I am a first and one-time author with a special purpose: self-understanding and personal growth through my memoirs. After six years of digging through life's events, tapping into my eidetic memory for the pointed details of the good and bad days of my soul, I give myself to you. The good loves, along with those entangled with evil and low self-esteem, are raveled up in a search for what love is supposed to be. Love would be kindled and found for me but then lost in not being able to give, believe or receive life's greatest treasure. I shrouded love in poisonous passion, fear and hate. Some choices in my life moved me toward self-interpreted success while other things I chose to do took me to the edge of society and the law. My voice is from the heart in the hope to inspire within you an empathy to those different than yourself. Two lifelong friends encouraged me and stood by me through my journey of self-reflection. After all the years of knowing me, one said "she loved me even more after reading my story," and it doesn't get any better than that. So please, sit down and have a cup of coffee with me, be amused, and understand why I did the things I did. Yes, you'll laugh and even possibly experience shock at times, but more importantly, you will "see me." Though the book does not end with a "happily ever-after," you will see the magic of introspection, along with the peace and acceptance it provides. While dysfunctional times can be a part of our lives, they're certainly not present all of our life. - Jim Rostello "I was engrossed in this memoir from the first chapter. The relationships chronicled in this book are many, they are varied, and they are moving. Jim Rostello openly shares the complicated father-son relationship he had as a child as he internally struggled to love himself as a closeted gay youth in a rural environment where acceptance of those feelings was unheard of at the time. The author takes you on a journey from his childhood all the way through his adult life describing his family, his Catholic upbringing, his teaching career, and his pursuit to find love and happiness in often risky and unconventional places." - Dawn Wilson