Idea born nearly 30 years ago

The idea for Adelia's Last Name originated almost 30 years ago.  Marilyn and I were presenting a session at The Writer's Conference, Inc. in KS.  We talked about the children's books we wanted to write.  I mentioned I was working on a story about a little girl who did not like her last name.  She was teased about it, it was hard to pronounce, etc.  Her parents told her that it would change when she got married so just be patient.  This was based on a true story about my name.  I complained to my dad that I was being teased because my first and last name rhymed.  He told me he was teased about his name when he was young.  His name was Brooklyn and they called him Brooklyn Bridge.  He told me he had to keep his name but I would get a new one when I got married.  Marilyn and I started brainstorming and thought it would be funny for the character to have a long last name that she thought would change when she married.  The twist at the end would be that she married someone with an even longer name.  Marilyn then mentioned a friend of hers named Adelia Diffenbaugh who married and became Adelia Deardorff.  Thus was born our character,  Adelia Dieffenbaugh-Dieffendorpher.  About the only thing our completed book has in common with our original story is the little girl's name.  More on how things changed later.

Babies arrive before books

Spent the last week with my wonderful grandchildren.  Three year olds are so funny!

Now I am staring at two stacks of  "Adelia's Last Name."   One stack of paperbacks and one stack of hardback copies.   Must begin marketing.

It only takes 9 months to make a baby, but it took over a year to "birth" this book.  I'm available for speaking engagements in schools, civic groups, etc. It really is an interesting story of how Adelia was created.  Additional stories in the works.

Now I'm an author

It has finally happened.  I am a published author.  For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to write children's books.  The first one will be released on March 1st.  Adelia's Last Name is a great story my good friend, Marilyn Davis, and I wrote together.  We started it about 15 years ago and submitted it for publication about one year ago.  Now we get to market it.