Clayton author to release new book

BY RANDY CAPPS

It’s hard to find much good to say about the recent pandemic. But, despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, it has forced us to use more creativity.

For Clayton author Jean Richardson Watson, it inspired her latest work, “The Eliminator VS COVID-19,” set to be released on March 5.

“The Eliminator VS COVID-19” is a coloring book with tips on keeping you and your family safe as possible from the virus. It features illustrations to encourage kids and adults to practice good habits by keeping their surroundings clean and virus free. The illustrations will enable children and adults to follow and apply various guidelines in the book to their daily life, and enjoy coloring activities while bringing the images to life.

“As with any virus, if we take the appropriate measures and follow health officials’ guidelines, we can defeat this pandemic,” Watson said. “I created the two main characters in this book as superheroes. COVID-19 is the bad guy who doesn’t mind spreading germs and viruses. He will do whatever it takes to apply his cluster of illnesses. The other character is The Eliminator. She will save the world by combating COVID-19 and the devastation he leaves.”

Watson is a native of Clayton and the 21st child born to the late Eddie Robert Richardson and Fannie Forte Richardson. She is married with two children and one grandson.

Watson has been writing since her high school days at Clayton and Smithfield-Selma high schools, and some of her first efforts were love poems to her future husband, Winston.

“Like anything you do in life, the more you do it, the better you get at it,” she said in a November 2018 interview. “I’m not Maya (Angelou) or anybody like that, and I don’t claim to be. But it is a skill. God gave it to me, so I’m using it to inspire.”

She has also written “Poetry from the Heart,” “Poetic Expressions,” “Onyx the Butterfly,” “A Thief in the Night,” “Inspirational Quotes” for Life” and “My Name is Special.”