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 Super excited, my second novel, "Finding Bonita" is now available for purchase! 

I hope you read it and love it as much as I loved writing it.

Will Bonnie ever discover the secret behind the mysterious Man With The Camera, and why she's always felt that something fundamental has been missing from her life?
Impactful childhood experiences form intriguing adults whose paths cross in life-altering ways. Their fates entangle in San Francisco and a tiny Caribbean island through sexual and existential obsessions, profound love, and epic loss.
Ted gets passionate about every new concept that comes his way. Jill just wants to be normal but what’s normal keeps changing. Rachel craves emotional connection and healing from compounding tragedies. When their lives collide in the 1970s, joy abounds until Ted’s next infatuation. Meanwhile, a child has been born.
Living in their periphery, with no small consequence, is Ivan, who would be happy to fish, grow ganja, and praise Jah if only he didn’t have to keep fighting off the devil.
This frolicking novel takes readers on an insightfully explicit adventure sprinkled with natural beauty, culinary delights, and confounding homicides.

If you never read my first novel, "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," here's the link for that. 

 Book cover! Thrilled that I created a cover worth of the story. "Finding Bonita" will be released in September. You can mark it as "Want to Read" on Goodreads and you'll be notified when it's released. 

Super excited to be releasing my second novel, "Finding Bonita", this fall. Please click on the link to mark it as "Want to Read" on Goodreads and you'll be notified when it's released. 

Profound childhood experiences form intriguing often misguided adults whose paths cross in life altering ways as each embarks on quests for beauty, love, and meaning. Their quirky complex lives interweave in San Francisco and a tiny Caribbean island through romantic love, epic loss, culinary delights, sexual and existential obsessions, and tragic murder.
Knowing that the only way to assuage her emptiness is to discover the elusive truth behind the mysterious Man with the Camera, Bonnie’s life unravels into desperate sex with women she meets in lesbian bars.
Rachel finds healing from grief, and inspiration for art, on an island paradise, but she’ll never feel whole unless she can reconnect with the one ripped out of her arms long ago.
Attorney Henry is lured back to the tropical isle home of his youth by a confounding murder case and a passionate romance he hopes can survive the separate secrets he and his lover guard.
Ivan would be happy to fish, grow ganja, and praise Jah, if only he could stop having to battle the devil.
“Finding Bonita” is humorous and insightful and sometimes sexually explicit with an undercurrent of bisexuality and polyamory.

BiCast Interview with Harrie Farrow Author: "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe."

I had a great time talking with the wonderful folks at BiCast. Our conversation covered everything from writing sex scenes, to writing from a male point of view.
BiCast Interview: Harrie Farrow on "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe." Bisexual themed novel.

The Big Deal About Bi Visibility

When I was writing "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe" I did not know I was going to be writing a novel about bi visibility. I thought I was writing a fun, engaging, slightly erotic, love story about characters who live out-of-the-norm-lifestyles. It wasn't until I was done and started trying to think up pitches to publishers, and book blurbs, that I realized that what I had written was an account of a fictional character's struggles with trying to be true to himself as a bisexual in a world where no-one wants to accept him for who he is - albeit in a fun, engaging, slightly erotic, love story, kinda way. What's interesting to me now, and really rather sad, is that though most of my book was written more than 15 years ago, not much has changed in terms of how difficult being bisexual can be.

"But," someone not familiar with the issues might say, "how can that be true? Their have been so many gains in the last 20 years in gay rights."

This is exactly the kind of comment that has so many bisexuals banging their collective heads against a wall. Yes, advances in gay rights do help make bisexuals' lives better - for example if they are in an out relationship with someone of the same sex - but there are many issues unique to bisexuality, and the fact that people don't recognize this is one of the biggest issues.

Bisexuality is too often seen as akin to gay, in fact, one of the worst problems for bisexuals is that when they come out of the closet after living a heterosexual lifestyle they are immediately branded as gay by almost everyone, even after pointing out over and over again, that, no, they are bi, not gay. It's as if non bi people have an internalized translator that immediately and repeatedly interprets the word bi to mean gay. There can even been a confused/hostile backlash when an out bisexual gets involved with someone of the opposite sex; for case in point check out: The harsh hurtful reality of being bisexual.

Further, not only gay people, but also straight people, insist that newly out bisexuals are being homophobic when they call themselves bi. These well-meaning people insist that their friend/lover/spouse/family member is refusing to fully accept their homosexuality and needs to stop trying to be at least a little "normal" by claiming to still be attracted to the opposite sex. Ironically, in their efforts to be politically correct and fight for gay acceptance by trying to get the bisexual to see he/she is really gay and should act proud of it, people are actually participating in bi-bashing, bi-erasure, and bi invisibility.

I will be writing more about bisexual issues in future blogs.

Naming Characters in Fiction

Often my characters names just come to me quickly as I'm writing down the first words in my story, other times I have struggled with them. Here are some of the things I have considered in naming. 

I have found when I'm reading a novel I get mixed up too easily if two similar characters have similar names. For example, best friends named Mike and Mark. So I avoid that in my own writing. 

I also decided that relatively insignificant characters shouldn't have significant names. In "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," I changed one character from Alison to Alice for this reason. 

Another thing I have done when naming characters is to have a little fun with it. I had a character named Carol, and when I changed Alison to Alice, I decided I should also have a Ted and Bob - as the theme to the movie Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, was somewhat relevant to my novel. In my second novel I also use all four of those names.

One of my main characters started out as Clara but I changed it to Bonnie because it was useful to the story-line. Bonnie is not her real name and there is significance in several scenes to both her name being Bonnie - a West Indian guitarist singing My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean on a beach - and the secret behind her real name, which Bonnie is short for.

It can be tempting to have a little fun by giving a character an unusual name, but that can be distracting. I only use unusual names for unusual characters, such as Flash, a bisexual, punker artist who has an orange crew cut. I originally spelled Derek as Derrick just because it seemed more interesting, but then I decided there was no good reason for it to be spelled in a more unique manner and this might just needlessly divert the readers attention.  

I once changed a very minor character's name because I realized that Jamie is short for James and Jamie's brother was named James but called Jim.

Whatever you do, make sure you're being consistent. For a long time, while developing my second novel, I would interchangeably use, Rosalyn, Rosemary, and Rachel for the same character. In the same book I was also accidentally using both Wicked Wendy and Wicked Wanda for another character. The Find and Replace feature of word programs are great for fixing this kind of problem. 

I like it best when the character's name just pops into my head and fits well, as if his or her name was inevitable and somehow obvious. Another one of those moments when you feel like the words you are writing somehow already existed and were just waiting for you to come along and transcribe them.

Details in Fiction

In order to do your job well of transporting your readers to another world, your writing has to give them the feeling that they have entered an actual three-dimensional space. Details can make all the difference. Take for example this bit of description from a New York City scene in my soon-to-be-published novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe:"
 "Some fifteen minutes later, taxis honking impatiently, a siren wailing from a nearby street, we stood outside the cafe with our hands stubbornly in our pockets, a Milky Way wrapper swirling in the dust and wind at our feet."

I could have just said that they stood on the sidewalk, but instead, their body language brings a picture - complete with emotions - to mind. I could have just said that the street was full of city sounds, but the details about the sounds bring the scene more to life, giving the reader the impression that this really happened. I could have mentioned "a bit of trash," but the fact that my character noticed what the trash was tells you he was trying not to focus on what was really happening between him and the other guy (it's an emotional scene), and that there was enough time for him to have noticed.

In an earlier scene, my character is getting a ride in a Volkswagen Bug and I have my character tell the reader, "I ran my thumb along the textured squares of the vinyl seat." Have you ever been in an older model Volkswagen Bug? Didn't reading that line just bring it all back to you what those seats felt like, looked like? Doesn't this bit of movement also show some sense of nervousness and contemplation on the character's part?

In one of the opening scenes, my character tells the reader "I looked out the window, past my faded cowboy and Indian curtains, and watched the soft December snow falling." In my first draft, I just had him looking out the window and seeing the snow. I added the curtains to give detail. At first, I thought, there are probably curtains on the window, so let me show that. Then I asked myself what kind of curtains. He's 12 years old here so I emphasize with the curtains his move from childhood towards adolescence, which is relevant to the scene.

With all the examples, the details aren't just thrown in there to bring the scene alive, each one of them also serves some other purpose to the story.

So, tell us what kind of soda your detective is drinking, and whether the can is dented, or not cold enough, or if it tastes too sweet or has gone flat - but only if it adds to character development or gives us a clue to who done it. Maybe the fact that it's not cold means that someone must have put it in the fringe after the beautiful heiress was murdered, and that must mean that the pool boy was lying about where he was at the time of the murder because he was the only one who had a key to the cabana and..... but the detective doesn't put all that together until Chapter 12, though the savvy reader realizes....

Real Life Inspiring Writing

In an earlier bog post, Are Novels Largely Autobiographical?, I talk about how bits of experiences in my life are used in creating my fictional worlds, but when all is said and done, the novels are far from autobiographical. However, my poetry is much more autobiographical, and yet my poems too are not completely true to life. A writer often, as I do in my poetry, uses real life as an inspiration but does stick strictly to the facts. 
A writer's first commitment is to create good writing, or more to the point, good reading. To this end, in my poetry, I will often take an emotion or a life situation and magnify its effects to fully capture its essence. It's like cooking down a sauce to enhance the flavor. In so doing, I not only over dramatize the theme but I leave out details that would water down or take away from the full impact.
Readers are left with something that they can possibly relate to in their lives, something they once felt or experienced, and here it is in a pure form, spoken with uncluttered intensity. Though they too most likely did not have as raw of a real life event as the poem conveys, it's speaks to what they went through.
All this being said, here is my most recent poem:

Misguided

I think that when I hug him, what he feels is what it will be like when I’m gone and he can no longer experience the comfort of being in my arms.

When I kiss him, and he wants it so badly, he pulls away because he knows (has convinced himself) that someday he will not have my kisses, and it will be all the more agonizing if he lets me have his now.

My smile is taken to be a threat that I will someday only offer him only sneers.

My kindest gesture is interpreted as a promise that there will be a time when I no longer give him anything but pain.

Every time he does not slip his hand into mine, he is extending the kindness of making its absence less difficult when he is eventually gone.

When he does not say “I love you,” he is giving me a gift of a less-it-could-have-been someday broken heart.

Each time he refuses to share his past with me, he is assuring me that when I become someone from his past, my secrets will be safe.

The walls he erects are meant to support us both when the time comes for us to stand alone.

For my own protection he has told me it will never get any better.

That fact that I am still here, means little, for he could see the end before it even began.

Yet the fact that we are both still here, is because he has failed miserably in all his efforts to protect our hearts.

- Harrie Farrow August 2013

What Inspires Your Characters?

In order to move your plot along, you have to have your character decide to do something. You've created conflict, so there are problems, to build suspense there are more problems. Something has to change, something has to bring the story to its climax.
While it may be tempting to make events beyond your character's control bring about the resounding crescendo of your novel, readers are much more enamored by a story if the struggling protagonist actually does something that makes all the difference. This is where your character needs inspiration. Generally, this is in the form of a catalyst - something new introduced to the story that awakens the lead.  It may be hitting rock bottom as a result of an especially catastrophic event. Just like what inspires alcoholics to go to AA, the situation gets so bad for your character that they are forced to recognize that something has to be done.
Your character may be woken up by something another character does or says at just the right moment - a slap on the face during a wedding by a grandmother who has always been only kind, a statement by a co-worker that makes the character realize that her impression of who she is, is far from how others see her. It may be that a new person or relationship in their life makes your character realize things can't go on the way they have been.
Perhaps it's something subtle like a glace in the mirror at a friend's house or the way a fish struggles on the end of the hook during a camping trip.
Inspiration can come in the form of a long-repressed memory coming to the surface, or a silly poem, or the look on a dog's face.
Your plot, theme, setting, and characters will all guide you toward the best choice for your book. Just make sure your readers feel it as intensely as you do.

Writers' Groups

Since novelists spend a lot of time in isolation tapping away on keyboards creating new worlds, having any sense of perspective about our work is a constant struggle. For me, one effort towards this end is to be part of a writer's group. There are all sorts of different groups, and I've tried a few.
I've been in groups where writers socialize and have speakers talk about writing. These groups are great for networking, encouragement, and gaining insights about issues of concern to writers. I went to one such group last night, VillageWritingSchool.
Other groups I've participated in consist of writer's socializing briefly, then reading their work aloud to the group who then claps. Often a couple dozen participants or so - from a pool of many more - show up each time, and the group meets once a month. Usually, because of the group size, reading is kept to under five minutes. There's a lot to be said for getting your work out there on this level. For writer's who are newly introducing their work to the public this can feel like a safe way to do it, and some writer's do not like to be influenced by feedback early on in the creative process. A group like this I've started going to lately is Howl Women's Open Mic. I also frequently go to Poet Luck at Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow.
My favorite groups though, are those that consist of 6 - 12 regular participants, meet on a regular basis two to four times a month. Writer's read their work aloud, and feedback is strongly encouraged. In these groups, feedback is in the form of encouragement/praise and constructive criticism (emphasis on constructive). When critiquing fellow participants' work fellow writers usually say what they liked best about what was read and then give suggestions on what could maybe be improved or clarified.
These groups give writers perspective on their work, provide people who are going to notice if they've been writing or not, keep writer's from being lazy about what they do write. Knowledge about grammar, publishing, plotting etc is also bantered about. Frequently, a word or phrase is thrown out each meeting as a suggested writing prompt for inspiration.
I've been fortunate enough to have belonged to two such groups. One was on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. We met in the back room of a restaurant (we had a view of boat docks), there was no charge for the room and the group was free. The man who started it was our first moderator, he would just keep us on topic and make sure everyone got to read. I became the second moderator (and was nicked named Margret Thatcher for keeping everyone focused on writing and not everything else under the sun). It was through this group that I got my first paid writing job. A local weekly paper, about all things boating, approached the group looking for a new reporter - I jumped on board without hesitating. The second group I belonged to was in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where I still live. We met at a writer's retreat Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow, which provided a free space for us and again the group was free. We also had a moderator, which changed a number of times. This group disbanded some time ago, but many of us are still in contact. Though the group consisted mainly of writer's who had not been published much, I'm very proud to be able to say that since the group's demise, one of the writers, Iris Jones Simantel, had the book she'd been working  on, Far From the East End, win a contest which led to getting it published in print, and becoming a top seller. Sweetly, she gave those of us in the group a nod of gratitude in her acknowledgments. She's now published a second book, GI-Bride, and another writer in our group, Woody Barlow, just e-published his novel, Tarzan-wore-Chaps.
The group was extremely encouraging in convincing me that there is an appreciative audience for my novel, "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," so now it's time for me to get my work out there!

You've Got to Live a Little to be a Good Writer

You've Got to Live a Little to be a Good Writer
In my blog post, Every Experience is Potential Fodder for a Future Novel, I talk about how bad experiences have the redeeming quality of being useful in writing fiction. Now I'm going to emphasis how important good experiences are for writing.
Sure it's hard to find time to run around and have fun if you're busy writing, but the inspiration and experiences you gain will actually make your writing easier, faster, and better.
Chances are, if you don't live it up, you'll face extra challenges in being a good writer. Sure, if you've never been to the ocean you can find a way to write a beach scene, but you won't be able to add the fine details that describes the feeling of being there in a unique way that sets your work apart.
So many writing classes seem to be about accessing ideas and bringing your creativity alive, but all you really need is to have an interesting life of your own. Then ideas will come at you so fast you'll just have to worry about learning to have fun with editing.
So go out and climb a mountain, or dance in a mud puddle, or take Vietnamese cooking lessons, or fall in love, or talk to strangers, or join a kayaking club. Then tell me how it went; I can't wait to read all about it.

Fun with Editing

Fun with Editing

I hear people say it all the time, they hate editing. I, however, don't share this dread.
In first drafts, we write what inspiration thrusts upon us as quickly as possible, getting it all down as it flows into our heads from where ever ideas come from. Everyone agrees that trying to edit in this stage stagnates creativity. So we tear through our keyboards, throwing the words on the page in a frenzy. This apparently, for most people, is where the fun stops. But for me that's where new fun begins.
When we're writing that quickly, what our leading man says to the bad guy at that cliff hanging moment has comes to us in a flash of genius, and before we have a chance to think Oh, that's good! we're already on to what Mr. Badnews says next to stymie our guy's hopes, and on it goes. There is no time to find perfect words, no time to weed out the irrelevant, no chance for using setting in dialogue, or picking up on the nuances of what the characters are thinking and feeling. All that fun stuff comes in the editing process.
The first draft may be where the meat of the story is laid out, but editing is the accouterments that make a story extra special yummy. Lot's of stuff needs to be filled in, fleshed out and fluffed  up. But editing isn't just cementing up the gaps in what's still a skeleton of a tale, it's also taking away. Usually lots of taking away. There is the deleting of redundant sentences or even whole paragraphs; there is the trimming of run-on sentences, and the fine tuning overly-wordy narrative. There is the reworking of awkward sounding phrases (for example "overly-worldly narrative" - which I was going to rewrite but thought I'd leave to make my point). All this is an art into itself.
Finding that perfect word that makes the idea come through like a bright light challenges our writing skills. Paring down dialogue, and adding details of body language, until the scene feels perfectly real and as intense or loving or angry as your characters actually feel is so much a part of what great writing is about. I love this process, because when I'm done I have this wonderful finished product; I've solved the puzzle of how to make it all come together.  Editing isn't just irritating busy work; it's a huge part of the craft of writing. And if you're like me, there's always lots and lots of editing that needs to be done before your first draft is the great story you envisioned as you wrote it.

What's So Great About E-Publishing.

What's So Great About E-Publishing.

I first started writing the short-story that ended up becoming my novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," in 1989. No, that's not a type-o. Yep, 1989, and I started writing it as a novel in 1995. My final edit (there where tons of edits) was done around the turn of the century. Then around 2007 - after sitting in a drawer all those years - there was an "Oh, yeah, I guess there's going to be one more edit." And yep, my book has been sitting around now, again, - for about 3 years.
My point is this: I never published it in all those years. Why? Because when I was done writing it the first time around, there was no e-publishing, and well it's taken me this long - since e-publishing started up - to get the idea firmly in my head that e-publishing is an established, successful, legitimate, and respectable way to go.
But why didn't I try to go the usual old-tymey route of hard cover publishing? Because I knew my book had a limited audience; I knew it wouldn't be mainstream enough for traditional publishers. After all, those guys can only afford to publish books that are going to have - I think the number is something like - a godzillion, sales. This was a shame, because I knew there were people out there who would really appreciate my novel - just not a godzillion - and they'd never get to read it.
So what's so great about e-publishing? E-publishing works for books that will attract any size audience. That means there is now all kinds of groovy stuff out there that in pre-e-publishing times never would have seen the light of day. In fact, back in the old days, most people - not me of course - didn't even bother to write books that couldn't get published traditionally. But now they are! And now "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe," gets to be out there for any and all who will appreciate it, to enjoy! Cool, huh? I think so.

Writing from the Opposite Sex's Point of View.

Writing from the Opposite Sex's Point of View.

My novel "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe" is written from the first person point of view of a man (Jim). What made me think I could pull this off despite the fact that I'm a woman? First of all, to my credit, I would like to note that I didn't think it was a good idea, and fought (valiantly, I might add) against the notion. But, alas, to make the novel work that is what had to be done. When you read it you'll see, getting inside Jim's motivations, emotions, and internal conflict is what makes the story.
But my reluctance was not because I didn't think I could pull it off. My reluctance was because I was concerned that others would find fault in the notion.
So, back to the question, what made me think I could know what a man would think, feel and want? There are a few things that contributed to my confidence in this task.
For one thing I am, personality-wise quite androgynous. I don't feel especially female, but nor do I feel especially male. Personality attributes that are mainly considered highly feminine or highly masculine are mostly puzzling to me. Thus, by making Jim not hyper masculine in personality, it was fairly easy for me to get a grasp on how he'd think.
Another thing about me - and I think this is the norm for all good writers - is that I have a strong sense of empathy. Being able to put yourself in another person's shoes (or bed, or bar scene, or classroom, or dinner conversation) enables one to imagine, or understand, what that person - based on what you know about them and I know a lot about Jim - would be sensing or experiencing, no matter who they are.
Indeed, there is so much that is universal to all humans when it comes to issues of love, desire, being true to oneself, loneliness, friendship, fear, hope and longing that no matter what sex you are, you can tap into those themes (all of which are in my novel) and the accompanying feelings, actions, and reactions.

Writing Sex Scenes

Writing Sex Scenes.

Lots of people say they dread writing sex scenes. I find it not so challenging myself, though reading sex scenes out loud can be a bit unnerving - especially if I'm not too familiar with my audience. It helps though, that the feedback has been very positive.

Here's Harrie's Helpful Hints:

It depends a lot on what type of story you are writing, who your projected readers are, and what importance the scene has in the story. Adjust accordingly.
In my novels, love and sex are pretty paramount to the plot and theme so I tend to get a bit more in detail and don't worry so much about telling the reader too much. However, in some scenes, the sex is way more important than in others. Usually, when I show more detail it's because I want to show the love that's developing between my characters, or I want to show how deviant, or drunk, or confused, or...whatever, my character is.
Gratuitous sex is ugly in any book that hasn't set out to be erotica or pornography, so make sure there is a point to your details.
Many sex scenes work really well with just some titillating foreplay, a glimpse of the more deep breathing stuff, and then the cigarette smoking, or rolling over and going to sleep, or entangled sleeping in one another's arms, or the awkward avoiding of the wet spot. However, if your book is one where sex is important, you don't want to cheat your readers out of some of the good stuff. I find it best though to leave readers wishing for just a little more.
Avoid a play-by-play sports announcer recount. Better to show the total-abandon looks on their faces, and the anguished cries, than an in-depth explanation of the techniques being applied - unless you're writing a training manual.
Mostly though, I implore you not to describe a totally vanilla, missionary-scene quickie, with a lot of whispering of sweet nothings, between pressed sheets, and expect your readers to buy this as the most awesome sex your characters' have ever had - I hate that.

Weed out the Irrelevant.

Weed out the Irrelevant.
I have those words on a physics classroom chalkboard in a scene in my novel, "Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe." Those words on the chalkboard are not important to the scene, but they are relevant, and those words are relevant to most any situation.
They certainly are important and relevant when it comes to writing.
In a writer's group I use to belong to, one of the other writers was reading a scene from her novel. At the beginning of the scene she has her character take his wool cap and gloves out of the car. She makes a point of showing us this action so I kept looking for the relevance in the scene. Does he leave them at the party and this is why he goes back the next day and meets the person who is going to change his life? Does he turn out to be the only one who is prepared for the cold night and thus impresses his date? Does it turn out the cap and gloves belong to someone else thus revealing him to be a thief? Do we see this behavior so that we'll know he's the kind of guy who's always prepared? No. In fact, the hat and gloves are never mentioned again, and when I asked why she put that in there, she said she just wanted to keep the story true to life by including what a person would likely be doing at that moment.
We can't keep our fiction TOO true to life. There are so many details in life that are... well, irrelevant. And these details, like the cap and gloves - become distractions from your story. Likewise, if you included every hello and good-bye for every conversation in your book, it would drive your readers to boredom. But there may be times when the particulars of the encounter make including those necessary or important.  Sometimes the relevance of a detail is subtle but very useful - as in my chalkboard words.

Are Novels Largely Autobiographical?

Are Novels Largely Autobiographical?
People who have read my fiction often make comments that assume much of what I write is autobiographical. My character's all live lives that are extremely different from the one I've been leading, but that doesn't mean my experiences didn't help me write my novels. Events, people I've known, things people have said to me, and places I have been, have frequently inspired me. For example, in "Love, Sex and Understanding the Universe," my minor character, Carol was initially modeled after a woman I once saw on a bus. I have my character seeing her on the same bus route, wearing the same outfit, but when I couldn't get a good grasp on this woman's personality, I went and borrowed the physical attributes of an acquaintance of mine in the Ozarks. Suddenly Carol came alive and she's nothing like my acquaintance except in looks.
Likewise, for years I poked around with the idea that eventually became my second novel, "Bonita Verses Ivan Rastaman and the Monkey-Go-Round," but could not get it to take a hold on me. When I had my main character say and do some things a woman once said and did with me this brought Bonnie alive, though she is extremely different from the real woman I know. Then after I went to the Rainbow Gathering here in the Ozarks I decided to put Bonnie and her father in a scene there. While she sees some of the same things I did at the Gathering, her experience is her's alone and the people she meets are fabrications based on bits and pieces of people I have come across in my lifetime. It is this scene that made the novel finally take off for me.