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Welcome to This Awful/Awesome Life! My name is Frances Joyce. I am the publisher and editor of this magazine. We'll be exploring different topics each month to inform, entertain and inspire you. Meet new authors, sharpen your brain and pick up a few tips on life, love, entertaining and business. Enjoy and please share!

June 2024 in This Awful Awesome Life by Fran Joyce

We hope you enjoyed the May 2024 issue of This Awful Awesome Life. Many thanks to Orlando Bartro for his contributions to the magazine.

Our June theme is romance, but we also want to give a shout out to all those amazing dads out there and all those people filling a father’s role in the lives of someone special. Happy Father’s Day!

Summer is coming soon, and we want to congratulate all the graduates! Whether you are graduating from preschool, kindergarten, middle school, high school, or college, congratulations! Way to go, graduates!

Friday June 14 is Flag Day here in the United States. It’s a day to show respect for our flag by flying it appropriately. We hope you’ll take a few minutes and research the history of our flag and how it is supposed to be displayed.

This month is Pride Month. You don’t have to be a member of the LGBTQIA+ community to understand and support the idea that love is love. Acceptance and understanding can save lives.

What is romantic? Well, it can be many things to many people. It can be an outward expensive display, or it can be something small like rubbing your partners back or making their favorite dinner. It might be the term of endearment you use when you speak to them.

I reviewed The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis, and it did not disappoint in the romance department. It’s not a steamy romance, but there are two endearing romances and a mystery.

This year, I’m writing a short story for each issue related to the theme in some way. This month, my short story is about remembering romance in a neighborhood bar.

For our new column, “Happy Birthday,” our author this month is Gail Godwin. “Dare to Believe” features our list of real-life couples and fictional couples who dare to believe in love.

Our words for June are words and terms related to romance.

We’re streaming romances this month. Sometimes holding on through good times and bad is incredibly romantic.

This month in “The Twelve Months of Salsa,” I made Avocado Salsa Verde. 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. Day 76 of a 45-day renovation, but it’s going to be amazing!

This month, Orlando Bartro writes about spring flowers.

We found some great choices for our summer reading recommendations for kids and adults. Also, check out June in Pictures, and our preview of our July Traveler’s issue. Take our June  quiz, “Isn’t it Romantic?” Do you recognize these romantic quotes from songs, films, and books?

We 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. You can order What Comes Around on Amazon or find it at your local bookstore. Congratulations Annette!

Alaska Wilderness Mystery Author Robin Barefield has a new book out. The Ultimate Hunt is about the disappearance of a U.S. senator’s daughter in Kodiak Alaska. When FBI special agents investigate, they soon discover other young people are disappearing. It’ll take every available investigator including amateur sleuth Jane Marcus to find and stop the people responsible. You can order The Ultimate Hunt on Amazon. Congratulations Robin!

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 are 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 

Next Month in This Awful Awesome Life - August 2024 by Fran Joyce

What is Romantic? by Fran Joyce