SEEMINGLY EFFORTLESS WRITING

Today, author Terry Mahoney, formerly of the Raccoon District, visited us to catch up on family news, for we had not gotten together for a long time. During our lapse in contact, Terry has written a delightful book, MUSINGS FROM THE MIDRIFF AT MIDLIFE. It is a gathering of short essays that will touch your heart.

Terry gave us an inscribed copy for raccoon-based friendship and old-times sake, from a time when the biggest Mulberry tree in Waukesha County housed roosting and nesting raccoons in the Mahoney backyard. A tree so tall that another neighbor next door feared it would bring down his house. The overhanging branches particularly worried him when the raccoons added their scampering weight high above his roof.

(The tree got a serious ailment and was eventually cut down, after the Mahoney's left. Laurel Walker of the Milwaukee Sentinel covered the death of the historic tree in a splendid feature article. Terry's husband Hawk braced the fading, weakened old tree with cable ties, and did not have the heart, nor did Terry, to cut the ancient spreading shade-giver down.)

The Mahoneys long ago moved to another Waukesha location, out of the raccoon district. But happily enough they have a resident sewer(?) raccoon, a big one, patrolling their area trash cans and etc. The burglar reminds the Mahoneys of the days when they lived across the street from us, next to the famed raccoon storm grate, the swarming threshhold to sub-Waukesha, on their side of the street.

Terry's book is a page-turner with lots of humor and pathos, as though written with an effortless pen. Check it out on the web: http://www.midriffatmidlife.com/purchase.htm

The Raccoon News would not steer you wrong! Orderable via Amazon.com. Terry will have a book signing of her MIDRIFF AT MIDLIFE musings collection at Martha Merrill's bookstore in downtown Waukesha, on June 27th.