RIP Vilas Pagan-Afanador aka Author Smyte 9

He is/was a great Philly poet, and I had the opportunity to know the past four years. He is loved by many, and will be missed by us all. My heart was broken to read he had left us last night. I cry every time I see his photo. Smyte was only in his 30s and had very profound poetry. He recited his and others work in a Spoken Word fashion. Something I have always wished I could do by memory.

 The last time I saw him at a reading I didn't know who he was. He grabbed my arm, I looked down and saw this shallow face telling me hello. Then when they called his name I was shocked to see it was him. He had posted the cancer was beaten several times, so to find he was so ill, well, now I wish I could hug him so tight.

Goodbye friend. xoxo

Three New Books Arrived!

Poetry Books & Gothic Fiction by Red Dashboard LLC Publishing-

Memories of When We Were Birds by Ray Sharp

Night-Crawl by M.V. Montgomery

Principles of Belonging by Joshua Gray
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I'm proud of what Red Dashboard LLC Publishing is doing. My CTO and Art Team are doing wonderful. Editors have worked hard to make this happen. I hope to continue to publish quality writers and their work for many years!

My book is done, two of them, also doing a make-over on Pasquale's books. There is a lot to be said about self publishing, but more about how respected we are for being picked up by a publisher. It's just the standard MFAs and others have set. 

I've Returned

Yes, hubs and I just returned from a wonderful trip (we drove) to Niagara Falls. Was so romantic.

It is our 16th, and we still are as crazy about each other as the first years, which we knew each other two before that, and as friends. That in our opinion is the best way to begin.

Sometimes you see romantic movies where friends realize "Why aren't we in a romantic relationships?", sometimes they slip up, but in the end they always come back together.

We had some slip ups along the way. He thought I was too strict on my children (I made Aaron cry himself to sleep one night, but you should have seen what he did), and shortly after we brought them kids into the relationship as his step-kids Anelisa passed away; it was a rough ride after that until I came out of the fog of grief, but we made it.

He and I are best friends. We tell each other everything. Laughter is at the root of our friendship and love, he makes me laugh daily, and I the same for him. Most of all we adore each other and he has always insisted we kiss at every moment possible, good morning, good-bye, hello again, and good-night. Sweets is what I call him, and he calls me Pumpkin.

Okay enough goo-goo ga-ga-ga. The room (above is night with falls lit up) he book on the Canadian side was WOW! The view out the window after room 30 was WOW! They were suites, so we had a new blogging and FB friend and her husband meet us their. We served them cocktails and nibbles before going to dinner.

Great times, and I always love meeting new on-line friends...