"With a Little Help..."

FINALLY - I've finished the 4th draft of my novel. The working title: "With a Little Help..." Kate, my leading lady, is a Beatles fan. Of course she is. She's a teenager in the 1960s.

Poor Kate. After Thanksgiving, in her junior year, her mom and stepdad have decided to move. Junior year? And she has to change schools? 

The story begins in December 1967 and ends on the first day of Kate's senior year, September 1968.

No one has read my story yet. It's my mission now to find a few folks who are interested to read all or part of the book. If I receive comments after their read, I'll know what to work on in draft #5.

One afternoon, a few weeks ago, I realized my novel is not just fiction. Its genre is "historical fiction." Strange, I felt the past was the present, a teenager again, as I worked on the book.

 

Snapshot of my Older Sisters and Me

 

Above is a photo of me with my three sisters Right of the photo, on my left, is Lilas, sixteen years older than me.  To my right is Mary Louise, thirteen years older. My sister Karen, with the mid-fifties popular sailor's blouse, ten years older.

With older sisters I learned to talk and walk early. And if I finished my popsicle first, one of my sisters would share what they had left. And I learned new words. My mom and dad always called them my sisters. I first heard the word "half-sister" on a road trip to Fort Arthur, Canada (now Thunder Bay). I was about 10. Lilas introduced me to her cousin as "my half-sister Narta." The cousin was on her father's side of family. I also remember he worked on a tugboat and brought us to the port to see it and climb aboard.

The photo was taken in my first home, on a farm in Harris, Minnesota.  I was about four. My parents, Karen and I would soon move to Silver Bay. Mom must have recently given me a Tonette perm. My hair was naturally straight.