Loose Ends

When I’ve written the stories for my Mystery Series, Tommy Two Shoes, I was amazed at how important a small and seemingly unimportant item will become a significant and integral part of a later story. Once they’ve been edited and published, there is no way for me to insert a fact in a previous tale, so what was written has to be woven into the next book. I’m truly gob-smacked at how often it happened from one book to the next. I thought that these coincidences only happened in fairy tales (Or books that I wrote), but not so. Frequently, I have seen this happen in my day to day life.

I was able to meet a long time Facebook friend at his sister’s home. She is a near lifelong friend and former fellow employee. I was invited to her home for a brief visit and a chance to sample her famous sauerkraut/ chocolate cake…again. It was nice to finally talk to him face to face and understand more of what makes this man tick. He’s just a good ole boy from Texas with a commitment to see that there are new chapters of men who have pledged to protect abused children.

He was traveling with another member, driving from Texas to New England and back in an attempt to spread this worthwhile cause. I gave him a copy of the first book in the series and I gave his sister a copy of my latest book, Addie. She has all of the others. I thought it would be a good dinner gift instead of flowers. She gave him the copies that she read to take with him.

He looked across the table and seemed surprised that I’d written so many. Then he said, my wife said, she knew about you before we became friends. It was an odd feeling to think that I was recognized by someone so far away as an author. I didn’t have the courage to ask him how.

I really felt odd when he called, saying that another author wanted to charge him $3,000.00 to write his autobiography. Another would do it for free, but my friend knew the freebie author sometimes liked to embellish the truth to sell his books. My friend invited me to visit his ranch in Texas and to write his autobiography. I was astounded and afraid I would not be able to do it. To this point, I have only written fiction. I did suggest that he sit down and list the facts that he wanted included, then sit down with the volunteer author after something in writing to say, nothing could be published until it was cleared by you. That would keep the book straight and true with its control in your hands.