A Note from the Author....
In 1977, at the TG&Y in Fayette, Al, I bought a plaque of an old Irish proverb/prayer. One of those lines reads:
Take time to dream, it is hitching your wagon to a star.
I still have the plaque; it hangs on my office wall and I still take time to dream. In following the dream of writing, I created the characters of Jorja Felsenthal and Regina Ingram and began their story.
Jo and Gina, in The Scrapbook Series, is an opportunity to look at life through the eyes of the most unsung hero in American life: the everyday, average woman. We take life as it comes and find a way to deal with unbelievable situations: we laugh, we cry, we struggle. We get angry and frustrated. We are overjoyed and in tears simultaneously. We love in ways that are sometimes completely insane, and we reach for each other.... we reach for our girl friends. In doing so, we reach for a better tomorrow, while we learn to make the most of today.
To steal a phrase from Jackson Browne's Everyman, I wanted to create the "everywoman" in Jo and Gina. I wanted my readers to be able to identify with their life experiences. To read about one of their predicaments and say "Ah, yes. Been there done that."
I needed to be able to write about things, events, and people that I was comfortable with. In my writings, although none of these characters are real, they were created from many of my own life experiences, interactions, thoughts, and beliefs. I needed to write in ways that provided a connection between myself, my work, and my readers.
I am a woman, so I wrote about women.
I have lived life and made mistakes, made the best of it and moved on. So have Jo and Gina.
As I wrote about their low moments, I cried. As I wrote about their funny escapades, I laughed. I want my readers to feel those same emotions. I want them to walk away from the story of Jo and Gina empowered as a woman, with hope in their heart and joy for tomorrow!
