Dear Group, This afternoon I mailed off a copy of the book I had written based on Town of Porter history and I emailed the girl in Michigan to let her know that it's on the way. Included in my message to her was a bit of an inside story about how I had eventually identified my ficitious little heroine, Virginia, as me, myself. And that continues to surprise me. I didn't have a clue at the time! I hope you can just appreciate what I was inspired to write about the subject matter this evening. vee Exactly seven years ago today, I drove into Niagara Falls to hand over my finished manuscript to my "publisher," In-and-Out Printing on Main Street. In other words, I had just finished writing a book based on the history of the Town of Porter, had printed each page off on my printer and I was taking it into the Falls to have 100 copies of it run off. After that was accomplished, all that I had to do was to spiral bind each book myself and it would be published for all the world to read! It had taken me three years-off and on-to write the book and I had gotten to know my fictitious little heroine Virginia very well during that time. The two of us had spent many hours together agonizing over just how she would have responded to a particular incident or just how Grandpa McCollum would have reacted under similar circumstances. This evening I dug up the journal I had kept at the time and this is what I had written down about my feelings as I was driving home after dropping off the finished manuscript on November 24, 1993. "When I drove home, it slowly dawned on me what I had just done. I had ultimately checked over, edited, looked over, re-read my book AND had come to the conclusion that it was actually adequate enough to hand over to the printer which would result in the eventual book being published with no further changes or improvements on my part. I wonder if my feelings about my book are similar to a parent's feelings about "handing over" a child at its wedding or "letting" it go out into the world on its own. I know the book has its flaws, but I also know its value. It can stand on its own and I'll defend it to anyone! [In other words], I had made the decision that the writing of it was complete and that once handed over to the printer, there was no turning back. It was FINISHED. "Virginia and I have become very close over the past three years (as well as Madison [McCollum], Melville [McCollum] and the rest of the McCollum family). I hate to give them up-Virginia in particular. "Virginia, keep in touch and let me know how you're doing. There is no doubt that I will be surprised at how you manage to live your own life in spite of the role I had originally cast for you. During the writing of the book you continued to surprise me by your comments and your reactions to the story. Virginia, if you have anything you want me to write about, let me know. "There is one thing that I know, and that is that you have SPUNK. Tell me your story and help me to write it. Let's start another exciting adventure again! "Virginia, I miss you. Please keep in touch with me."