Content – I was once told my stories were dark. In all honesty, they are. In these stories, you will be exposed to death, drug and alcohol abuse, child abuse, child neglect, racism, and language I would never use in my life, but I think my characters might. You will also see my characters arguing and butting heads as they try to resolve the mysteries they were left with and build a family. If any of these are triggering for you, please avoid my stories. Grammar: I hope you can overlook any mistakes and blame them on Chloe. I have worked hard to find and correct misspelled words and grammar errors. However, there are many times I have deliberately used poor grammar because it is what I think the character would say. Cats: A few years ago, my middle child gave me two kittens, saying they would cheer me up after a health crisis. They did. Gracie grew into a cat who prefers the dog’s company to mine. However, Chloe prefers me. She has added unnecessary prose to my stories. I have done my best to remove her comments. Ten rows of xxxxx are easy to find and delete. However, her comments of' mllry' ( Which translates into ‘Mom, it is dark and we need to go to bed', or 'I am starving because you have not fed me in the last thirty minutes’) are difficult to find. If you see any place in any story where you believe Chloe is trying to communicate, please let me know, so I can give her what she wants, and then I will eradicate her remarks. Original Characters: In real life, we constantly interact with people. Our lives revolve around family and close friends. However, other people move in and out of our lives. Some people we only smile or wave at, others we talk with for a few minutes, and others we have lunch with or call to check on. When I write, I classify my original characters into three groups. The first group is the filler group. These are the extras you see on TV crime shows collecting the evidence, but they either have no speaking part or a limited one. The second group is made up of the guest stars. These characters are needed to move the story forward. The Original Characters in the third group are my Recurring Characters. Their involvement is necessary to the stories, and these characters are fleshed out more thoroughly. They may end up with their segments in the main story. Nonetheless, I want to assure you that these characters will not dominate the primary narrative. Their role is to move the story forward. I hope I have turned these original characters into people you can see, and that you want to read more about them. Accents: I grew up in the south, but most people I know say I do not have an accent and if I am indeed speak without an accent I lay the blame on my father, who having grown up in the Midwest; does not have an accent. My middle child has assured me that I do have an accent and that I regularly mangle words. (Ask her about the word ‘wash’). I wanted to portray Vin as having a Texan accent and Ezra as having a Southern one; I hope you can hear their voices as you read. By the way, Spellchecker hates me for trying to make people speak with a dialect. Pictures: I have always told my children and my students to paint a picture with words when they write. I endeavor to do that every time I sit at my keyboard. In the past, I crossed my fingers and hoped my readers recognized the pictures I tried to paint. Then Canva and Microsoft Designer came along. I drew pictures using my words to see if the description I gave AI created a picture that matched the one in my head. At first, it was a fun exercise, but then I decided to insert some of the pictures into my story. My middle child, the outspoken one, told me she would never read a book with pictures because she created her own visuals while she read. I almost took them out. If enough people say they are a distraction, I will remove them. However, I enjoy using AI to create pictures because I can only draw stick figures, and these pictures make me feel creative. I hope they enhance the story.