TEN CHIMNEYS
During their heyday, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the consummate acting couple of English stage and their TEN CHIMNEYS was the envy of all celebrity. In a region not known for its cultural diversity,
Ten Chimneys is an enchanted world for Diana, a little white girl whose black godfather, Jules, is the invisible figure behind the estate’s world-famous hospitality.
Diana is caught in the horror of abandonment, physical battering and an attempted rape in her mother's latest failed marriage when she comes to live with her grandparents next door to the Lunts. She grows
up around the gaiety of Coward’s nude swims in the pool, Larry Olivier helping his wife practice diction
in the Studio and Alfred’s many rewriting bouts with brilliant scribes of the day. But there is an unseen side: Alfred’s insecurities, Lynn’s unfulfilled knighthood, Noel’s wild homosexuality, Larry and Viv’s tumultuous marriage and her bi-polar ravings.
Today, the Lunts with all their talents, are a mystery. Their acting was not preserved on film and, because they remained childless with no one to inherit their beloved home, after their deaths in the 1970s, their rough hewn wooden gate was chain-locked and the estate eventually reclaimed by Wisconsin kettle moraine.
But Ten Chimneys' story doesn't end there. With limos and flood lights befitting a Broadway premier, hundreds including Diana, gather for the reopening of the Lunt’s most enduring legacy, Ten Chimneys.
I hope you enjoy the book.
Dr. Tanya
A Grandparent's Right
In the United States, one in eleven children under age 18 is in the care of a grandparent, usually a grandmother. Add those living with a close relative as caregiver, the statistic becomes one in nine.
“Grandfamilies” is a growing phenomenon in our culture. Many older adults are finding themselves in this arrangement casually without any legal means to safeguard themselves and the children they love.
This book was written for them, to give them information and the confidence needed to create a safe and loving haven for a new generation of castaways – the 10% of America’s children who, if not for Grandma, would find themselves in the revolving door of foster care.
A Grandparent’s Right, a paperback soon to be available at Amazon and Barnes&Noble with national talk-radio formats pending.
Honu's Hawaii
Illustrations by Jack Foster
Honu (turtle in Hawaiian) is an endangered green sea turtle who misses his family. Rescued by Boy, he lives in Kapuna’s (Boy’s grandmother) backyard. Geck, a gecko who loves to play baseball, is an uninvited but welcome guest in Kapuna’s hall closet.
One night Honu and Geck leave their backyard on a quest to find Honu’s family and, instead, find a haole (a stranger) in the dark ocean waters!
Geck saves his friend from the Australian croc’s jaws with his wiki-wiki quick thinking and action...
So Honu can again dream of another night when he will search for his missing family.
This delightfully illustrated children's book for ages 2-8 will be in print and available soon.
COMING 
in 2010 to amazon and b&n
in 2010 to amazon and b&n
