Hi everyone. I'm new here. My novel is MAURI'S BIRDS, available on Kindle and paper back on Amazon. Here is a brief description as to how this story came to be told. How MAURI'S BIRDS came to be.

My early career began began in the 1970s as a teacher's assistant with a program for 5 year old children. At that time it was the only program available to families with young children with disabilities in my community.

Two of the students entered the program with the label “emotionally disturbed.” I was at the earliest stage of my career so I was a blank slate as far as young children with disabilities were concerned. Our program director had the knowledge and wisdom to hire two university professors and practitioners from across the state. I will never forget either of them because they opened up doors and windows of my own understanding and perceptions. Dr. Kushner and Dr. Steve Harlow. Dr. Harlow ultimately became my adviser when I studied for a Master's degree.

I had the two students as 5 year olds when they came to preschool with a baffling set of labels like I described in Mauri's Birds.

After getting my degree I went to work in the public schools as a special education teacher. I had the same students again as 7-8 year olds. Later I moved to the Junior High School and had the same students again as 12-14 year olds. The awareness and understanding in regards to autism was much improved among the SpEd practitioners by that time however in the regular population of adults it was still often misunderstood.

I was raising 2 daughters during this period. I had always been relaxed and open with them about sexuality. I wanted them to feel free to talk to me about their budding feelings and desires without casting a lot of negativity and fear on the topic.

My youngest daughter began working with adults with disabilities as a student and eventually specialized in the area with her university degree. She really should write a book. My many conversations with her about her work and her style of open, honest way of talking to her adult clients about sex, love and relationships inspired how I imagined Mauri's mother and sister would teach Mauri about natural, normal sexual arousal and what to do about it. As parents our primary objective is to keep our children safe. I had no doubt Mauri's mother was hoping she would be content with her tool for a life time. Like my daughter's clients, Mauri had to fall in love. I wanted my readers to experience the sweet, human potential and surprise that falling in love can be.

MAURI'S BIRDS came into existence accidentally. The story started out as Rafe's that I published as a short story, A FISHERMAN AND A BUDDHA. It's available on Amazon as well. Rafe's girlfriend barely had a name and was an illusive character even to me. Readers had a strong response to her, though, and kept telling me what they thought of Mauri. “She is playing games with Rafe.”. “She is manipulating him”. I honestly didn't know Mauri at that point but I knew these judgments were not correct or fair to her. So, I meditated. I sat quietly and thought about Mauri. Who is Mauri.

From that point on Mauri told her story to me and I tapped it out on the computer.