When I was younger, each spring and fall, my mother would haul out the heavy-duty cleaning supplies and the entire family would embark on the seasonal cleaning. Bedding would be aired, rugs taken out and beaten (or shampooed if too big), floors stripped, mopped, waxed, windows washed, screens either put up or taken down. Even dishes removed from cabinets and everything wiped down, cleaned, etc. It was several weeks of madness. Mom was a stickler for perfection. Even the tops of the doors and doorways had to be cleaned. I hated it. When I grew up, I swore I’d never be that strict about it. In later years, Mom used to tease me that I never bothered with spring or fall housecleaning, I just moved. She wasn’t that wrong.

In the first seventeen years of my life, my family moved only once and since I was only three years old at the time, I really don’t remember much about it. When I left for college, they moved back to the original village and I spent the next four years moving from dorm to home to new dorm, to home, to apartment. I could fit all my worldly belongings into the trunk and backseat of my folks car.

When my husband and I married, we moved into a tiny apartment near the army depot where he worked and thus began our mobile early years. Over our first year, we moved to a larger apartment, then another, then our first house, then…let’s see, we moved a total of four times. Over the next ten years, a total of sixteen – yes, that’s right, sixteen more – times. And no, we were not in the military, though we were connected with it. It was mostly due to the job, growing family, and various other issues. We just completed move number twenty-two. I *hope* I’m finally done. One thing is certain, I can no longer fit my worldly belongings into the trunk and backseat of my car! Heck, my books alone take up more space than that.

If I’ve learned anything from all those moves, it’s the value of being flexible and of what is really necessary in our lives. In our next to the last move, we went from a five bedroom, three bathroom home with a huge garage to a two bedroom, one bath, no garage bungalow less than half the size of the old house. Paring down all that “stuff” was a chore, especially since we had less than a month to do it. We’d raised four kids in that house and had all their accumulated stuff as well. Plus my mother had just moved into a tiny elder apartment and I had a lot of her stuff too.

All that stuff. We pared, we sorted, we tossed, we donated, we sold. And still, there was way too much. But we managed to get it all in the new home. Then this move happened. We relocated to a much larger house, but moved in with our eldest son and his family so we actually have less space. In combining the two households, we have multiples of way too many things. In addition, we are clearing out my mother-in-law’s home where she lived for sixty years. She was a hoarder. Unfortunately.

So I am once again, inundated with stuff. I am done moving, though (According to my family, I’ve said this before. Several times.). I think it’s time to do some spring cleaning. My mom would be so proud.

In my story PRIME TIME, the characters don’t have to worry about spring cleaning. After all, there really aren’t any seasons on the moon, but they do have to get rid of some junk.

When it comes to righting wrongs, there’s no time like Prime Time.

Deena is a Prime, born and raised to Porter parents in the Lunar habitats. Life is hard, but with a rag-tag group of friends, she gets by.

Jake is a wealthy Techie, part of an elite security force searching out the source of the deadly drug Utopia. He can’t imagine the hardships Deena and other Porters have endured and is determined to make a difference.

Deena reluctantly teams up with the hunky Techie. With the help of other Primes, both realize that not only is the danger to them all far more deadly than Jake and his team first imagined, but that love doesn’t care about class and status. Can they stop the seemingly untouchable Utopia suppliers before time runs out for them all?

Contains some sensual scenes of m/f sexuality.

Available from CAPTIVA PRESS