On November 16th, Maxene Raices hosted a book signing at the Music Authority in Cummings, Georgia, of her book The Land of Sunshine and Hell. The attendees had a chance to buy a signed copy of the book as well. In 1964, during the Vietnam War era when the war was heating and drew many young men into it, sex was not discussed at homes or schools and children were left alone to protect themselves.  Maxene was finishing her high school and her boyfriend, Romolo, a first-generation Italian-American was a first-year pre-med student at Columbia University. Abortion was not legal and Maxene was pregnant. It was difficult for Maxene to hide the truth and at the same time, she couldn’t give the child for adoption. They get married four years later after Romolo enlisted into the Army and gets deployed in Germany. They did not accept giving up their child. Maxene lives in Alpharetta, GA. She’s a Master of Education in Adult Communication from the University of Toronto. She also has a B.A. in English and a minor in Education from the State University of New York. Maxene is a high school English teacher by profession as well as Manager of Human Resources and Senior Account Executive for different human resource consulting firms in the US and Canada. She and her husband Lee have two sons and two daughters from previous relationships.