WOBURN - Nurse and author Kate Genovese, a West Woburn resident, is well known in a host of circles around the city through authors group, history groups, elementary schools and the like.

She's also gaining more attention each day as her third book, "Two Weeks Since My Last Confession" was unveiled two weeks ago.

She had spent some 20 years at Lahey Clinic as a nurse, several years as a school nurse in the Woburn school system including stops at the Reeves School in West Woburn and the Clapp School in the South End, and a tour of five years with the Visiting Nurses Association in Arlington (she's now back working for the VNA).

Also, she has found some time to share her life experiences, her reason for writing books and her nursing efforts with groups like the luncheon group at the Woburn Rotary Club at Tony Pillar's Restaurant at the Holiday Inn Select off Main Street.

"I always wrote," she reflects. "Dad made us all write since age six!"

The writing skills developed, she points out, allowing her to collect her thoughts and data and then to put it all into book form.

However, putting it all into book form is only a small part of the battle, as getting "rejection slips" from publishers can get discouraging sometimes. "The hard part is the waiting." She's been dealing now with a Florida publisher, Libros International.

"You get use to rejection; you don't take it seriously," she smiles, noting persistence is a key word in the world of book writers. "You just keep going for it."

The themes of social upheaval and the everyday life battles of common people are a constant thread through her three novels. Her past two efforts were "Thirty Years in September: A Nurses Memtor" and her second on "Loving Joe Gallucci."

The Gallucci experience was shared with Rotarians and others at her recent talk. Just being there day to day with him at VNA and in the process of dying, she relates, was an incredible experience where even though he couldn't talk, there's was something new to be said every day of the experience for both Gallucci and nurse.

"I've just met so many nice people," she reflects. "It's a case of just celebrating each day."

The road ffrom Watertown through the turbulent Sixties and then onto Woburn is a story in itself, she will tell anyone willing to listen. The social upheaval of the 1960s had consumed her and her not making Woodstock by encouragement from relatives and friends is lamented. Still, the writing and the roots of social upheaval had taken its grasp and she proceeds through nursing and writing with a lot of great concerns.

Her books are available at the local Barnes & Noble, as well as on her website. "And no, I don't get free books; there's just discounts!," she told her audience.

Genovese, 57, still works full time and enjoys the interpersonal exchanges with people. She also joins Daily Times Chronicle columnist Marie Coady and others in a Woburn writers group on a regular basis. All enjoy writing.

He publicist describes her efforts as: "At a time when childhood sexual abuse and drug addiction is rampant, "Two Weeks Since My Last Confession,' tells the story, based on true facts, about a woman who survived and thrived after suffering such abuse and addiction in the 1950s. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, the woman, Molly O'Brien had to come to terms with this experience amid the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s."

The book highlights how Molly unleashed a series of pent-up family secrets, including her own abuse, when social mores went through a dramatic change in the 1960s from the rigid social strictures of the 1950s that often concealed a storm.

The story chronicles the triumph of the human spirit of both external and internal enemies, and has reaped much critical praise.

For additional information and to arrange interviews:

ÝContact:

ÝÝ Kate Genovese

ÝÝ 2 Whispering Hill Road

ÝÝ Woburn, MA 01801

ÝÝ www.kategenovese.com