Learning to Cosplay

Once all the writing is done, redone, revised and redone yet again, and the hard work converted into a physical book, then the author can breathe for a while and have fun. Take last Saturday, for example, at Hudson Con! where I shared my books as I enjoyed meeting all kinds of characters. I even dabbled a bit in this adventure called cosplay, a portmanteau creation of blending the word costume with the word play. All morning long when I was at my volunteer job, I was delighted to view a long, drawn-out walkthrough of wannabes dressed in a wide variety of fictional comic book or computer game characters. By afternoon I was free to roam through the displays and enjoy the view. One featured guest was the man behind the voice of Scooby-Doo, Scott Innes, who was gracious enough to pose with two of my books.

Of course I had to have my photograph taken at the entrance. Take a look at the outfit I chose: Charlie Brown's sister, Sally, a little conservative for my first time dressing as a comic character. 

Here's the full outfit with my book being held up a cosplay enthusiast dressed as a Minecraft creeper.

For a brief moment in time, we all entered into the pages of a book or into a computer screen and became someone other than ourselves. We left reality behind. Well, I didn't exactly. I wanted to see what those characters would think of my books. 

My favorite of all was this monster. Was it a person or a robot? I'll not tell. (Because I DON'T KNOW!)

There were all kinds of vendors with all kinds of merch. My books were for sale in their usual spot, The Red Awning Gallery, down the hall from the auditorium where everything was happening. Two booths were sponsored by friends of mine. One was so congested with people that I couldn't get a decent photo. The other ran a booth filled with those good old games and toys people remembered from their younger years.

Behind all the fun I had at this event, there were hours and hours, no, let me say months and months of hard, grueling work. Sitting in front of my computer. Researching. Interviewing. Learning patience. Learning various computer quirks. Replacing broken-down computers!

Days like this are sweet, sweet icing on the cake. Fellow writers, hang in there. You'll have your own wonderful sweet icing experiences being an author. 

First, get that book done!

Catch of the day,

Gretchen

Freedom!

For history enthusiasts, this July has been a whirlwind of joy. I started to use the word "overload," but that may not be the case for people like me, people who absorb any fact or picture or emotion that comes with a look into the past.

Then again, my trip through the Freedom Truck yesterday might have set off so many emotions and realizations that I could define it in a positive way, a joyful overload. 

Who would have imagined two hundred fifty years of history packed into one semi's trailer! This display arrived here in town this past Monday and was open to the public through Wednesday. The public came, I'm pleased to report. Over three hundred went through the pouring rain to visit on the first day, and when my husband and I went through on Tuesday afternoon, there had already been over five hundred. Jokingly saying, we were in the midst of half of them at that one time, it was that crowded. 

Someone on Facebook commented that it was too crowded...and it was, but how wonderful. I saw children with their parents. I saw grandparents explaining history to little ones in their care. I saw summer daycare groups with older elementary students. These children were engaged. All of them, down to the preschoolers who saw the exhibits from a mere three-foot-high perspective. I had to get down low as well to sign the Declaration of Independence. Yes, my John Hancock was there, for a brief moment. But it was there!

Another complaint this same negative person wrote on Facebook was that all of this was AI created and had information they already knew. Who cares! It reminded us! It educated us! It showed us who we once were and, therefore, what we can become.

Sure, it was full of colorful gimmick displays, complete with an animated George Washington greeting us as we stepped inside. Of course, it left out a lot, but it gave a basic look into our nation's history. I could have spent hours there, but I would have taken up needed space for the flow of traffic behind me. 

I saw examples of bits and pieces of history connected to my writing career. On the Hero wall, I found a few to mention. My first venture into official authordom (not a word, but more my creation to clarify the kingdom of being a published author) was an article about Jackie Robinson, "Finding Forty-two" published in Highlights for Children. It has been picked up by other presses, like this one in CommonLit, with activities designed for fifth graders.

On the same wall under "Innovators" was Thomas Edison, a "character" in my memoir about the Great Donora Fog. And there he was, right next to Albert Einstein. 

One thing I've not talked about in my blog or on my webpage is the volume of material I have written that has not yet been published or was published under someone else's name, with me more as a ghost writer. I saw snippets of those on the walls, too. Like this saying that was in the book, Reflections, that I helped Senator Donald Kincaid independently publish. He quoted Benjamin Franklin and I even used it as a title in my blog about the book. Check it out, as it's super important to this blog. 

I've thought about that quote a lot in the past few years as the United States struggles to keep our republic. Freedom trucks like this going from town to town will certainly enlighten or engage citizens to work hard to keep it.

Another book I didn't write at all, but worked with the author, is not published as yet (coming soon, so I'll tell more then). There was only one paragraph about the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the entire book, but I had to research to make sure that one paragraph was correct. This display affirmed my findings. 

And finally, this story. When I first began taking my writing career to the serious stage, I was still teaching fourth grade. One afternoon, my students were sitting on the floor in the auditorium listening to a presentation by a folk musician. They had sung the first stanza to "She'll be coming 'round the mountain," when he stopped playing, leaned over his guitar, and asked them a question. "Who was she?" I knew by their responses when he told them who she was that I wanted to write that story. It's a wonderful story, but it just hasn't come together yet. His version of who she was included a character from history whose picture hung on the same wall as Thomas Edison and Jackie Robinson: P.T. Barnum. And what a story his is!

America250 is not yet over. The celebration has just begun because the Declaration of Independence set off the revolution that followed. We'll recognize each battle through the next few years leading up to the founding of our great nation. One thing to remember, though, as Benjamin Franklin in his wisdom and wit said, "It's a republic if you can keep it."  

Catch of the day,

Gretchen

 

God's Little Firecracker

 7-6-26. Sounds like a good passkey number for me to use, a date easy to remember, so significant in my life. I spoke it frequently for several years when I used the drive-thru at the drugstore, picking up medicines for a special lady I called my aunt, Lorraine Freese. "Birthdate," the clerk would say, and I'd respond quickly, without having to ask her, simply because I had said it so often. The only thing is that twenty-six isn't today, July 6, 2026. It's July 6, 1926 I'm referring to. 

She would be a hundred years old today, and she was sure looking forward to it. A hundred and five was her goal. She made it to ninety-five. She died alone, in a covid restricted facility where I could only visit and let her know I cared by knocking on the outside window of her room. So today I celebrate her century birthday alone, without her. How sad for such an energetic little lady who liked to call herself a firecracker.

She might have been two days late from being born on Independence Day, but she was certainly a firecracker of an independent sort. Her first five years were spent in an orphanage. She was taken in by her aunt's family (my grandmother's), and lived there until she graduated from high school and went out on her own. After a few years of trying to find herself, she joined the army. The Salvation Army.

She was assigned to a mission in western North Carolina and there she found herself and the purpose for which she was born. Because there was already a soldier stationed there named Lorraine, she went by the name Jean. Through years of hard study and commitment, she became known as Captain Jean and then Major Jean, but I knew her as Lorraine. She was full of energy and had no issue about being a woman on horseback going into the backwoods of the Appalachians to knock on doors and tell people about the love of Jesus. When she started driving a scrapped World War II jeep, she learned, in a hard-earned sort of way, to back into people's driveways to make a quick getaway. 

That's her, on the left, with Sib, her friend of many years, standing beside the mission's sign. If you have any inclination of celebrating the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence, might I make a suggestion? Send a check to support this mission that is hanging on through tough times and dwindling interest in mission work. This little firecracker named Major Jean would so appreciate it. Drop a card in the mail to the Shelton Laurel Mountain Mission, 35 Mountain Mission Road, Clyde, NC 28721. The firecracker in heaven would certainly be thrilled. So would the mission, because she was too precious to them, and to the Lord, to be through with her impact on the world. 

One day, years ago, she called me and asked me to write her story. We sat together, talking, her revealing to me a life that was so dedicated and inspiring that I couldn't say no. 

The title of the book, Called to the Mountains, was a no-brainer selection, because time after time she told me she was called by God to go to the mountains to spread the word of God to the people there. I guess a fairly accurate title could have been, God's Little Firecracker, because of her energy and her drive...and the fact she stood barely five feet tall, if that. 

Learn from Lorraine. Go. Do. We all should be firecrackers in our chosen plight in life. 

Catch of the day,

Gretchen