The World Beneath the Sycamore

In her first book, "A Place Called Forever," Rita R. Trafford touched upon the troubled childhood of a six-year-old girl looking for answers to why her childhood wasn't one she could consider as being normal. This book, being a sequel to that story, follows the life of that same child as an adult still dealing with the traumatic reoccurring memories of her childhood. Grace Curry, now a wife and mother of two sons, must find a way to deal with her negative past so she can move on and establish hope for a better future. Some would suggest that Grace is going through an identity crisis, but in all reality, she is merely trying to cope with two different worlds that seem to want to coexist. Grace realizes that she must give up one of those worlds in order to survive in the other. The problem lies in her self-perceived inability to separate the two.

Rita R. Trafford has dealt with children in one venue or another for most of her life. She is the mother of four adult sons, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. She has taught Sunday school, been a Cub Scout den mother, an AmeriCorps mentor, a teacher, and a librarian. She is at one with nature, loves her dog, Diamond, a rescue dog having suffered extreme abuse by a previous owner, and has written two chapbooks, numerous journals of poetry, and spiritual writings, some of which have been published in different publications. She was a member of the Indiana Poet's Society for a number of years and had initiated a poetry club in her home and at a local library. Her love of children and having shared their curiosity of the natural world inspired numerous children's stories and plays with themes centered on education and the aptitude to acquire self-esteem in the adult world. At the age of seventy-eight, Rita has completed this, her second book, and hopes to continue to contribute whatever talent she has to the world she knows. Rita and her husband, Robert, live on a farm in Northwestern Indiana.