In times like these, everyone can use
A Cup of Comfort.
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A Cup of Comfort
Inspiration
A Cup of Comfort
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About the Contributors:
A Cup of Comfort
A Cup of Comfort for
Friends
A Cup of Comfort for
Women
A Cup of Comfort for
Mothers & Daughters
A Cup of Comfort for
Inspiration
A Cup of Comfort for
Christmas
A Cup of Comfort for
Courage
A Cup of Comfort for
Teachers
A Cup of Comfort for Mothers & Daughters
Contributors
Pamela K. Amlung ("A Mother's Arms") lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and three daughters. A part-time estate-planning attorney, she also homeschools her children, writes stories and poetry, and recently served as the poetry editor for Fruit of the Vine (Vineyard Community Church, Cincinnati).
Maureen Anderson ("Lessons from a Four-Year-Old"), of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, hosts the syndicated radio program "The Career Clinic," which is broadcasted worldwide. She is also the coauthor, with Dick Beardsley, of Staying the Course: A Runner's Toughest Choice.
Gina M. Bacon ("Water Echoes") works as a freelance writer, poet, and essayist. She began writing at an early age, inspired by her great-grandmother, Ruth Bancroft, a high-school dropout who enrolled in college in the 1970s and went on to complete a novel and publish newspaper articles. She resides in Southwest Washington with her husband and two sons.
B. J. Bateman ("The Comforter") shares an A-frame in Gresham, Oregon, with her newly retired husband. Since her own retirement, B. J. has focused primarily on her family, dancing, and writing. She has published several pieces, both fiction and nonfiction, won two writing awards, and completed a novel.
Maura Bedloe ("Mary and Me") lives in a tiny seaside village on the southeast coast of Tasmania, Australia, with her husband, Jonathan, and two-year-old son, Samuel. She spends her time caring for her family, gardening, beachcombing, and writing.
Patty Briles ("My Mother's Hands") lives and writes in North Carolina. She and her husband are the parents of teenage daughters, who, she says, "Still kiss us goodnight, ask for our opinions, and tell their friends how funny their parents are."
Mary Karen Burke ("The Sponge Bath"), of Mohegan Lake, New York, has four children and five grandchildren. She recently retired after working twenty years as nurse/counselor in a substance-abuse program. She'd like to thank her mother and the God of Motherhood, who sometimes turns the worst sins of motherhood into blessings.
Chryss Cada ("My Worth in Camels") is a freelance writer, a columnist, and an adjunct professor at Colorado State University. She is currently working on her first novel.
Anne Carter ("The Birthday Promise") is a freelance writer whose stories have been published in several anthologies, including A Cup of Comfort for Women (2002). A native New Yorker, she resides on Long Island, near her children and grandchildren.
Patricia Clark ("Between the Tears and the Truth"), a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, lives and writes in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where she also works as a wife, mother, and high school teaching assistant. She believes that writing is a gift and that this gift is never greater than its Giver.
R. M. Conner ("Tea for Two") lives with her husband on Long Island, New York, where she pursues her favorite addictions: writing and tea. She travels often, in person or through books.
Marla Doherty ("Grammy and the Dream Keeper") lives and dreams in Shasta County, California, with her husband, Charles, their daughter, Nina, and several pets. When she isn't writing, she loves to teach elementary school students, prowl libraries and bookstores, hike in the woods of the Sierra-Cascade mountains, and sing.
Patricia Fish ("My Funny Mother") hails from Pasadena, Maryland. An accountant by training, she now writes full-time. She published her first book, Everything You Need to Know about Being a Woman Can Be Learned in the Garden, in 1999.
Pamela Frost ("The Shoebox") lives with her husband in Seville, Ohio. When she isn't writing, she buys houses on her credit cards, remodels them, and then rents them out. Her upcoming book Houses of Cards is a humorous look at her adventures in landlord land.
Mona Gable ("Girly Girl") is a writer whose articles and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Health, the Wall Street Journal, and Salon. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Peggy Newland Goetz ("The Bike Trip") lives in New Hampshire with her husband and daughter. A writer by profession, she is the author of a novel and the biographical The Adventure of Two Lifetimes.
Christine Goold ("Dear Mom") is a college instructor and writer. Her magazine articles have appeared in numerous regional and national publications. Her two published gothic romance novels are set in her native Colorado, where she lives with her husband, Gary. Jana, her daughter, is now a theater student at the University of Evansville, Indiana.
Carrie Howard ("A Little Night Music") is a freelance writer living in the Seattle, Washington, area with her husband, Andy; stepdaughter, Allison; and two daughters, Tessa and Lily. Her essays and articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Adoptive Families, the Seattle Times, and many corporate publications.
Molly Hulett ("Daughter of the Bride") is a freelance writer for a variety of magazines and corporate clients. She lives with her husband along the South Carolina coast.
Jane Tod Jimenez ("Lava Love") lives with her husband in Tempe, Arizona. Appreciating the variety of life, she has had careers in real estate, accounting, and teaching. Her writing has appeared in Marriage Partnership, Treasures of a Woman's Heart, and God's Abundance.
Ramona John ("Leaving"), a retired judge, is the published author of two books and numerous magazine and newspaper articles. She lives with her husband, Dick, and their dog, Greta, in Crowley, Texas.
Marla Kiley ("The Old Indian Woman") holds a master's of arts degree from Colorado University, Denver. She has worked as a writer and editor, and now occasionally writes freelance articles while she stays at home with her two sons. She lives with her husband and children in Denver, Colorado.
Martha Lackritz ("Pearls") is an undergraduate student at Brown University, where she studies comparative literature and East Asian history. Her interests include children's bilingual education, Vietnamese poetry translation, and creative nonfiction.
Inez Hollander Lake ("Caroline's Prince") lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, son, and her highness, Princess Caroline. When she is not checking her daughter's formalwear and invitations to royal dinners, she writes, edits, translates, teaches, and enjoys the riches of full-time motherhood.
Jaye W. Manus ("She Left a Mess Behind") is a bead artist and novelist residing in Colorado. After raising a son and a daughter, Jaye and her husband became foster parents of two teenagers. When it comes to dogs, cats, and kids, her motto is: "Hey, what's one more?"
Nancy Massand ("Time Out") is a teacher at an independent school in Queens, New York. She and her husband have raised three delightful daughters and recently added two sons-in-law to the family. Nancy's stories have appeared in numerous publications.
Patricia McFarland ("Mama's Egg") recently retired after thirty years of teaching foreign languages in high schools. She loves to travel and write, and is an avid student of art and archaeology.
Sheri McGregor ("Fine Tuning" and "From A Mother") lives with her husband and five children in their Southern California home. She connects with other women through her articles and books, speaking engagements, and Web site (www.motherswhodream.com). As a hypnotherapist, she helps others change their lives through changing their thinking.
Lynn Ruth Miller ("A Mother Knows") is a storyteller, award-winning writer, and humorist. She is the author of Starving Hearts and Thoughts While Walking the Dog, a compilation of her columns from the Pacifica Tribune, and a regular contributor to the Cup of Comfort book series. She makes her home in Northern California.
Camille Moffat ("The Inheritance") lives in the South and writes from her home on a mountainside overlooking the Shenandoah Valley.
Catherine Olson ("Before the Rain Comes") grew up in Rockford, Illinois, and now resides in Chicago. A data analyst for a legal publishing company, she also writes short stories and teaches English as a second language in her spare time.
Richelle Putnam ("The Power of a Mother's Love") works as a writing instructor and motivational speaker. She is the recipient of several writing awards, and her writing has appeared in World Wide Writers (online), Copperfield Review, Cayuse Press, and Writer's Journal.
Irene L. Pynn ("My Declaration") works as a teacher and a writer in Orlando, Florida. She has written plays for children and worked as a reporter for a small newspaper. A Florida State University graduate, she is currently studying online for her master's degree in writing from Seton Hill University, Pennsylvania. Her parents are her greatest inspiration.
Elaine Ernst Schneider ("Pink Ribbons"), of Montgomery, Alabama, is a curriculum author for Group Publishing, Inc., and the managing editor of Lesson Tutor. The author of the book 52 Children's Moments, she has also published articles, songs, and children's stories in publications that include Catholic Digest, FellowScript, Parenting Today's Teen, This Christian Life, HomeLearning Canada, and Whispers from Heaven.
Valerie Schultz ("Great Expectations") writes from her home in Tehachapi, California. Her stories have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, and she is currently a contributing columnist for the Bakersfield Californian. She and her husband, Randy, have four daughters.
Bluma Schwarz ("The Coronation") is a semi-retired mental health counselor and freelance writer. At age sixty-nine, she published her first story in Iowa Woman. Her stories have since appeared in A Cup of Comfort, Potpourri, Potomac Review, AIM, and elsewhere. She resides in Florida.
Sylvia E. Sheets McDonald ("What I Wanted to Tell Her") is a stay-at-home mother, freelance writer, and graduate student pursuing a master's degree in counseling. Another of her stories appeared in A Cup of Comfort for Friends. She and her husband, John, live in central Ohio with their three children, Evan, Seth, and Abigail.
Susan J. Siersma ("The Circle Plant") recently left a long career in special education to care for a family member, at which time she began to write and to play the violin. Her favorite pastimes are organic gardening, long walks with her husband, Rodger, and playing with her three grandchildren.
Valerie Smart ("Things My Mother Taught Me") is a writer who lives in western Massachusetts with her husband their two pet ducks. She bought a house three miles down the road from her Mom's home, and "wouldn't have it any other way."
Sande Smith ("To Love a Stranger") is a poet, essayist, and public relations professional living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a bachelor's degree in Portuguese and Brazilian studies, and credits her love of language to her mother, who read to her the musical words of James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou.
Ksenija Soster Olmer ("First Moon Rising") is a translator, poet, writer, parent educator, and devoted student of Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. Originally from Slovenija, she lives in Orinda, California, with her husband, Mirek, a Czech bridge designer, and their three daughters.
Cassie Premo Steele ("Daughter of Maeve" and "My Whirling Girl") is a poet and writer who divides her time between the American South and the Irish West. More of her writing on the healing of women's bodies and spirits can be found in her books Moon Days and We Heal from Memory, as well as in SageWoman magazine, Aquarian Times, The Blessed Bee, and Beliefnet.com.
Kelly L. Stone ("Heart Choices") is a licensed professional counselor who has worked in the field of children's mental health for more than thirteen years. She recently published a personal essay in an anthology about sisters. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia.
Annemarieke Tazelaar ("Full Circle") was born in the Netherlands and moved with her family to the United States when she was a child. After years of teaching, she now owns her own business and a bumper sticker that reads, "I'd Rather Be Writing." A contributing author of A Cup of Comfort Cookbook, she claims that her novel and short-story collection are "products of her 'spare' time."
Susan B. Townsend ("The Legacy") is a writer and stay-at-home mother. Transplanted from the west coast of Canada to the United States in 1997, she now makes her home on a 300-acre farm in southeastern Virginia, with her husband, five children, and several animals.
Diane Meredith Vogel ("Making Mommy Pretty") lives with her husband, her best friend, on a farm in Michigan. She raises dogs and goats, and enjoys writing and painting. A contributor of A Cup of Comfort, she is currently working on a historical novel.
Kristl Volk Franklin ("The Demise of Josephine") was born in Celle, Germany. Since becoming a United States citizen, she has lived in six different states but considers the South her home. She writes screenplays and has published award-winning fiction and nonfiction in the inspirational and psychological-thriller genres.
Karen Favo Walsh ("Fashion Amnesia") is a writer, graphic designer, electronic prepress specialist, and caregiver. She recently completed her first nonfiction book, Alzheimer's Stories: Tales of Mismatched Outfits, Goofy Hair, and Beer for Breakfast. She resides with her family in St. Petersburg, Florida.