We hope you enjoyed the April 2024 issue of This Awful Awesome Life. Many thanks to Orlando Bartro for his contributions to the magazine.
As is our tradition, May is Mystery Month in This Awful Awesome Life, but we want to give a shout out to all those amazing mothers out there and all those people filling a mother’s role in the lives of someone special. Happy Mother’s Day!
In honor of Mother’s Day, I have reduced the price of Everything in Between for a limited time. Save $2.00 on paperback, hardcover, and eBook versions! Enjoy!
We also want to pause and honor the brave members of our armed forces who have died while serving our country and protecting the freedoms we hold dear.
Also this month, we will begin celebrating pre-school, high school, and college graduations. Congratulations graduates!
I found an “ice cold” cold case concerning the murder of Ötzi, the Iceman from the Cooper Age. He is the oldest known natural mummy ever discovered in Europe.
This month we have a Q&A with local author Maria Simbra. Many of you may remember her as Dr. Maria, the medical correspondent for KDKA News for nineteen years. Wait until you find out how many careers this talented woman has had and why she’s not finished yet.
I reviewed Twitter Crush, a medical romance by Em S. A’cor, the pen name used by Maria Simbra for writing contemporary romances. It’s rare to see a main character in her mid-fifties in a romance. Reading this book made me ask where have characters like Marisol been hiding?
This year, I’m writing a short story for each issue related to the theme in some way. This month, my short story is a mystery about a husband’s disappearance and his wife’s determination to find him.
For our new column, “Happy Birthday,” our author this month is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the creator of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. “Dare to Believe” features two early mystery writers, Edgar Allan Poe, and Anna Katherine Green.
Our words for May are words and terms used in the mystery genre.
We’re streaming mysteries this month.
This month in “The Twelve Months of Salsa,” I made Salsa Roja. It’s the perfect salsa to put on top of a taco or a burrito. It’s also delicious with tortilla chips. You’ll love this recipe. It’s easy to make, and I was able to do it with only a makeshift kitchen since my kitchen is still being renovated.
This month, Orlando Bartro takes on the mystery of the word, pretty.
For mystery month, I reviewed The Secrets We Keep by Pittsburgh author Liz Milliron. Milliron is the author of the Laurel Highlands Mysteries, a police procedural mystery series and The Homefront Mysteries, a mystery series chronicling the cases of Betty Ahern, a young private investigator solving cases in the years during World War II. The Secrets We Keep is the fifth offering in the Homefront Series, and Betty is unconventional and exciting.
We have some great choices in the mystery genre for our reading recommendations for kids and adults. Also, check out May in Pictures, and our preview of our June Romance issue. Take our May quiz, “Who Called the Police?” Do you know the police officer/detective associated with these popular sleuths?
We have updated our Author Page to include the works of Lexi J. Kingston, J.V. Hillard, and Maria Simbra.
Everything in Between will be released in audiobook soon. I’ve approved the second nineteen chapters, and I’m anxiously awaiting the last third of the book. I’m sorry the audiobook still isn’t finished, but hold onto those Amazon gift cards, it’s coming!
USA Today best-selling novelist, Annette Dashofy has a new book in the Zoe Chambers Mystery series coming out this month. You can pre-order What Comes Around on Amazon. Congratulations Annette!
I hope you are carefully vetting the candidates who have formally announced their intent to run for office in the 2024 elections. Senatorial and presidential hopefuls have begun campaigning for the 2024 elections, but you still have time to start the vetting process. Please keep showing up and voting. We will never tell you who to vote for, but we will keep telling you to vote and do your homework!
Vet all candidates and insist that all political parties do the same. Which incumbent legislators have actually authored and submitted legislation to benefit Americans? Who’s all talk and soundbites? Who refuses to bring legislation to the floor of the House of Representatives or Senate, so our Representatives/Senators can vote on it? We pay them to conduct the government’s business, not to sit and do nothing. We don’t pay them to do the bidding of political parties or presidential candidates.
Follow the money. Who is the new darling of the billionaires? What will they do, and who will they sell out to keep those dollars rolling in? Vote for the candidates who are the most qualified and who will safeguard our democracy.
Samantha Sayers has been missing since she disappeared on August 1, 2018, after a day of solo hiking at Vesper Peak near Seattle, Washington. Sam grew up in the Erie, Pennsylvania area where her parents Ron and Lisa still live. Her family is exploring all avenues of inquiry to find and bring her home. In the face of such an enormous challenge, they have chosen hope.
Please keep sending positive thoughts to Sam and her family. As promised, we will be displaying a yellow ribbon for Sam on the opening page of each issue of This Awful Awesome Life until she is home.
If you are a person of faith, please pray for her safe return to her family. Because we are an online publication, we can update this article with any news. We will also post information on our Facebook page, but only after it is verified. Thank you!
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Happy Reading,
Fran