To begin, my journey started after I left, with my 3-year-old son, from a violent and dangerous marriage in California. Finding my place and purpose came soon after but was not realized until many years later. My foundation began in church, when in my early twenties, I began teaching and speaking in front of congregations; poetry reading, encouraging words to live by, and teaching youth and adults. During this time, I developed a strong passion to help women, much like myself, that had experienced abuse and other childhood traumas. I even began looking for various resources to help them with their job needs, college information, help for raising their children, etc. I would then write the information down on notebook paper in the order of performance and help them to navigate the process. I loved it but didn’t really know why. My career and community experience spanned from 2001 to 2022. After retiring, my first written work was a book of poetry called, ‘Thoughts From the Soul: My journal in a book of poems’, published in 2024. Yet still, I have continued to offer my services through this new book series, called The Family Affair Series. A 4-book psychological series formulated in character form. Here, I plan to be the narrator of the series by sharing my own life lessons, information that I gathered from my social work practice, counseling sessions with clients, spiritual wisdom and my understanding of human behavior framed within the toxic pathologies of families. Throughout the books readers will see that toxic families remain aloof to cause and effect at its basic level which can thwart the self-evolution of future generations. Not inherently or utterly bad, the ego is about self-preservation at all costs and to do this, it will sometimes manipulate and even present ‘a fraud’ to get what it wants. I have also come to understand that it seems that anytime that the personhood (soul, spirit, body) of an individual is not honored with respect to being worthy of love, respect, and affirmed as a person of value; the will of that person, if it is not resilient, will look for an alternative self in acquiring a seemingly more liberating self-esteem. As this happens, sometimes, our down-sittings create voids that will or can be filled with negative nuances of the ‘me’ that we believe ourselves to be. Many times, these nuances will include fear, anxiety, depression, anger, bitterness, and even maliciousness. As a mixture of psychology with some dark shadows, you will see something unhealthy about the relationships in the stories to come. Gleaning for yourself that something is aloof as each chapter defines its contents at the beginning, which is sometimes of a dark and sinister nature. Finally, as a work of fiction, these are cautionary tales, of the sort. They include life lessons synonymous with ‘morals of the story’ that are formatted short stories in prose. In this first book, I will begin with the ending in mind. This may ruin it for some readers but may bring an epiphany for others. This work is meant to be captivating and inspiring so that it challenges what you believe about purposeful living. Each chapter will help build curiosity and forethought. Ah! The duty of forethought and curiosity. Both of which we must exhibit in order to be our best in life. Rev. Anita Glaster Retired Licensed Master Social Worker Website: anitaglaster.com