"From My Mother's Hands" celebrates the positive roles mothers can play in the lives of daughters. In a collection of poignant memoirs crafted from interviews with thirty-three notable Texas women, Susie Kelly Flatau weaves a tapestry of intimate memories, family photographs and recipes, and profiles of each daughter. The daughters' observations and discoveries about their mothers are filled with a wide range of emotions. Lessons of integrity, love, and hope chronicle the powerful bonds that can exist between a daughter and her mother.\r\n\r\n
"Every day is Mother's Day in this wonderful collection of daughters' memories of their mothers their guidance, their endurance, even their recipes. And what remarkable daughters speak here! This is a tribute to two generations".\r\n\r\n
Nancy Baker Jones, Ph.D., independent scholar specializing in Texas women's history.
Co-author (with Ruthe Winegarten) of the recently released book "Capitol Women" and the video
Getting Where We've Got to Be, histories of Texas's female legislators\r\n\r\n
"So many books are about what went wrong. This is a book about what went right. There is immense wisdom in these lives, wisdom that mentors us, inspires us, gives us hope for our own future and our children's future. The section on [Creating Your Own Mother's Journal] is both an occasion for reflection and a reminder of what is yet possible".\r\n
Chuck Meyer, author of "Twelve Smooth Stones: A Father Writes to His Daughter
About Money, Sex, Spirituality and Other Things That Really Matter"\r\n\r\n
Susie Kelly Flatau is an author whose fascination with people and places lives within the spirit of herwriting. In "Counter Culture Texas" (in collaboration with photographer Mark Dean) Ms. Flatau's vignettes taken from on-the-spot interviews capture the histories of old-time diners, dance halls, drugstores, and more.\r\n
For over twenty-five years this award-winning educator has taught writing and literature to students of all ages in both public schools and the private sector. Susie lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Jack, and daughter, Jenni.\r\n

Unlike her daredevil husband, Susie Kelly is afraid of water, elevators, heights, skiing and flying upside down and she hates being in the spotlight. No matter how hard she tries, things seem to go wrong more often than they go right. Fortunately she can see the funny side of most things, even her cancer diagnosis. However, snoring transforms her from a sweet little thing into a pitiless monster. These often funny and sometimes poignant tales of travels through Susie's muddled life confirm that, as Simon Reeve writes in his autobiography 'Step by Step', '...it is always worth remembering that some of the most memorable times can happen when things go a bit wrong.

Who hasn't dreamt of living in France? For Susie that dream comes true... but not in the way she had imagined. Yes, the countryside is spacious and peaceful.... on summer nights the stars skim the rooftops, the owls hoot and the nightingales sing. Sunflowers smile from their fields. Then there's the food and the wine: the wine is cheap and the baguettes are crusty. The French neighbours are generous and gentle. But then come the drug addicts, builders who cannot build, demanding compatriots, undercover cops and unwelcome guests. Susie begins to lose hope of attracting the fabled French philanderer and, far from appreciating their new home, the animals do everything they can to make life as difficult as possible. With her house literally crumbling around her, the number of odd characters Susie manages to attract are only matched by the assortment of creatures appearing from in and out of the woodwork. When her husband almost dies, Susie's resilience and good humour are tested to the limit. Another delightful, very funny, memoir from the witty & wise travel author Susie Kelly.

The author and her husband devised a simple plan - to take a tent and the dog and drive around the perimeter of France. Like many simple plans it went wrong before it started and they ended up with two dogs and a campervan named Tinkerbelle. Starting in Brittany, they drive along the Atlantic Coast south to the Pyrenees, then follow the Mediterranean resorts to the Alps before juddering off towards the north coast along terrifyingly high mountain causeways. But on the second day of their journey Tinkerbelle begins to self-destruct, helped by the new dog who does his best to eat her from the inside out. This is their story, as they travel from sandy beaches to snow-topped mountains exploring the diverse cultures, cuisines and countryside making up the country called France. Their journey takes them to places out of the ordinary, meeting interesting characters and witnessing ancient traditions. While the dogs rejoice in the freedom they find running on the beaches, Susie and Terry spend a lot of time holding their breath, wondering whether their clapped out old campervan called Tinkerbelle will manage to negotiate impossible mountain routes and get them home before she completely disintegrates.

As the world's worst housekeeper, running holiday homes wasn't, with hindsight, a sensible idea. But two collapsing buildings on Susie Kelly's land would cost more to demolish than to restore. Thus she became a seasonal landlady. Before the guests came the builders. No's 1, 2, 3 all started promisingly, but by builder No. 4, and with her first guests just hours away, her patience was stretched to its limit. Her summer and winter visitors couldn't, as they say, be made up, though, to spare their blushes some of them have been air-brushed. They brought with them laughter, tears, romance, friendship and occasional madness. And they all left behind jars of jam and pots of pepper. From them Susie learned that you don't need to travel to find adventure. If you run holiday homes it comes to your doorstep. Unfortunately for Susie this included Ivy. The cleaning lady from hell.

Susie makes no claims to being a cooking queen. She admits that over the years she has made every cookery mistake possible, including pouring hot oil back into a plastic bottle and watching the bottle melt and flood most of the kitchen. Then there was the great icing sugar misunderstanding...but in The Lazy Cook 2 she has put together an irresistible collection of the tasty, dessert recipes that are enjoyed by her family and friends. One of those rare cookery books that won't be left on the shelf, but will mature with well-thumbed age as its pages become patterned with stains of food, wine, cream, butter and all things delicious. See also The Lazy Cook (Book One): Quick And Easy Meatfree Meals

The popular travel author makes no claims to being a cooking queen. She admits that over the years she has made every cookery mistake possible, including pouring hot oil back into a plastic bottle and watching the bottle melt and flood most of the kitchen. Then there was the great icing sugar misunderstanding...but in The Lazy Cook Susie has put together an irresistible collection of the tasty, comfort-food recipes that are enjoyed by her family and friends, spattered with generous blobs of anecdote and humour. One of those rare cookery books that won't be left on the shelf, but will mature with well-thumbed age as its pages become patterned with stains of food, wine, cream, butter and all things delicious

Susie has already walked across France 900km solo from La Rochelle to Geneva (Best Foot Forward) and driven the entire circumference of France (Travels With Tinkerbelle), but cyclist she is not. By suggesting an electric bicycle to get her through the worst of the uphill slogs, her husband persuades her that a cycling holiday travelling on 2 wheels is by far the best way to see the virtually undocumented part of France they plan to explore. And so their cycling holiday begins, and, with not a few mishaps and misgivings, it turns out. In 3 weeks Susie and Terry cycle 500 miles in the little-explored Champagne region of northern France, dining sometimes in luxury and often on weird makeshift meals in their tent. After a hair-raising journey through Paris that nearly ends in her own execution by traffic, Susie finds an area of calm waterways and tranquil countryside bursting with history. Idyllic territory for cyclists. Her route takes her from Versailles to the vineyards and champagne cellars of Epernay and Reims then through the Marne valley, the scene of unimaginable horror and devastation during World War 1. Along the way there are traumas, epiphanies, occasional matrimonial disagreements and the odd glass of champagne. Keeping up appearances amongst the petite, chic French at some of Susie's more luxurious stops creates some serious fashion moments, tempered, as always, by Susie's good humor and resilience.

A collection of extracts from the books of the popular travel writer on France Susie Kelly. In 'Travels With Tinkerbelle, 6,000 Miles Around France In A Mechanical Wreck' the author and her husband devised a simple plan - to take a tent and the dog and drive around the perimeter of France. Like many simple plans it went wrong before it started... In Best Foot Forward, A 500 Mile Walk Through Hidden France, Susie walks solo from La Rochelle to Lake Geneva with a tent on her back whilst her Texan friend Jennifer struggles by on her first ever trip to France, looking after Susie's smallholding and caring for a menagerie of animals. In The Valley Of Heaven and Hell - Cycling In The Shadow of Marie Antoinette, novice cyclist Susie dons unflattering lycra to cycle the little-known Marne Valley and Champagne regions of France. She takes the identical route taken by Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI when they tried to escape from the Revolution, and their journey back to their executions. In Swallows & Robins, The Guests In My Garden, Susie stays at home for a change. As the world's worst housekeeper, running holiday homes wasn't, with hindsight, a sensible idea. But two collapsing buildings on her land would cost more to demolish than to restore. Thus she became a seasonal landlady and, along with the assorted guests, came Ivy into her life, The Cleaning Lady From Hell. In her memoir, I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry..., the setting moves away from French travel to a childhood in 1950s/60s Africa. With uncompromising honesty and hints of her usual humour, Susie describes emigrating, from post-war London in every shade of grey to the technicolour splendour of Kenya, as part of a dysfunctional family. A US Amazon Paid Top 100 bestseller.

The silent art of pantomime can speak volumes! Akin to the power of stained glass windows, choral music, and ritual, a beautiful mime performance can touch deep and hidden places during Christian worship. This drama ministry book, with art and photo illustrations, tells how to organize, train, and program a troupe of Christian mimes. Included are details about makeup, costumes, techniques, and performance. Also included are ideas for song and Scripture interpretations and many mime skits with a Christian message for use on a variety of occasions. A superb reference book for mimes of all ages.