Tantalizing Stories by Donnee Patrese

is for Friends “I don’t have any friends.” My husband would hear me say on a regular basis.  Normally he would spout out a laundry list of women I hang out with. “Are they your friends?” It was hard to explain to him that just because I went out with them or had lunch with someone  didn't  necessarily make them my friend. For me a friend to someone with a kind heart, loyal, considerate and someone I could trust. I never really thought I found that person. Because I  didn't  trust barely anyone in my life other than my family, I never showed people the real me. Growing up as a child of 9 children I always felt like I  didn't  belong. I always felt there was something about me that kept me from having real friends or feeling like an outsider. Elementary, junior high, and high school I went through friend after friend and never held on to any friendships. Every year I had a new best friend. Eventually I would always end up in a  clique  w

is for...Erotic Romance I am in the middle of trying to get my books sold at a local bookstore here in Bakersfield. I take my kids to their story time and I finally got the courage to ask them if they would be willing to stock some of my books in the store. Once I initially asked, I had to then clarify that my book is an erotic novel. That changed the excitement the owner asked. It said I needed to talk to the other owner. I pointed out that they have Fifty Shades of Grey in stock. “Oh, well that is a national book.” (Frustration) Most people, when they here that I write erotic novels, change their whole demeanor. I tried to sell my book at a festival and after reading my book they decided that they didn’t want me to sell there. As an Erotic Romance writer I get that a lot.   I recently wrote an email expressing how I wanted to sell my book at another fair.  I wanted to be upfront and tell what type of book it was. I even gave an Amazon link to

is for Daughters I had a teacher in high school that had three daughters. During a parent teacher conference he was talking to my dad about having daughters. He joking said that they drive him crazy and he put a ladder under their window so they could run away if they wanted.  I often wondered what my dad thought about having so many daughters. When he met my mother she had 5 children from a previous marriage. Three of those five children were girls.  It didn’t matter to him. He was willing to help my mother take care of her three daughters and be the father figure they so desperately needed. Yet, I don’t think that he knew that he and my mother together would have 4 more kids of their own and in that four, three would be daughters.   Yes, my dad has six daughters. My Brothers and Sisters and ME! I know there were times he loathed having to deal with boyfriends and standing in line at Walgreens holding a Jumbo pack of sanitary napkins. I know w

is for... Completely Overwhelmed I am a machine. I wake up in the morning, I fix three separate lunches (two daughters and a husband), I make breakfast, get coffee ready for my husband and I, make sure my 13-year-old gets off to school and make sure my kindergartner is dressed, brushes her teeth and gets off to school.  I then come home and fix breakfast for the 2-year-old, get her washed and dressed.  Some days we go to the park or out to play with her friends.  Then I go grocery shopping, clean the house, feed the cat, make lunch for my two year old, do a couple loads of laundry (wash fold and put away) pick up the kindergartner from school, get her afternoon snack, prep for dinner, try writing in a blog post or two, write a short story, make dinner, clean up after dinner, talk with husband until he falls asleep about his day and mine. Fight with the kids to make them stay in bed and hopefully to sleep. Then I spend next 3 hours writing.  This a

is for... Bad Habits I have many bad habits. I bite my nails, I swear a lot, I yell a lot, I have trouble adapting to change, I sometimes eat right before bed, I eat lots of junk food, I don’t exercise as much as I should, I spoil my kids and I don’t call my family as much as I should. As you can see I have quite a few bad habits but the one that bothers me the most is my potty mouth. It bothers me because I have young children that listen to mommy and hear these words and try to repeat them. Like my two year old keeps saying “Damn!” because she hears mommy say it or my five year old that keeps saying “Helluva” I remember watching this episode of Sponge Bob Square pants with my kids and sponge bob saw some curse words on the back of this garbage can.  He wanted to know what they meant so he asked his best friend (Patrick the unintelligent starfish) what the word meant. He was informed by his friend that those words were considered to be “sentence enhancers”. I thought th

is for... Avenue When I was growing up I lived on an Avenue, 21st Ave. in Gary Indiana to be exact. For 18 years of my life, before I went off to college, that yellow house with brown trim with the mulberry trees in the back was my home. My parents bought that house in 1983 a year before I was born. It had three bedrooms and they filled it with six children (three boys and three girls.) Everyone had room to grow and life was great. Life was much better than the rat infested apartment they moved from. Five years after they moved into the house they added three more daughters. Now there were 6 girls sleeping in one room and three boys in another. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I finally got my own room. Though I had to forfeit it on holidays when my siblings came to visit bringing at least 20 of the 40 nieces and nephews I had. There were so many family holidays celebrated in that house that were crowded. We could only invite just the immediate famil