reading lists and community library Contemporary Travelogue collections.

This review will also appear in the Cengage Leaming, Gale interactive CD-ROM series "Book Review Index" which is published four times yearly for academic, corporate, and public library systems.

Additionally, this review will be archived on our Midwest Book Review website for the next five years at http://www.midwestbookreview.com

Get your copy of BEYOND THE BRIGHT LIGHTS - When Luxury Was Prime: A Travelogue in Time and travel along with me, "around the world and halfway back." Go to school with me for a day in Germany; experience the ups and downs of two years of high school as a teenage American in Australia; and bear with me through the tragedy that brought me back home. Then travel with my husband and me to Germany's Oktoberfest; with us and our ten-year-old son around the Pacific rim; and finally, back to Australia, for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the search for the "old" Australia we loved.

Strap on a pair of roller skates and step back in time with this author as she recalls her favorite memories of the ‘50s in THE CRACKS IN THE SIDEWALK. Or, learn how to write your own personal stories with the help of the writer’s tools in SNAPS, SCRAPS & SNIPPETS OF THE PAST AND PRESENT. I grew up on "once-upon-a-times," "happily-ever-afters," and family talks around the kitchen table, all of which left me with the impression that the world was a perfect place. And. for me, it almost was...

From SNAPS, SCRAPS & SNIPPETS:

I wanted to see the cinder driveway that ran alongside our house, and the garbage pits and hollyhocks that lined the alley behind it. I longed to see pictures of Mom's clotheslines propped up and loaded down with the week's wash; the tricycle my sisters and I took turns riding to the neighborhood park just up the street from our house; and glimpses of my grandma's kitchen where, in the aprons my mother made for her, she taught me how to spell my name while she was baking cherry pies. Those were the details that added color and life to my childhood. But nowhere did I find them recorded on film. So I did the next best thing. I encouraged my mind's camera to come up with mental images that I could translate onto...continued on Page 37 of Snaps, Scraps & Snippets of the Past and Present.

Find inspiration, hope, and humor in LIGHT FOR THE BURNING SOUL:

Convincing the Invincible

After listening intently to the Bible story in which Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, our pastor's four-year-old daughter carried it a bit further by adding, "But she died later."

I assured her with, "Oh, yes. We all have to die sooner or later."

While most of the kids let the latter thought go right over their heads, one little boy looked directly into my eyes and said, "Well, I'M not going to die - sooner OR later."

Laugh along with eighteen women who reveal the ups and downs of family life in PIECES OF HER MIND:

lost, he doubles back

without asking directions

man behind the wheel

*

main street cordoned off

one carload of clowns

heads the wrong way

*

tintype portrait

someone's ancestor

with a price

on his head

*

For more about the author and her books, please visit her website at http://loisjfunkwritingsof.com, and look for her on Facebook.

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