Richard E Kelly

Thanks to my good friend, John Hoyle, at www.SmallWebMaster.com, visitors to my website can read online two chapters in my newly revised and expanded Third Edition of Growing Up In Mama’s Club.

The first is chapter one, where Mama receives the first knock at her door in November 1947, and I vividly describe both Mama’s and my four-year-old reaction to the message and messenger.

Visitors can also read chapter twenty-one in its entirety. Entitled “Grandpa’s Kisses,” I share in sensory detail a significant turning point in my life and how important my grandparents were in helping me, at twelve years of age, to come to grips with events over which I had no control.

A revised and expanded Third Edition of Growing Up In Mama’s Club will be available for purchase on March 14, 2008. This third printing includes an additional thirty-eight pages of new stories, a glossary of Club jargon, and a short history of the Club. And, it reflects my commitment to continuous improvement.

My website has been updated to reflect the introduction of this new Third Edition, as well as additional retail outlets where the book can be purchased online. And if you interested in reading excerpts of the book, you can do so by linking onto text found in the “Notes” section of the website.

I had the great pleasure of receiving an email from a former neighbor and long-time friend, Susan Lamos. She is the Director of Life Enrichment, bus driver, confidant, cheer leader, and persona extraordinaire for senior citizens living at Crystal Springs, a West Michigan LifeHouse Retirement property. She reported to me that as a Christian, wife, and mother of two college aged sons, she wanted me to know how much she enjoyed reading Growing Up In Mama’s Club. Some of her excerpted comments are as follows:

“Dick, I’ve always thought you would be good at whatever you put your mind to, but your writing skills of putting me right there alongside you as that small boy—well, that took talent. It was amazing how you taunted my emotions, from smiles… to sorrow… to anger… And finally that jubilant feeling, at least for me, when you came of age and left the religion. That’s when I wept.

“There is so much to the Jehovah’s Witness religion. I never really knew much about them and how they got started. Now, I wonder about other religions. Just what is historically behind them?

“I can’t wait for the sequel. Honestly, the next book cannot come out soon enough. And knowing you, the next one will surpass the first. Kudos and applause, friend.”

Susan also asked me to meet with several of the book clubs in her retirement community to review my book in the spring of 2008. I, of course, said “yes.” I always enjoy and am amazed by the questions and comments that people have after reading my book.