My book is a conversation.The conversation is one part memoir and one part anthology, shaken and not stirred; For Your Eyes Only. I’m here to tell you some DSHS secrets. Little did I know my journey as a child protective services (CPS) social worker and as a child day care licensor in DSHS, Washington State’s largest state agency would become a nightmare?

With more locked passage ways then Harry Potter might imagine, in a government building designed to “help” people, contained within that bricked wall edifice in downtown Vancouver was a maze of cubicles, one of them mine. Each cube contained a state government social worker. An unknowing inmate if you will. Social workers, too many times, who were neither social nor were they healthy. But ironically, as social workers they were paid to judge whether you, as a citizen of Washington State, were social and healthy.

I wrote this book to affirm what parents and other citizens in the State of Washington intuitively knew and know. To quote William Shakespeare’s Hamlet:" Act I, Scene 4: Marcellus after seeing the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the late king of Denmark says "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," Something is rotten in the State of Washington and that would be DSHS. Child ghosts haunt DSHS.

This is not a self help book; this is not a book where as an expert I tell you what to do or how to do something. This book tells DSHS to quit blaming parents. This book honors the critical thinking knowing person that is you, that is all of us.

For five years I’ve outted the government in my classes as I saw folks were hungry and thirsty for truth telling. Sometimes people's mouths would hang open and I'd say, "I should write a book, huh?" They would chorus, "Yes!" This is that book.

The statistics on my blog "Child Care in Washington State" told me people viewing my blog were most interested in knowing the secrets of DSHS, about the information the government hides from the public and most importantly information hidden from parents. Information parents must know to make decisions about their children.

With humor and irony threaded through my memoir, like Carrie Fisher and Frank McCourt, I had to find the humor to keep on going, to not give up. If my story wasn't true, it would just be funny. Yoda's in my book, thanks to the Washington State Attorney General's Office.

As I put fingers to keyboard a number of fictional and historical characters wanted to weigh in to help me write my story so enjoy their take on my story.

I hope you read my little to book to honor Jesse Hunt, the cute little guy who is on the cover to my book. Jesse's mom gave me permission to use Jesse's photo for the cover of my book and she tells you straight up what she thinks about my book and my journey inside of DSHS.

From teaching my classes, folks have shared they walked away with information gave them an increased level confidence to address things they had not been able to address before. I hope my book does that for you.