St. Louis Author Celebrates End of Chemotherapy with Book of Love Poems for the Beach

ST. LOUIS - July 23, 2019 - PRLog -- Award-winning author Sheree K. Nielsen has an unmistakable affection for the beach, and her wistful poems and stunning photographs are nothing less than love songs for the beach and her eternal companion—water. Nielsen delights in the vulnerable, blissful, and sensual rhythms—the result of the never-ending play between earth and water, the shifting sands and the rolling tides.

Nielsen's new collection of poems and photographs, thoughtfully arranged in Mondays in October, suggests easy movements in nature, and a time for us to slow down—like autumn—and imagine a simpler life. Recently completing chemotherapy for Waldenstrom's lymphoma, the book is dedicated to those who've touched her heart through this creative journey—including the St. Louis Siteman Cancer Center nurses—making long treatment days positive, uplifting, and even laughable.

A former circuit design engineer for a major telecom company, Nielsen believes that every picture tells a story, combining her love of photography and writing with colorful visual descriptions and healing messages found in her coffee table books, essay collections, children's books, and poems. She finds inspiration in the ocean and nature.

Nielsen is author/photographer/poet of 2015 Da Vinci Eye Award Winner Folly Beach Dances (inspired by the sea and her lymphoma journey), Chanticleer Little Peeps First Place Category Winner and Montaigne Medal Finalist Midnight the One-Eyed Cat (a picture book; co-author), and Chanticleer Finalist Ocean Rhythms Kindred Spirits — An Emerson-Inspired Essay Collection on Travel, Nature, Family and Pets. Her other works are well represented in Southern Writers Magazine, AAA Southern and Midwest Traveler, Long Weekends, South and North Brunswick Magazine, Missouri Life, among others.

Released in late-July, Mondays in October is published by Shanti Arts Publishing, Brunswick, Maine.

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"I admire the spare wistfulness of these poems. In them, you can find the sensual free rhythms of the sea, a slice or two of summer, a bit of happy, and two blissful, romping dogs. But you can also find the searching soul of a woman. There's bittersweet in these poems, but isn't that what you would expect from Mondays in October when our days begin to shorten and cool and we are filled with longing. These poems are love songs for the beach. They have the simplicity that we all want in a love song. They have melody and smile, wonder and ache. They make us want to be there in these beachy moments with Sheree and sing along with her."
—Sandy Gingras, author of many gift books including Walks on the Beach, Lessons of a Turtle, and How to Live in Flip Flops

"When I can't go to the beach, I open Mondays in October to surround myself with memories of the sea. Sheree's poems awaken my consciousness to the rhythm and melancholy of life there. She blends emotion and color through the lens of a photographer and writer's pen to capture the delight and desire of a soul refreshed and mystified. Her poems are like quiet meditations that distance us from the problems of the day, and remind us to pay attention to our internal lives, accessed through her words and photos. Sheree's characters, actions, and feelings stay with us like the permanence of the sea to make us smile, reflect, or cry. You won't soon forget the beauty of this book."
—Mary Horner, professor of communications. St. Charles Community College; content writer for WOW!; freelance editor for  collegiate, government, and medical clients, and poet (Sweetgum Notes, Kansas City Voices, Folly Beach Dances)

ISBN: 978-1-947067-44-8  |  $ 25.95  |  print; 104 pages, 50 full-color images

Shanti Arts LLC
Sheree K. Nielsen