The Diary of Allie Katz
Driftwood
"Your journals have answered a lot of my questions, but they've also generated more. I'm glad we have the rest of our lives to figure out the answers together."
Falling in love is a risky business. When the love you find is the forbidden kind, it makes it even more risky. Who says what kind of love should be forbidden? Even though times are changing, it is still sometimes very risky for same-sex couples to express their love. It can be downright dangerous in some parts of the world and even in some regions of this country.
The Diary of Allie Katz is a story of love forbidden by our society. An age gap that would be irrelevant a few years in the future is much more distinct when lovers are young. When one is a student and the other a teacher, the forbidden aspect is heightened. Given that it is love between two young women, the scandal deepens and threatens to drown the young lovers in despair while they battle with the reality of it all. But love, as risky as plucking a rose in the midst of thorns, is worth the risk when it is true.
Falling in love is a risky business. When the love you find is the forbidden kind, it makes it even more risky. Who says what kind of love should be forbidden? Even though times are changing, it is still sometimes very risky for same-sex couples to express their love. It can be downright dangerous in some parts of the world and even in some regions of this country.
The Diary of Allie Katz is a story of love forbidden by our society. An age gap that would be irrelevant a few years in the future is much more distinct when lovers are young. When one is a student and the other a teacher, the forbidden aspect is heightened. Given that it is love between two young women, the scandal deepens and threatens to drown the young lovers in despair while they battle with the reality of it all. But love, as risky as plucking a rose in the midst of thorns, is worth the risk when it is true.
Driftwood
“I knew from the moment I spotted her on the beach that my life would never be the same. I don’t know what it was exactly that drew my attention to her. Yet I knew instinctively that she was it—the catalyst. I was forever changed before the first ‘hello.’”
A chance encounter on the beach launches Rita on a journey of introspection and self-exploration. Realizing that there is something missing in her life and in her marriage of convenience, Rita begins to ask honest questions about herself, her husband, and her life choices. Beth, a woman who is quite accustomed to looking past the surface, challenges Rita to look beyond the status quo to find out what it is that she truly wants from life. When she does, Rita is startled to find that very little of what she formerly called her “life” reflects her own desires. She discovers that she has been sleepwalking through her life for years. When Rita awakens suddenly in the midst of her illusory world, she finds that she is virtually a stranger there.
Rita’s transformation leads her to places she never expected to go, towards a love and a life she never thought she’d find. Her journey has inspired readers to take their own journeys towards their true selves. You hold a book in your hand that will leave you changed in some way. Embrace transformation and allow the journey to take you where it will. Caterpillars don’t try to change into butterflies; it just happens on its own accord when the right time arrives. While our journeys may be different, we all follow the same types of paths to get to where we need to be—to find our way back to our core being and our life’s purpose.
Higher Love
“...I do believe in you, Ricky… It’s something that comes so easily to me.”
“As though you’ve done it before?”
“Exactly. You know, part of me is interested in learning more about my past lives, while another part of me is afraid how that will affect the choices I make in this life.”
“Like having to decide whether to love me?”
Lingering memories of their past life together leads a young couple to hunt for clues to explain the deep connection between them. When darkness cuts off their search and threatens to consume their souls, love and light find a way to unite them again.
Ricky Boston is a budding young artist on his way to art school and a future illustrating fantasy novels when his life and that of his fiancé is cut short in a senseless act of violence and depravity. Blinded by the need to right the wrongs of the past, Ricky’s reincarnated soul battles recurring nightmares and feelings of grief and despair, until peace arrives at last in a most ironic and unexpected way.
In My Dreams
I sensed the thrill of a stolen moment as my fingers brushed back a lock of auburn hair that had fallen in front of her left eye. I cupped her face in my hand, gently tilting it up towards mine so that our eyes met. I saw in them a passion that seemed to echo the intensity I was experiencing and was thus emboldened to make the first move. When my lips landed softly on hers, I felt a surge of excitement and danger.
Where do you draw the line between fantasy and reality? Are you responsible for the content of your dreams? What about when your dreams begin to spill over into your waking hours? For months, Jill, a twenty-something lesbian, had been daydreaming about her sexy, Latino co-worker, Marie. Interesting things start to happen when her night dreaming begins to involve nocturnal trysts with her fantasy paramour. When the women discover they are having the same dreams, they raise the stakes on their telepathically shared nightlife. Their dream world shatters when Marie’s nocturnal passion overflows into her daytime relationship with her violent, sexually addicted husband.
In My Dreams illustrates the blurring of boundaries we experience when we enter the world of our dreams. It also reminds us that there are always consequences when we begin to act consciously on that inner world of the dreaming mind. Sometimes those consequences are harder than anyone could have anticipated.
Artemisian Artist:Book One in the Goddess Series
“As I staggered down the hospital corridor, I questioned the wisdom of trekking through the parking lot at five o’clock in the morning. Darkness still cloaked the city, for even the Sunshine State Florida
Artemisian Artist is the first book in a series by Beth Mitchum. Each book is dedicated to a different Goddess. Forthcoming titles in the series are Gaia’s Guardian, Demeter’s Daughter, and Hestia’s Healer. Although the Goddesses represented here are all ancient Greek Goddesses, there is no connection between the books and the land of Greece, except in a metaphorical sense. The books are dedicated to the spiritual energy these Goddesses can bring to our lives by helping us to become all that we can be.
In the first book, we are introduced to four women who become connected to each other in sometimes unexpected ways. First we see their lives through the eyes of Liz Higgins, an artist, who is beginning to achieve a little success in her career of choice. One fateful day, her path crosses those of two very different women. She is drawn to both of them, but has to make a choice what role each of them will play in her life. There is no way to avoid hurting someone in her decision to be true to her heart.
The books that will follow in this series continue the thread of the story found in Artemisian Artist, each one focusing on one of the women you meet here—Liz, Melissa, Terri, and Gerry. Together they weave a tapestry of women’s empowerment through self-growth and strong relationships.
Gaia’s Guardian: Book Two in the Goddess Series
“She loves me; she loves me not. She loves me; she loves not. She loves me.”
“All right, you, freeze! Drop the flower, spread your legs, and put your hands against the wall. You’re under arrest!”
Gaia’s Guardian is the second book in a series by Beth Mitchum. Each book is dedicated to a different Goddess. Forthcoming titles in the series are Demeter’s Daughter and Hestia’s Healer. Although the Goddesses represented here are all ancient Greek Goddesses, there is no connection between the books and the land of Greece, except in a metaphorical sense. The books are dedicated to the spiritual energy these Goddesses can bring to our lives by helping us to become all that we can be.
The series began with Artemisian Artist, where we meet four women who become connected to each other in sometimes unexpected ways. In the first book, we see their lives through the eyes of Liz Higgins. In this second book, we follow the narrative from the perspective of Gerry Pearcy, a Lakeland Police officer. She finds herself inexplicably draw to the Pacific Northwest, about which she knows little. When her world changes abruptly, she begins to understand why this place in the world is drawing her.
The books that will follow in this series continue the thread of the story begun in Artemisian Artist and continued in Gaia’s Guardian. Each one focuses on one of the women you read about in the first two books—Liz, Melissa, Terri, and Gerry. Together they weave a tapestry of women’s empowerment through self-growth and strong relationships.
bethwor(l)ds: 20 years of poetry
Beth Mitchum, author, singer/songwriter, and poet, has authorized this collection of her poetry from the years 1988 to 2008. Drawing on her life experiences, the poet has splashed colorful and provocative word pictures on every page. This collection is divided into five different themes: wor(l)ds of love, metaphysical wor(l)ds, natural wor(l)ds, silly wor(l)ds, and wor(l)ds of loss and longing. While this collection contains a variety of poems to appeal to all ages, some of the content may be too explicit for younger readers. The main target of this collection is the mature, open-minded adult reader with a sense of humor and an even greater sense of wonder.
Slices of My Life: So Far
This memoir is a carefully selected array of blogs and journal entries that occurred during the first fifty years of a life well examined and usually happily lived. All the stories are as true as the memory can be trusted to recall events accurately and as true as interpretation of events allows. That someone else could have an identical experience and reach an entirely different conclusion is not disputed. This is simply one writer's look at the world through smudged and sometimes misty or fogged up windows of the soul. Many of the stories relate encounters with wildlife. Some of these encounters are pretty straightforward while others are more mystical and archetypal, though they are always based on actual events that took place in the author's life. The tales are sometimes humorous, sometimes self-indulgent, but always told with an open heart and a conversational style.
