Thanks for reading the June 2025 issue of This Awful Awesome Life. I hope you use the link for the recipe for Grape Clafoutis in our “Twelve Months of Fruit.” Previous issues of This Awful Awesome Life are available to read on our website. Go to www.thisawfulawesomelife.com and start scrolling or you can enter specific search criteria.
Our July issue celebrates animals and nature
I’m going to write a short story about animals for the July issue.
Orlando Bartro and I will be back with more interesting articles for you.
Our featured author with a July birthday will be E.B. White the author of such classics as Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan.
We’re moving some of our regular features around to shake things up a bit and keep you on your toes. I’m also hoping to expand our Artist Page to feature more talented creatives. Some people manage to elevate their work to the level of an artform, and we want to support their efforts.
I’ll have more streaming and reading recommendations. “What’s in a Word?” will be back but we’ll be alternating some of our content. We’ll continue the monthly quizzes to exercise our brains, and we’ll continue reviewing books.
I’ll have another poem for you.
I hope to have some news about a new subscription-based Patreon account featuring short stories and chapter installments of my books as I write them. This will be separated from our online magazine which will always be free and available to everyone. I’m considering the Patreon option because traditional and Indy publishing have changed so drastically in recent years. Hoping I can also provide opportunities for book discussions and narrations of short stories. Be on the lookout after the June issue. I have some other pressing matters to attend to in the next few months.
Stay safe. Stay well. You are important, and you are loved.
All my best,
Fran
Answers to the June 2025 “Star-Crossed Lovers Part II” Quiz:
This Greek goddess fell in love with a mortal and asked Zeus to make her lover immortal. However, she forgot to ask Zeus to also grant him eternal youth. He continued to age and wither away until the goddess took pity on him and turned him into a cicada.
Couple: Eos and Tithonus Novel/Poem/Play “The Old Age Poem” by Sappho
2. A terminally ill woman receives a marriage proposal from the man of her dreams only to discover he’s been in love with someone else during their courtship.
Couple: Molly and Morton Novel/Poem/Play The Wings of The Dove by Henry James
3.. Two friends: she is secretly in love with him, but his heart belongs to Cosette.
Couple: Eponine and Marius Novel/Poem/Play Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
4. he’s considered a “fallen woman” because of an affair. He’s a respected member of society engaged to be married. They fall in love and scandal ensues.
Couple: Sarah and Charles Novel/Poem/Play The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
5. He’s a working-class Army veteran. She’s a wealthy coed from Radcliffe College. Her family has new money; his family has no money. He falls in love, but the novelty wears off for her, and she dumps him.
6. Couple: Neil and Brenda Novel/Poem/Play Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth6. They both work as servants for a wealthy British nobleman. She’s warm and outgoing; he’s reserved and reclusive. Over the years, they fall in love, but he can’t admit his feelings. She grows tired of waiting and marries someone else.
Couple: Stevens and Miss Kenton Novel/Poem/Play The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
7. He was the nerdy introvert, and she was the most popular girl at school. She falls for the most popular boy in school who makes his life unbearable. Though he hides his feelings well, he never stops loving her and sacrifices his life to protect her only child.
Couple: Severus and Lily Novel/Poem/Play The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
8. She’s trapped in a loveless marriage to a cruel man and turns to a casual acquaintance for comfort. The acquaintance is on a spiritual and cultural quest after learning about his Jewish heritage. She mistakes his kindness for love and is devastated when she discovers he’s in love with a Jewish woman.
Couple: Gwendolyn and Daniel Novel/Poem/Play Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
9. He’s a god and she’s a mortal. Their love story is marked by themes of dangerous curiosity, punishments, tests, and redemption. These star-crossed lovers defy the odds and end up together.
Couple: Eros and Psyche Novel/Poem/Play Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass) by Apuleius
10. After being dumped by the love of his life who marries a rich tycoon, he reinvents himself as a wealthy man of mystery and seeks to win her away from her husband. She’s a bored socialite who enjoys his attention now that she believes he’s wealthy.
Couple: Jay and Daisy Novel/Poem/Play The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
11. A head-strong young woman decides to play matchmaker, but when she misinterprets the intentions of the local vicar, she convinces another woman he’s in love with her and she should be in love with him instead of Robert Martin, a farmer, who wants to propose because the vicar is a more suitable match. The woman is devastated when she learns the vicar’s not interested in her, but left to their own devices they all find the people they are meant to be with. Robert for the win!
Couple: Harriet Smith and Mr. Elton Novel/Poem/Play Emma by Jane Austen
12. A young nobleman falls in love with a girl who does not reciprocate his affections because she has decided to devote her life to the service of God. Spoiler alert – he soon forgets her when he sees another pretty face.
Couple: Romeo and Rosaline Novel/Poem/Play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
13. She’s an artist who falls in love with a talented artist with a physical impairment. She dies by suicide after he rejects her. He falls in love with a waitress who rejects him because of his impairment. Karma wins this one.
Couple: Fanny, Philip, and Mildred Novel/Poem/Play Of Human Bondage by W, Somerset Maugham
14. He declares his love. She rejects him because she’s in mourning after her brother’s death. He persists, but her heart is elsewhere. He eventually moves on, but not until some gender-bending hijinks of mistaken identity take place.
Couple: Olivia and Orsino Novel/Poem/Play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
15. She is determined to be independent and rejects a sudden marriage proposal from the neighbor of her English uncle. Then she rejects a proposal from the wealthy and charismatic heir to a Boston mill. It would be a love match, but she stubbornly clings to her independence. After inheriting her uncle’s fortune, she travels to Florence where she’s charmed by an American expatriate and agrees to marry him. Her husband is controlling and dishonest, but when the man from Boston who loves her tries to help, she sends him away again.
Couple: Casper and Isabel Novel/Poem/Play Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
16. This one is a bit creepy. A thirty-six-year-old man who is a friend of her father’s tells a twelve-year-old girl that he will wait for her. When she gets older they begin a romantic relationship, but she ultimately turns down his proposal to marry someone closer to her own age.
Couple: Dean and Emily Novel/Poem/Play Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
17. She’s a young socialite who loses her fortune. He’s a young lawyer with no fortune. Though she loves him, she cannot marry him because of her financial problems. Her efforts to settle her debts go horribly wrong and she turns to gambling and drugs. Despite being ostracized by her peers, she works hard to get out of debt honorably. His fortunes improve, but too late to help the woman he loves.
Couple: lily and Lawrence Novel/Poem/Play The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
18. He’s a young visiting poet. She’s a poor girl engaged to an older, but financially stable man. They fall in love, but she chooses financial security over love, and his broken heart leads him to take his own life.
Couple: Werther and Charlotte Novel/Poem/Play The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Goethe
19. A gentleman lawyer is engaged to a wealthy socialite named May. When he meets his fiancée’s cousin from Europe he can’t seem to get her out of his mind. The cousin is married to a Polish count, but they are estranged. To prevent the scandal of a divorce, he’s asked to persuade the countess to either reconcile with her husband or agree to stay married and live separate lives. They fall in love, but do not act on their feelings because of May. He goes through with the marriage, but is unhappy. After May becomes pregnant he and the countess don’t see each other for twenty-six years. After May’s death, he and his son go to Europe, but he remains outside while his son visits the countess.
Couple: Ellen and Newland Novel/Poem/Play The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
20. She’s sent away by her father for falling in love. She marries a doctor and moves on with her life. He waits for her for fifty years. After her husband dies, they finally get their happy ending and are together.
Couple: Florentina and Fermina Novel/Poem/Play Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez