Devon's Happy Update

I wanted to give a heads up on my son, Devon.  He's 5 years old with mid to mod Autism.  He's been in the PPCD program since he was 3 years old.  I have worked and worked with him and though they said that he would never be a verbal child, HE TALKS!!! and says all kinds of things, asks for all kinds of things.  I am so excited.  But that's not the best part.  I have been arguing with the school that he's in that he has improved intellectually past the point of being in the PPCD for another year.  He has surpassed their curriculum since he's been in there more than 2 years.  By the end of this year they were thinking of little BS goals just to keep him in there ( i think).  He knows all his colors, letters, shapes, numbers, can trace his name, Identifies his name, knows all of  his family and extended family members names, what kind of car they drive.  ALL sorts of things a 5 year old should know. 

 

To make a long story short, I, with the help of my mom-in-law, talked in an ARD meeting about him being transitioned out of PPCD and mainstreamed into the next grade.  The teacher thought that he should move to another grade up and that would put him behind. And My thought process was that if he stays at a certain level after he has learned everything he has to learn and not be pushed, then he would get comfortable and digress We had talked about this before, and with just being me, I felt that no one really listens to the mother alone.  Well, after the last 6 ARD meetings I brought out the big guns.  I let my mom-in-law have at them.  That woman, I swear would make the devil run for cover just to get what she wanted.

 

After talking to them, and getting the results of the test we were able to get Devon transitioned out of PPCD and into Kindergarten for a better push on learning.  I'm not one of these mothers who accepts her child's disability and that's it, no way to help them.  I want Devon to do better, to excel for better than any expectation that the school district had set aside for him. 

 

I just pray that hopefully that he would be willing to keep it going because the road ahead is not going to be an easy one.

 

 

 

Leah V.

AK Blackball Support!!!

I am writing on behalf of my favorite author Angela Knight and all the other authors who have had this happened to them.

I know that we shouldn’t pick favorites, but AK's characters have gotten me through some hard times (long story lol). She sent a letter to her group saying that she has been BLACKBALLED by Amazon!! A Bestselling Kensington Author?!!!!! and now her pre-order sales are ranking 1625 while her Kindle sales are best sellers. While I don't understand Amazon's antics lately or the need to blackball some of its most profitable authors, I do sympathize with the many authors out there.

If you love her books, like I do ESPECIALLY her Futuristic Novels, then by all means, pre-order your book at Amazon, or write a letter just showing your concern. Hell, even blogging about it like we have been doing for the past few weeks would do some good. It angers and sickens me as a writer and discourages the new and aspiring authors from producing their work if they are going to be blackballed by sellers who, for the love of me, have a screwed perception of porn. They must've never typed in 'sex toys' in their own search engines. If they have, they would find a whole myriad of things that need to be taken off.

It is a shame that the good ones, us authors, are being blamed for the pitiful downfall of society. The degradation of reading scores in our youth or of people in general. The point that I’m trying to make is that romance whether tangible or in word format, has been around since the beginning of time. It is a shame that some of us have to suffer because of the stupidity of prudes who have a warped way of trying to protect us from the bad things either on the internet or in print.

To be honest, some of the best sex I had was in books LMAO!!! My thing is that it is to take a person away from the dullness of society and poverty, to have it all for at least 300 plus pages and to come back from it with a sigh and a clearer head, a sense of purpose, or even a smile.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have read some books that should not have seen the light of day and wonder what in the hell they were thinking to publish this filth, but in return that is an author, that’s the voice they heard in their heads at the time screaming at them to listen. And if the voice was vulgar, then so is the story. But it takes a really good author to turn that around and make it one of the most tasteful delightful and intriguing stories that have ever been published.

I write smut with taste. I don’t write porn, indulge myself in writing it because it’s not what makes a story. The story, history, culture, the people, the environment, the life, the love between the characters, their differences, their likes, loves, hates, personalities, their entire world…..their hardships MAKE THE STORY!!! It sure as hell makes the romance. As an avid reader I’m not looking for the romance. I’m looking for the story, the believability, and the likeability, and if it doesn’t have that. I don’t need to be reading it. As an author, I make sure these things are in my work.

I could propose a ban on Amazon, and believe me, there are a lot of us hanging around to do it, but what good would that do if I’m just one person and no one listens to just one. It takes a group of people, a whole sea of people to change the thinking of one entity. If not, they are going to do this to someone else, and if they do it to me personally, there’s going to be hell to pay and believe me, it’s going to on every television station in the nation, just because they incited my rage.

Now I’m getting off my soap box and sitting down somewhere. This little woman is tired. LOL

Take care

Leah V.