n Florida with my husband Larry. I have two sons and five beautiful granddaughters, who are my absolute joy.
FUZIONZ: How long have you been writing?
PHYLLIS: I initially began writing poetry as a young girl. It was my catharsis so to speak because it provided an outlet for me to capture and release the emotional pain that I experienced during that time. When I entered the military, I began pursuing other avenues of self-discovery and didn’t write again until twenty-five years later. I think that I was blessed with a gift to write. Over the years I have noticed that my writing has taken on a new and very different flavor. My poetry turned into progressive writing.
I’ve always wanted to write about things that reflected my life and the lives of others. I wrote poetry as a way of addressing this aspect while soothing the struggles that I had to endure during my teenage years. My love of writing poetry eventually turned into a love for story writing.
FUZIONZ: What was your motivation behind writing?
PHYLLIS: I wanted to pay homage to my grandmother for instilling within me a firm foundation that would remain with me for the rest of my life. I also wanted to show how she and other women of her era sustained themselves and their families against all odds. Grandmothers often raised their grandchildren, loved them, provided for them and often paid for them to continue their education. These old women worked as Laundresses, made quilts, picked cotton and churned butter in order to insure that their grandchildren had a better life. I wanted to bring awareness not only to my grandmother, who made beautiful quilts as a way to bring healing into a world full of ugliness and bigotry, but also to tell the untold stories of many other grandmothers and women of that era whose incredible stories of perseverance and resiliency were left out of the history books. They are the forgotten heroes. I wrote this book to give them the recognition and reverence they deserve.
all odds. Grandmothers often raised their grandchildren, loved them, provided for them and often paid for them to continue their education. These old women worked as Laundresses, made quilts, picked cotton and churned butter in order to insure that their grandchildren had a better life. I wanted to bring awareness not only to my grandmother, who made beautiful quilts as a way to bring healing into a world full of ugliness and bigotry, but also to tell the untold stories of many other grandmothers and women of that era whose incredible stories of perseverance and resiliency were left out of the history books. They are the for-