Suna Flores is a granny in her eighties. She has been playing and working with humanity for a very long time, and she has loved it all. But she believes that it’s time for folks to read a good story about some of the people she has seen…and think about who they are…and why they are.
Suna thought she wanted to be an actress and a writer when she graduated from Michigan State University, but she decided to be a teacher, instead. Life is long, she thought. I can write and act later, right?
As compelling as becoming a teacher was, a love life and becoming the mother of four kept acting and writing on a back burner for years, The enjoyment of guiding her own family as well the children of her classes was more than enough to love. A “Lifetime Teaching Credential” awarded by then Governor Reagan was her reward for her teaching skills. Good sons and daughters were an even more important reward.
A teaching career lead next to counseling, however. Why? Because she could take more time with her family and each person she worked with individually. “My years as a counselor for persons with disabilities was a path to discovering the resilience of the human spirit,” she has told her friends. “In a way, vocational counseling was like creative writing with real, human characters as co-writers.” For this reason, she added to her expertise with a master’s degree in human services to take on leadership positions in DVR.
(DVR, the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, is a statewide California program that assists persons with disabilities to discover new abilities and find employment that is fulfilling.) ”Helping to discover a better future for so many was a joy. What a way to make a living!” Flores declared after twenty five years.
At age sixty two, Flores retired from DVR and decided it was time to use ‘this next gift of time‘ for a return to her love of writing and theater. During the next seventeen years, she directed, sang and acted in over fifty live theater productions, also writing seven plays/musicals which were performed successfully. She was very happy and busy, but a flooded house caused her and her wonderful husband to move from their home. And then there was Covid.
At seventy nine, it was time for another challenge. Suna’s life perspective had always been based on the advice of her father who died when she was eight. “Use your time. Don’t waste any of it,” he had told her before he passed. Her father had also turned her on to Consciences. “A Conscience is a living voice inside you that will help you figure out the right thing to do when I am not here to do it,” he had said. Suna decided that writing was the right thing to do, now. The nightly news made it clear that humanity was in turmoil and that few seemed to know about doing ‘the right thing’ just because it was the right thing things to do. The world seemed to need a Conscience. Suna’s Conscience told her to do something about it.
Now in her eighties, Suna writes about the problems of the world, clear as day, but includes possible solutions that persons with Consciences could provide. Her exciting novels are all about what is happening today although some take place in historical settings (“Mora’s Shoes”). “The Campaign” is an ‘in your face’ warning, a political drama that is definitely happening now.
But Suna’s novels provide something unique that most gripping novels do not provide…a way for thought to solve major problems where violence will surely fail. Are her novels real or are they fantasy? Only their readers know for sure. For this reason, these novels are for people who are ready to think.
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