The Mysterious Gypsy Queen

All who seek, find. But, all that is found is not sought.   -Gypsy Queen, late 13th century

One of the most challenging parts about writing fiction, to me anyway, is channeling characters that are unlike myself. I draw from people I know and people I do not always understand. But to develop a character, especially one that is smarter than me, takes a lot of work. It is easy to write about the village idiot. That character has no deep or conflicting motivations. And, as a bonus, there is also plenty of “live” material around to observe.

The Gypsy Queen is quite a different story. She has always held fascination for me. She is dangerous, but not threatening. She can predict people with uncanny accuracy, yet lives marginally above the lifestyle of a nun. There is no contract binding her people to her, yet they remain staunchly loyal to one another. And she is self-educated, but at times with much deeper wisdom than those with multiple degrees of education.

In Gepetka, there is an under-story of the development of the Gypsy Queen interwoven into the background fabric of the main story.

In truth, that was sort of by accident. But once I found her, I really liked her. I hope you do too.

Once Upon a Time

There was a little girl named Vanessa. She grew up much like every other little girl, you know, in about three minutes. She had two sisters, Rochelle and Irene, who also grew up faster than their daddy wanted. That seems to be a redundancy about life in general.

The three sisters took a walk in the woods one day. To their amazement, they discovered a spooky path winding through the weeping willows near a hidden brook that seemingly had no source. Naturally they took the spooky path and discovered it led to an elvish house built into the base of an ancient elm tree. The whole scene seemed surreal. There were creatures of all varieties living in the tree. Over the door was an inscription in ancient runes. And as luck would have it, the door to the house was unlocked.

Naturally they … ?

A) Deciphered the runes by memory.

B) Took about 3000 photographs.

C) Befriended all the little creatures around and in the house.

Okay, so the story was completely fake, but the multiple choice was actually … a trick question. It was not a multiple choice at all, but an all of the above. If you know them, you know which one did which option in our little fairy tale.

It might seem that the three distinct personalities of my daughters could impose a particular challenge in writing books for them. Well, it's too late to worry about that now, because Book 3 is almost ready to print!

Book 1, Blood Trail of the Falcon, was written as a college graduation gift for Vanessa. Book 2, Ascent of the Falcon, was written as a college graduation gift for Rochelle. And Book 3, Gepetka, Prince of Gypsies, was written as a Navy graduation gift for Irene.

That Navy graduation day is coming up in a few weeks. The Navy does not make any fanfare for people who have completed their contract and are moving on. But we will celebrate somehow. And (hopefully) we will have a copy of Gepetka for Irene on that day.

I am proud of each of my kid's accomplishments. And this is a commemoration of Irene's service in the U.S. Navy.

My World Was Shaken to the Core

For a day in which the earth did not tremble, and the sky did not dim, it was an earth shattering event for me.

It was a day like any other day, except we had been up all night with my wife in labor. At just after four o'clock in the morning, I held my first child.

There had never before nor since been anything that had such a profound impact on me. Obviously, I knew we were going to have a child. I had been in much deep meditative thought on the gravity of my responsibility. But I did not anticipate the sudden overwhelming sense of vulnerability.

A man can live fearlessly until he has a daughter. If he remains fearless after that, he is either supernatural, or a blithering idiot.

For me, the realization that I could not protect my tiny, beautiful, fragile daughter from every danger on planet Earth was unsettling in the extreme. With the birth of each of my children, I have recaptured that sensation, but not with the same ferocity. Becoming a grandfather was a close second, except with age has come the realization that I can control very little of anything in life. Back when I was twenty-something, I had the delusion that I was invulnerable.

You may ask yourself why I am writing about an event from thirty years in the past. Well, because it was thirty years ago today, in fact, that my first daughter was born. I am not certain how three decades has eluded capture. Time slips by at seemingly increased velocity each year.

Hug your precious little ones an extra time today. Todays tend to become yesterdays in rapid succession.

Not to Overstate This Momentous Event

There is an old saying, “Good fences make good neighbors.” It sounds counterintuitive, but there is actually a good deal of truth in that. The fence is not intended to keep the neighbor out of your yard, it is designed to keep your dog in! The principle is to agree on what is appropriate in advance, rather than wait for a difference in expectations to escalate into a dispute.

You may be puzzled by the dog and fence metaphor, so let me get straight to the point.

The picture below is of me and Shawna Apps signing some papers and having coffee and cookies. It may not look important to the average onlooker, but, my dear reader, it is very important.

This is a photo of author and illustrator signing a collaborative agreement regarding the book series, The Adventures of Boathouse Mouse. There are a lot of things in that agreement that I never gave thought to before seeing it in writing. The agreement defines how things get done. When we have to make those big decisions, there is already a framework in place.

This actually goes way deeper than a business deal. Shawna and one of my daughters are good friends. It is my intention that long after I am gone, they will remain as friends. What you see here, folks, is history in the making!

In all fairness, there have been a many collaborative agreements throughout history that were this important. Well, maybe dozens. Certainly a few, anyway. Actually, only The Declaration of Independence comes to mind. Whew! Being a history maker is exhausting!

We Can't Seem to Channel Normal

I don't normally cross over purposes here. But this weekend has been filled with a lot of interesting personal experiences. It has been exhausting, unnerving, and actually even uplifting.

My wife and I run a small non-profit that builds and sends work boats to missionaries in third world countries. Mission Navigation is a tiny operation, as I have a day job building yachts for the rich and famous. So, I am essentially a weekend missionary, of sorts. We have sent one boat to a mission in Haiti, and a second, for the same mission, is nearing completion. We have been doing this as volunteers for about five years and feel led to work at it full time.

Normally, when someone begins to raise support to enter the mission field, they circulate within the safe confines of their church affiliates. Somehow we can't seem to channel normal.

This weekend we have begun promoting our mission and introducing ourselves, with the intention of raising support, at a boat show. Sounds innocuous enough. Except there are strangers everywhere. For a hard-wired introvert like me, that is exhausting. But it has been fascinating as well.

We have met some very crusty individuals who can't fathom the concept that our faith motivates us to labor for insignificant and forgotten people. We have had complete strangers affirm us. And we have met some genuinely nice, down-to-earth folks.

We have not asked anyone for money. We believe that is a private decision between an individual and God. But we have had a few people who acted alarmed that we would try to pressure them into giving. Evidently there was another non-profit up the way from us that was calling out to people to donate as they walked by. Personally, I thought that was tacky and a bit presumptuous, but I suppose it is effective.

One of the coolest things is, we have encountered people who seemed to be inspired by our mission work. I would not go so far as to say that I am an important part of someone's life, but that is pretty cool.

In all, it is has been exhausting. But it has been a great way to take some vacation time.