Author Sibling Rivalry Chronicles

I never thought that sibling rivalry was going to be an issue in my writing life.

Trisha Faye has been writing for the past ten to twelve years. Mostly about people and places of the past, some of a more inspirational nature. When I wanted to branch out into children’s stories, I didn’t want the writing to be a jumbled mix, so Jasper Lynn was created.

Jasper Lynn had a few short stories published on a children’s ezine – a piece here and there. Then in 2020 Jasper Lynn branched into books. Two books were published – A Gift from the Heart and This and That. Then Covid shut us down and Jasper Lynn got quiet. (I think she went and hid under the covers with a stack of books and a flashlight.)

Now, Jasper Lynn is back. She just finished the first book in a Cousins Time Traveling Adventure series – Stars in the Sky. But now, this little sister of Trisha Faye is starting to get sassy and I’m about ready to send her back to her room.

Take yesterday’s conversation for example.

JASPER LYNN: Yippee! I sold four books this week!

TRISHA FAYE: That’s wonderful! Congratulations. I’m so happy for you!

JL (While turning cartwheels in the middle of the living room) Sooooo…how many books did YOU sell this week?

TF: I’m not sure. I haven’t looked. I don’t check every day you know.

JL: So….go look.

TF: (Sighing and rolling her eyes) Okay…okay. Hold your horses. Let me look.

TF checks the computer and looks up – Well, I only sold one book this week.

JL (Sticking out her tongue and sending raspberries to TF) Neener, neener, neerer….I sold more books this week than YOU did!

Sigh….ornery little sisters…what is one to do? I might get even though. Next time Jasper Lynn wants a candy bar, I might make her buy her own. After all, she’s the one raking in the big bucks now, right?

To Miss Gail Reynolds

TO MISS GAIL REYNOLDS

It all started out so innocently. A few years back, we were wandering around Lone Star Antiques, and I came across a v-mail letter. In all the hours over all the years that I’d spent in antique stores, I’d never seen one. A v-mail letter is a letter sent from one of our soldiers during World War 2, special War & Navy Departments mail service.

You know that it came home with me.

Then, a few months or a year later, I was in our little local thrift store here in Roanoke. (Texas, not Virginia LOL) In a glass case, they had an old photograph, a vintage postcard, and a v-mail letter. In a thrift store – not an antique store. Of course, all three items came home with me.

But they say you have to have three to have a collection. I didn’t have three. I only had two. So, I wandered over to a site that I rarely visit – ebay. Did they have v-mail letters! More than I’d ever need. There was a collection of around 19 letters that caught my eye. All from George Tweed. Most of them to Miss Gail Reynolds, in Munday, Texas. Letters that came here, not that far from where I am in north Texas.

Yes, I had to bid on those. Yes, I won.

Now, I have more than three – so I have an honest to goodness ‘collection’ now. Ha!

But I wasn’t satisfied to put them on a shelf and let them sit. I needed to know more. Especially when so much information is there in the letters. There was enough that I got a sense of who George Tweed was. But who was Miss Gail Reynolds? What were her hopes and dreams? Did they get together after the war? Did life turn out to be what they’d hoped for?

I’ll add a spoiler here. Yes, George and Gail married. They were together the rest of their lives. And an odd thing … they’re buried together at a cemetery in southern California…the same cemetery that my ex-in-laws are buried in. What are the odds of that?

Using these letters, I wrote a story set during World War 2, To Miss Gail Reynolds. I only hope I did this couple justice as I fictionally told a story about their lives, based on the facts that I could find.

To Miss Gail Reynolds is one of the thirteen historical short stories in Pieces of the Past. It’s available on Amazon here:

UP Reader (Volume 6)

UP Reader: Bring Upper Michigan Literature to the World (Volume 6)

Not being from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, or anywhere near there, I wasn’t sure if I’d find anything in this hefty volume to my liking. I have to report – I was dead wrong!

Through the well written stories, both true and fictional, the essays, the memoirs, the local history and the poetry, there was so much packed between the pages here that it kept me entertained for many days.

With each page I visited another place from afar. I spent time at a booth at the fair enjoying the crocheted paradise filled with aprons, dishcloths, coasters, and more. I visited Michigan Technological University – a different world in the 1980s than my childrearing years were. Marlene’s Beauty Parlor. Iroquois Island. Wally’s Superette. I tagged along with the FBI as they followed the trail of the pasty smuggling ring. I frolicked with raccoons, opossums, red foxes, and coyotes.

So many stories. So many memories. So many tales.

Which was my favorite? Oh, such a difficult task that would be to pick just one – or two – or ten.

But, of course, after being an herb lover for so many years – even having my own small herb and garden store for three years (twenty years ago – a lifetime ago it seems), you know there was one that filled my heart with even more joy. ‘Seeds Well Planted: Healing Balm from a Keweenaw Garden’ nudged its way to the top of my favorites list.

Once I read these words, I was hooked: “The parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme intermingled like a Simon & Garfunkel harmony.”

After that, I settled in to follow along as I watched Cindi Perkins battle between Control Freak Gardener and Gin-and-Tonic Gardener, keeping me entertained with every paragraph, every page.

It turned out that I was pleasantly surprised with this volume as the stories and poems treated me from cover to cover.