I studied and participated in some spiritual exercises which were designed to reveal my life's purpose. In each case I realized that I needed to tell my life story. I began to write my memoirs as I pieced together the jigsaw puzzle of a fractured life. It was so cathartic for me. I came to honestly look at all of my faults and transgressions while I was also able to validate the greater positive attributes of my unique human experience. I could see where I had grown by leaps and bounds since I had come back into recovery from sexual addiction. The question was, “What would I do next?”
Thank God! I've always a sense of humor. You sure need that in order to get by in this life! Let me tell you, I especially needed that during the twenty years when I was a social worker. That's when I developed the character of Sister Mary Olga. I did it in order to entertain a colleague of mine. I soon began to develop the other zany characters until I had created an entire cast. I'd call up my friend and I would leave her voice-mails during which I would create spontaneous outlandish and hilarious scenarios. She loved it and that gave me a lot of joy!
That's when I thought to myself, I bet I could write a book about these crazy characters! So I sat down and I wrote a book in a little over a month. The thing was, I still had more ideas...so, I wrote another. Guess what? I hadn't run out of ideas yet! Over the course of the next three years I wrote a total of eleven novels in the series and I still haven't run out of ideas!
Around the time that I was getting ready to have the first book published, I asked my mother-in-law if she would pose in a nun's habit as Sister Mary Olga on the cover of my book. You see, to me, she embodied my mental concept of what Sister Mary Olga should look like. She said, “Sure, Davis. I'll do it for you!”
Unfortunately she passed away before that could happen. As she lay on her deathbed, I said to her, “Jan, I'm going to get you on that cover one way or another!” Thanks to the marvelous illustrator for my cover, that person was able to create a nun's habit over her picture. Once that was done, I dedicated my first book to her.
Only in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would become an author! Yet suddenly I began to write as if it was my full-time job during my very early retirement from social work. If you wonder what I'm doing now, I'll tell you. I'm polishing the other books in the series so that they will be fine and outrageously funny gems like the jewel of this first book that I've created. You can look forward to reading that first sequel. It's called Babes in Bucksnort..
After the second sequel, entitled Have a Heart, I travel back in time to trace Mary Olga's journey from the time she was dunked into the baptismal tank at the Bucksnort Baptist church up until she became a Catholic and later became a nun. I continue to move forward in time which has given me the opportunity to create many more delightfully zany characters as well as to trace the history of the endearing characters you'll be enjoying in this first book.
I must admit that I'm going to be leaving you hanging after the second sequel, but don't worry, I'll pick up the current story line later. I don't think I'm about to run out of ideas for a very long time! Sister Mary Olga and her friends have taken on lives of their own. That's given me a joyful sense of purpose in my own life. The beautiful thing about all of my experience has been that I have discovered I have always been heading for the heart of my being. The journey isn't over yet. The paradox is that I have already arrived at my destination That is also the truth for you!
Author Davis Aujourd'hui
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