Let's Talk About Words

. ...I am happy to be alive when I see the waves wash upon the shore, when I see the colors in the sky, when the rain falls slowly on a warm afternoon. It does not cost me anything to experience these gifts, and I do not need to travel to far lands or perform great feats to see this beauty. I only need to stop and notice the beauty that is all around me. I have come to understand that the joy that I experience does not come from the beauty that I see, but from the beauty that I feel, the beauty of a simple joy.     “You,” she whispers again.      “Oh Grandma. This was from your Grandma Sarah. Isn’t it?”    She nods yes as I say, “It was written before the war, and you still have it and now you want me to have it?”    She smiles and then closes her eyes.    “Thank you Grandma. I will keep it safe. It is the best graduation gift that you could have given me.” I read it one more t...

Riding Waves   is a YA and NA Fiction Novel about learning to navigate the joys, as well as, the trials of growing up, falling in love and going to college. It appears that Harper’s life is heading in the direction of her dreams as she graduates from high school and begins to date her best friend’s charismatic older brother, Dan. As she struggles to balance her own needs with the demands of being in a relationship, she loses her best friend and is in danger of losing herself. She has some hard decisions to make when her choices lead her only to confusion and pain. While on vacation in Florida, she writes a poem comparing her own life to how she feels when body surfing. She realizes that just like in body surfing, she must decide which waves will take her to shore and towards her dreams, and which choices might take her under and cause her only pain.  Can Harper ride the waves of life or will they take her under? https://itunes.apple.com/…/susan-marie-schulhof/id613849...

    Suppression is a futuristic novel set in 2135, during a period of time when humankind is making major advances in communicating with one another and even traveling through thoughts alone. Twenty-four year old, Peyton Milner, lives with her parents and her brother in one of the few civilizations remaining and thriving in what is left of America after everything and everyone was almost obliterated by war. Peyton has been raised to place vast significance  on one’s intelligence and the power of reasoning and logic in all decisions. She has a plan and purpose for her life until she and her best friend, Reese, wander into a local Art Gallery where she meets Dallas. She is drawn to him and to the sunsets he paints in ways that she can’t describe, ways that contradict all common sense and rationale.  https://twitter.com/SchulhofSusan https://www.facebook.com/susanmarie.schulhof.7

Excerpt from Growing Flowers Sunday July 31, 2011    I head downstairs and grab a bowl of Apple Jacks, my favorite, as I turn on my computer to see what I missed while I was sleeping when my mom walks in the back door.    “Morning sleepy head,” she laughs.    “What? It is still morning at least,” I respond as I see that it is actually after eleven.    “How late did you stay up last night?”    “I don’t know probably three,” I mumble.    “What did you do that late?” she asks as she pours herself another cup of coffee.    “Look at what everyone, that doesn’t have a curfew, posts about what they are out doing.”    “Oh, sure Lily. I forgot that you are the only one with a curfew.”    “No, just the only college student with a curfew,” I mumble again.    “Come help me in the garden when you finish eating. You used to love helping me in the garden,” she says as she g...

 I hope my words touched you in some way. Follow me on this blog or on my Facebook Author page for more thoughts about life and for the release date of  Suppression and Growing Flowers. Susan Marie Schulhof is the proud mother of three adult daughters and lives in the Chicago area. Riding Waves is her first novel, and she is currently writing two books called Suppression and  Growing Flowers . She graduated from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and has worked for Bright Horizons Family Solutions since 2001. She published the non-fiction book Fun4Babies in 2013 , writes an inspirational blog ( http://susanmarieschulhof.blogspot.com ) and is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. She is an active presence at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois.   

Riding Waves is a YA Fiction Novel about learning to navigate the joys, as well as, the trials of growing up, falling in love and going to college. It appears that Harper’s life is heading in the direction of her dreams as she graduates from high school and begins to date her best friend’s charismatic older brother, Dan. As she struggles to balance her own needs with the demands of being in a relationship, she loses her best friend and is in danger of losing herself. She has some hard decisions to make when her choices lead her only to confusion and pain. While on vacation in Florida, she writes a poem comparing her own life to how she feels when body surfing. She realizes that just like in body surfing, she must decide which waves will take her to shore and towards her dreams, and which choices might take her under and cause her only pain . Can Harper ride the waves of life or will they take her under? https://itunes.apple.com/us/author/susan-marie-schulhof...