Guest Blogger Shirley Skufca Hickman

This week, my guest is Shirley Skufca Hickman. I have been blessed to have edited several of her books and have enjoyed them very much. Welcome, Shirley.

I love books. When I was seven and living in a Colorado coal mining town during World War II, I told myself I had to remember what I was experiencing so I could write a book about it when I was older.

I kept my promise, and as an adult, I wrote my first memoir, Don’t Be Give Up, about the war from a perspective of a child.

Everything in our lives was affected by the war, the rationing of food, clothing, shoes, gasoline, and candy, but the most terrifying days were seeing my uncles go to war and not knowing if they’d ever return. Luckily, they did.

One of the most gratifying aspects of writing this book was long conversations with my uncles. I never knew my Uncle Johnny had seen horrors of the Jewish concentration camps. He had never told anyone until we talked about the war. He wanted me to include his experiences so people would never forget the Holocaust.

When I asked my Uncle Rupert if he went to squadron reunions he said no. I asked him why and he said, “Because most of them never came back.” He had never talked about this until our conversation.

My uncles are gone now, and so are my parents, and my sisters, but all of them live forever in the pages of my books. We are a family once again, arguing, laughing, and fiercely loving one another.

Shirley Skufca Hickman grew up in a Colorado coal mining town, during World War II. As an adult, she wrote about the war from a child’s point of view in Don’t Be Give Up.

In 1947, the mine closed, forcing the family to move. Living in three rooms and sleeping in the kitchen with her two older sisters, she wondered if they’d ever have a real home again. Whenever her father made life better for the family, he’d ask: Is Everybody Happy Now? This became the title of her next memoir.

She enjoyed her high school years until her father’s death devastated the family. Without his love and financial support, they might have lost their home. Family is Forever is about their love for one another and how they coped.

Shirley graduated from college and became a teacher. She wrote Fall in Love with An Orange Tree or a Book about a teenager who lived in the shadows because she was in the U.S. illegally.

When parents asked her to recommend a book to help their children, she wrote: School Success: Five Hundred Ways Busy Parents Can Help their Children in School.

She wrote Sarah Darlin’, a romance novel set in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Before Sarah and her lover could be together, they must deal with prejudice, a fire, and a terrible secret from Sarah’s past.

Her latest memoir is about her journey to marriage, Rocky Road is More Than a Candy Bar.

Her books are available on Amazon.

Her greatest joys are her son, his wife, and their two boys.