Twenty-Five??

It’s scary when your baby turns twenty-five. In the first place I’m not nearly old enough (mentally) to have this happen. In the second, she has her own place in a different city and thinks she’s grown. Just because I thought I was grown at twenty-five is no reason for her to. I was wrong, so is she!

Okay, she may be twenty-five but this is the way I remember her. She looked like a red dandelion at times and could fly off just as quickly. But she loved her big brother and was always busy charging after him or finding something to do . . .    And always so helpful – must come in handy on those theater sets  Happy Birthday Samantha Honeycutt – My Baby Girl!

How far are you willing to go to remake yourself for someone else?

Robin M and Pat T won the copies!  Congratulations!!

Red Shoes will be one-year old on Tuesday, August 12 and to celebrate I want to give away a couple of copies of it. It’s simple – just tell me what it is about small town romance that you like, either in the comments on Facebook or here on the page under comments.

I’m always curious about my readers, so please share!

Influences, me? Okay, yeah. I’ve probably already mentioned X-Files along the way here but it was a huge influence on my writing (and dreams and muse). A smart science fiction story that didn’t need humor to offset it. A wish come true!

Okay, I’m still bitter over the Batman TV series. I was so excited to have that air, then the powers that be decided they couldn’t play it straight and turned it into high camp. Enough said. We did finally get Star Trek and of course now we have tons of smart sci fi and  paranormal shows. Full kudos to X-Files for sparking that trend (and getting me writing full time).

I was the kid that looked forward to Saturday afternoons, not just because school was out (though that was wonderful), but because that’s when the cheesy sci fi and horror pictures came on TV. I was enthralled! An aside here, I lost my vision and became legally blind  watching the original King Kong. I had the measles but hadn’t broken out, so they hadn’t put me in a dark room yet. What can I say, it was worth it. Those of you too young to remember before vaccines be grateful!  

I mentioned X-Files – I remember reading in the TV Guide that year about the upcoming shows and saw that one. I was immediately intrigued (and had a flashback to Batman) but this one delivered. My family and friends knew that this was my hour of the week. I didn’t answer the phone, I didn’t respond to “Mom!”, if the kids were on fire, their father would have to put them out. One hour, really! I can’t thank the creative teams behind it enough for giving me such incredible ideas and courage to share them.

Other influences . . . later

Amazon

Yes, I’m from the south and we have those things around here. The 31^st annual cousins’ reunion is coming up soon and I’m so looking forward to it. These are the people I grew up with. Since I only have the one sister, cousins picked up the slack of not having a large family. So I have an extremely large family. Twenty-six first cousins on Daddy’s side.

About thirty-one years ago we realized that the focal point of the family wasn’t going to be with us much longer and we might all scatter and not see each other again soon. Unacceptable since they’d been such a big part of my life. I had a baby by then and the thoughts of him not knowing all these people was also unacceptable.

So, Sis, closest Cuz and I decided we’d have our own get together. The older generation was welcome but it was for us to get together and make sure our kids had the cousin experience. Sis volunteered her house because of the pool and large carport and we did it.  This is ’86 I believe with our kids, but just a sampling that grew.

And now, thirty-one years later – 31! we’re still doing it. We all already know the menu, it hasn’t changed in decades (no reason, we all like it) and fewer of the kids come because they have gone off to college or have families of their own, but they know when and where and that they’ll be more than welcome. And there are unfortunately fewer of the older generation to attend but we love it when they do.

There’s no agenda, we sit around on the carport or dip in the pool and visit with whoever is sitting next to us. We’re all family. We can ask questions about old stories we’re familiar with and compare them to reality and share pictures of the kids that aren’t there. If one of the “kids” does come and brings a friend they get the same family treatment and marvel that we all know each others’ names.