VISIT FROM A FRIEND

Last week the young man who had done a lot of odd jobs for us stopped by just to say hello. He explained he’s been working nearby and felt guilty for not contacting us for a while.

We were surprised to see that he had lost a great deal of weight. He explained he’d broken his collarbone and had other issues as well. However, his worst news was that his wife was in the hospital and she had been there for three weeks, because of a blood disorder which the doctors couldn’t diagnose. Leukemia was not seen as the problem.

Then he gave us another surprise, being self-employed he’d had no health insurance, so he had signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act. (Obamacare, as Republicans like to call it) And luckily for him, it went into effect right before his accident and his wife’s hospitalization. He was totally thankful.

I really don’t have to tell you, do I, that when he worked for us, I asked and he said yes, he was a Republican.

HOW WE SPENT MEMORIAL DAY

As usual, we spent little over an hour in tribute to the Veteran’s in our small community, the ones who are still alive, as well as the ones we remember from past celebrations. There were veterans from each service, Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard each carrying their division flags and wearing hats to be placed in the solemn empty chair ceremony.

We arrived early and I was sitting on the couch in the lobby with a good friend, when another friend stopped to chat. He was wearing his flight suit, which fit snuggly. I asked about any medals he might have, he said he had some, but could only wear them on his dress uniform which no longer fit. Next year, he vows to have lost weight. I should mention that he is a retired USAF Lt. Colonel and was the pilot for Vice-President Al Gore on Air Force 2.

And I’ll also tell of the only veteran of WW ll to attend. He was a private during that war and tomorrow is flying to Washington DC to be part of a tribute there.

One of the other flag carriers has three purple hearts from Viet Nam.

Each of the flag carriers has his own story.

Our emcee is a retired Naval Commander.

The gentleman singing a capella is a retired Fire Department Captain and one the First Responders in New York City.

You will also be interested in a young man we met. My friend’s granddaughter also sang and her boyfriend came along and he looked rather young.  Well, looks aren’t everything, that young man is a thirty-five year old psychiatrist and based at our Veteran’s Hospital.

As part of the tribute, we remembered the wheel chaired vet who died several years ago. He was a former POW and headed a local group of POW’s from our county.

After we all were given a flower to drop in an army Helmut placed on a chair, with army boots on the blanket under it, we proceeded past about twenty or so of the lined up veterans who attended, shook their hands, and thanked them for their service.

IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING

I’d not been writing on my blog recently, because I’d been busy elsewhere.

I really thought I’d informed my readers that I had decided to write a book. But when I went onto my blog, I discovered that I haven’t told you about my plans. Except for my family, I have not told any of the people I associate with either. Now I’m ready.

Last week, I finished it. This was a tremendous experience for me, I’d never thought about doing a book of fiction or any other book at all.

In writing a book, you must decide what type of book it’s to be. Then you need a plot and a main character.

That’s not what I did, I saw a somewhat unusual person on a sidewalk as I was driving   by on my way to the Dollar Store. I thought that would be a great title for a book. I was laughing as I continued on my way, but the title kept nagging me.

I could not stop thinking about her and decided I was going to write a comedy/mystery about her. I first told my plan to my husband of almost sixty-three years, and empathized that the woman I was writing about was not me and any man in it would not be him.

I know you should only write about what you know, so I planned that the lady would be in her eighties. I quickly changed that, thinking who wants to read about an old lady? So she’s in her late fifties.

I read the first two pages to my husband and we both thought them funny. However, what I had plotted in my head, did not translate to my keyboard. I started to realize that the story became very dark and in spite of the light beginning, it turned into something tragic. The story was writing itself, nothing of what I’d planned took hold.

My evil character, who would die and get his just reward, suddenly gave me a new prospective of himself. I have no idea why.

  

Then more characters popped up, and suddenly they all meshed in. Now I was writing every day and gained more insight into these people I had created and began to understand things about them, I’d not thought possible to explain.

Then my people started speaking in the first person about themselves and also carried the plot along. My own kids upon reading some of the book said not to create any more characters. They felt it would be difficult to keep them straight. I felt a little different, but I tried to keep it simple.

I became very excited about my first love scene, I cried when I finished it.  When I asked my daughter how she felt about it, she said “what love scene? It’s so subtle, she’d missed the point. I still kept it in.

In a later chapter, I started writing very brazenly about an affair.  Of all who have read it, no one has said “tone it down” so I got away with it. But will my young grandchildren be allowed to read it?

At this point, I discovered I was writing about very romantic people, whom I loved. I knew I’d have to kill someone and picked out that person and how his death would create more drama. When I wrote that scene, none of what I planned happened. It took a twist somehow, and the scene itself became very dramatic for every one of my cast.

Most of what I’d done could actually be a play reading, the thing I’m totally familiar with. 

When I was trying to get back to the prequel of the first section, everything I had planned went totally out the window and once again the novel became a comedy. That part became my favorite and the ending came with tears in my eyes again.

I feel that way because the people I created are my children and I love them all.

My book is about 70,000 words in case you wondered, just enough for a novel.

Does anyone know of an agent for me to contact, or know someone in publishing?