Monday Morning Musing: Maggie

This weekend on Weekend Writing Warriors (WeWriWa), I shared the beginning of my work-in-progress, a romantic suspense. Tentatively titled Unpredictable Nature (previous tentative titles: Maggie's Story and The Camping Trip), I wrote this story several years ago. Then, “life” intruded, and I set it aside. Until now. Being written so long ago, the story needs updating. Technology has changed so much. No more Palm Pilots or flip phones, for example. Still, I’m having fun revisiting an old manuscript. If all goes well, this story should be released in the spring. After this weekend's snowfall, spring can't come soon enough.

Along with sharing snippets each weekend, I thought I’d share the main characters here on Mondays.

First up is Maggie May Sinclair. Named after the Rod Stewart song, she’s in her mid-thirties and divorced. She teaches high school English and coaches the girls’ baseball team. She also volunteers as a Little League coach and PeeWee hockey referee. To say she’s athletic is an understatement. With all those activities, she doesn’t have time to date. Not that she’s interested. As she says, been there, done that, got the scars to prove it.

After their parents’ died, she and her brother inherited the family home. Since Jack had a condo and didn’t want the trouble of home ownership, Maggie lives in the home where she grew up in a Grand Rapids (Michigan) suburb.

An activity Maggie didn’t volunteer for but was dragged into by her best friend is co-leading a camping group of girls, now in their early teens. After four years together, their goal has been a week-long trip to Isle Royale, an island and National Park in Lake Superior. But when her friend’s family is transferred to Colorado, the group’s enthusiasm wanes. They still meet at Maggie’s to talk. Lately, “talk” has been about resuming the trip. They figured if they prepare enough, their former leader will return to make the trip with them.

Maggie and Jack grew up camping with their parents and then with Scouts. Jack earned the rank of Eagle Scout, and Maggie earned Girl Scouts’ highest honor, the Gold Award. While camping is in her blood, taking eight girls on an overnight camping trip is a big responsibility. One she won’t take alone. The only parent who volunteered was Drew Campbell, Jack’s best friend. The guy who, according to Jack, wimped out of Cub Scouts. The same guy who told fifteen-year-old Maggie she kissed like a goldfish.

Next Monday, I’ll share a little about Drew.

Have a great week.

Today, I’m over at Diana Rubino’s blog, sharing a little something about Mothers. Stop by if you get a chance.

Girl Scouts: A Family Tradition

Girl Scouts logo: www.girlscouts.org

Yesterday, I was privileged to attend my granddaughter’s rededication to Girls Scouts. What memories that ceremony brought back! Thirty-six years ago, my first grader came home from school so excited. Please, Mom. Can I be a Brownie? Thus began our family’s involvement in the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Because I grew up in a rural area, I didn’t have the Girl Scout experience as a child. Though I knew little about the organization, if my daughter wanted to join, of course I let her. She went from that initial excitement to “do I have to stay in Girl Scouts?” in eighth grade to achieving her Girl Scout Gold Award (the highest honor a girl can earn) to becoming a volunteer trainer of Girl Scout leaders to a troop leader and service unit manager. Five years ago, her daughter became a Daisy Girl Scout. Now she’s a Junior.

I went along a similar volunteer route—leader, trainer, service unit manager. In gradual steps, my life was enriched by my time in Girl Scouts. I even learned I could organize an event for 200+ girls and adults. The trainer part came fairly easy. You can take a teacher out of the classroom . . . LOL I enjoyed sharing my experiences with new leaders. But my favorite activity was working with the girls. Now I see this in my daughter as she shares her love of Girl Scouting with her daughter and the other girls in her troop.

Next weekend, daughter and granddaughter will attend G.I.R.L. 2017, a gathering of thousands of Girl Scout girls and adults in Columbus, Ohio. What an array of speakers they will hear—including Barbara Pierce Bush, Chelsea Clinton, Gabby Douglas. They’ll hear from speakers “who have pursued their passions, created innovative solutions to problems, built the courage to navigate through obstacles, and developed the resources to lead in their everyday lives.” What an experience they will have.

The acronym G.I.R.L. stands for Go-getter, Initiator, Risk-taker, Leader. That’s what Girl Scouts taught me, what I wanted for my daughter, and now for my granddaughter. Girl Scouts has changed a lot since 1912 when Juliette Gordon Low organized the first troop. Girls have changed a lot since then. Girl Scout troops are not sponsored by schools or churches. The girls earn the money to pay for their activities by selling cookies, an activity that teaches them goal setting and money management. They still go camping and learn about the environment and how to protect it. Fun activities for all ages gives the girls STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) experiences.

Though I am a lifetime Girl Scout, I left active volunteering several years ago. I am so proud that my daughter continued in this organization that taught me so much self-esteem and confidence. And that she is passing on her love of Girl Scouting to her daughter.

Labor Day

Today we (in the U.S.) celebrate the worker. In my day jobs, I was never management, always the worker. My volunteer life with Girl Scouts was another story. Frankly, I liked being a worker bee better.

Retirement is supposed to mean no more work. Yeah, right. Life goes on, and the "jobs" at home continue--cooking, cleaning, laundry, yardwork. I'm fortunate that Hubs (also retired) shares many of the household jobs. Retirement also meant for me more time to write.

I've always treated writing as a job. Fortunately, it's a job I love. Giving form to ideas/dreams, bringing characters to life, going on adventures with those characters (vicariously), falling in love for the first time. What's not to like?

I'll keep writing as long as my mind lets me. I watched my mom slowly lose hers to Alzheimer's. If there's a worse way to go, I don't know it. And it's a fear. Although Mom's was probably due to age, I fear Alzheimer's or any form of dementia. My doctor gave me some good news, though. My writing will (in all probability) keep dementia at bay.

So work is good. I celebrate Labor Day because I can still work.

This week, my work takes me to different (virtual) places. I'll be visiting writer friends' blogs with interviews, articles, and teasers from my new sci-fi romance, Mission to New Earth. Here's my schedule:

Tuesday, Sept 6: Gina Conkle  a teaser

                                 Veronica Scott  "Goldilocks" planets

Wednesday, Sept 7: M.J. Schiller  Meet Marsh Rayburn

Friday, Sept 9: Barbara Edwards  Why I Wrote Mission to New Earth

I hope you'll join us. You'll have more opportunities to enter the Giveaway.

Now I'm off to write blog posts for next week. A writer's job is never done.

Mission to New Earth

a science fiction romance novella

Length: 88 pages (25k words)

Blurb

Would you go on a one-way trip to explore a new planet? Would you do it to save humankind?

Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants? Before time runs out.

  

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