My life is summed up in my new book, STIR-FRIED MEMORIES: Stories From My Life, out in April 2012 from Whispering Angel Books www.whisperingangelbooks.com  Available also at: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22stir-fried+memories%22  & BN.com Like a Chinese menu, "Stir-Fried Memories" serves tasty morsels that appeal to a variety of interests.  It is a collection of essays and personal experience pieces combined much like vegetables are mixed together in a wok for a tasty stir-fried meal heaped with flavor, color, nutrition, and fragrance.  It offers readers a taste of living through humor, travel, childhood, major moves, sickness, death and family. The stories spring from my experiences as a girl in a small prairie town, teenage/young adult years in the San Francisco Bay Area, mid-life in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and senior, back in the Bay Area. I am the wife of the same man for 64 years, mother of four children, and grandmother of eight, and great-grandmother of one.  I began taking creative writing courses in my mid-fifties at Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, and other avenues of learning in South Florida.  My work in prose and poetry -- adult and juvenile -- envelopes a large variety of subjects: spirituality, nature, memories, women & family, social issues, travel, relationships, and aging. I am a member of the BAY AREA POETS COALITION in Berkeley, CA , the Women's Potluck and Poetry Salon, and am active in attending and presenting my work at various venues in the San Francisco East Bay where I live.  I had the honor of being nominated for the 2013 Pushcart Prize.  My poetry column, ALBANY POETRY EXAMINER is published at:  www.examiner.com/poetry-in-oakland/cherise-wyneken See also www.UniversalSeniorLiving.com and read my article, Quiet Healing at http://wwwuniversalseniorliving.com/blog/quiet-healing and their store at: http://www.universalseniorliving.com/usl_store/item/0984142177                

Since I began writing I have had the pleasure of sharing over 300 articles, stories, and poems in a variety of anthologies, periodicals, journals, eight books: STIR-FRIED MEMORIES: Stories From My Life, Whispering AngelBooks, a memoir --ROUND TRIP: REFLECTIONS ON MY LIFE AND REBELLION, PublishAmerica, a novel, FREDDIE, PublishAmerica, and a childrens' short chapter book, SPACESHIP LANDS IN AFRICA. My collections of poetry include TOUCHSTONES, Winston-Derek Publishers, Inc., SEEDED PUFFS, Dry Bones Press, Inc., chapbooks include OLD HAUNTS, Pudding House Publications, THINGS BEHIND THINGS, Pudding House Publications. I have received prizes for many of my poems, read at and hosted several poetry television programs in South Florida, and led an open mic night once a month at a Barnes & Noble store in Florida.