Welcome Chloe JonPaul

It's is a bit miserable outside today, but the fire is crackling nicely in the grate and we have fresh coffee, so all is good. My guest today is Chloe JonPaul. What a lovely lady she is. Here is a bit about her.


Chloe Jon Paul, M.Ed., is a retired educator and writer of several published articles and a previous book entitled "What Happens Next: A Family Guide to Nursing Home Visits" and More...

Her many achievements since the age of 55 include:
Title of Ms. Maryland Senior America 2003

Recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship Seminars Abroad award to South Africa, 1996
• Volunteer internship during the 2005 Maryland legislative session as a Legacy Leadership Institute graduate
• Lead facilitator for the Alternatives to Violence Project in prison and community workshops on conflict resolution for ten years
• State representative for the National Family Caregivers Association's caregiver community action network 2006-2008
• Advisory board member: MD, Health care Commission and the Interagency Commission for Aging Services: Maryland Dept. of Aging
• Hospice and homeless shelter volunteer
• Coordinator for the Good Samaritan Project at her church
• World traveler - all 7 continents



I am so please have the star of the book with us today. Do sit down, Deidre and have a cup of tea while we talk about your interesting life.

Now you seem to be a feisty young woman with a history of political and teacher union activism you seem to want to leave behind you. Can you tell me why?

Thank you for inviting me, Margaret. Yes, my life had been full of political and teacher union activism. I marched in anti-war protests during the Vietnam fiasco, and worked on countless committees fighting for teachers’ rights all my professional life.

So what exactly happened to change you in Blevins, Maine?

Well, the first thing that happened was the school-redistricting plan that had been announced. It looked like my school was being dumped on and that special interest groups were being served. I went to the School Board meeting and asked some pertinent questions about it. The next morning the headline in the local paper read: TEACHER CHARGES THAT SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS SERVED IN RE-DISTRICTING PLAN FOR SCHOOLS. You can imagine what happened after that! I was literally dragged into a fight I had hoped to avoid. Anyone who reads this novel will discover how that happened.

Mark sounds like the type of man I’d like to meet. If I’m not being too nosy, how did your relationship with him develop?

Mark…ah, yes! I really thought he didn’t like me at all but in late October, I had forgotten to order heating oil. The temperature was already in the mid-30s and I didn’t know how to use the wood stove so by Monday, I had a miserable cold.
Mark took one look at me, asking why I had come to school and I explained what had happened. He offered to come and show me how to work the damper handle on the stove.
He came…and we wound up talking for hours. There’s more I could say but I’ll leave it up to the readers to find out what happened to me less than a month later as I was waiting for the elevator in the lobby of the Holiday Inn where I was attending a Leadership Conference for the Maine teachers Association in Portland.


Now there is also a bit of subterfuge around Stu Martel, another teacher. Tell me about the dark secret he shares with you?

Stu… how I wish I could have done more to help him. I was the only one he ever confided in…I don’t know why. He was a closet gay and surely you must know how the AIDS epidemic mounted in the mid-80s. Whoever reads this book will find out how I convince him to be tested and there is a hilarious scene that reveals what happens when the two of us spend the night together in a motel.
I only wish I has picked up on what Stu was really trying to say in what turned out to be his final telephone message to me.

Okay, let lighten this now. Three quick questions from our readers.

What’s your Favorite color? Yellow
Favorite drink? Chardonnay wine
Secret vice? Secret Vice? I have plenty of vices but none of them are secret. For one thing, I guess I smoke too much.


I’m a romantic at heart so you’ll have to excuse me if I ask you why didn't you ever marry.

I almost married years ago but I broke the engagement two weeks before the wedding. I figured that real love would be something so natural, so powerful, that there would never be any question – and I didn’t want to have to try. Besides I’m not the kind of woman most men feel comfortable with. Like I told Vera, my teacher friend and colleague: “Women like you marry. Women like me have affairs!”

When did you realize that your affair with Mark couldn't continue?

It actually happened one Saturday morning in April. I needed to pick up some cat food and laundry detergent so I went to the local supermarket in Blevins. Readers will find out what happened to me at the checkout counter when I saw Mark and his wife at the far end of the checkout aisles. They seemed to be looking over a shopping list. That’s all I can tell you for now. The final episode between us takes place during the candlelight vigil we teachers held in front of the Murphy Building as we fought for ratification of the contract.

I can’t wait to read how this all ends. It’s been nice to meet you Deidre. Thanks for popping by.

Vera Harriss, Deidre Fletcher, Mark Pettingill, and Stu Martel are elementary school teachers in the fictional town of Blevins, Maine whose secret, private lives change dramatically as you read.
Vera, who is about to retire, vents her anger during a Board of Education meeting with a speech that brings the audience to its feet. Why does Deidre, an exceptional teacher, leave the job she loves to become a corporate trainer down South? Then there is Mark, the perennial job hunter looking for a corporate position with more prestige and pay but then turns down the perfect offer when it finally comes through. Stu, one of the most popular teachers in the school, struggles with a deep, dark secret that he can only share with Deidre. What causes Stu
Vera Harriss, Dee Fletcher, Mark Pettingill, and Stu Martel are eager to share their intriguing secrets and entangled lives with you.

Buy this book here.