It Makes Horse Races ..

Differing opinions are what make horse races.  And among writers you certainly have differing opinions.  One such case is the question of what is more important in a novel: character or plot.  I’m not going to take sides – exactly.  Today, I’m going to talk about characterization.  Next week, I’ll talk about plot.  And beyond that, I’ll discuss another important aspect of the novel. But, today, it’s character.

You need the reader to identify with your main character. You’d like for your reader to imagine living inside your character’s skin. You want the reader to say, “Yeah, I’ve been there.” Or, “I can see myself in that position.”  This implies that the reader knows enough about the leading character to able to do this.  So, the writer must show the reader, sooner or later (but not too late) what makes this character tick. Many suggest that the reader meet and get to know something about your protagonist in the first chapter—if not on the first page. The reader cannot establish a relationship with the protagonist without knowing what the character thinks.  Reading about what he or she does, but not why she does it, will not likely draw the reader into a close relationship.

Most would agree that the protagonist must want something desperately. The reader must understand this need, and must feel that the character deserves it. Here again, actions can show the reader a lot. But knowing what the character is thinking, what the character is feeling, will place the reader in the character’s shoes. You want your reader to say, “I would have felt the same way.” Or, “I would have done the same thing.”

Of course, we as writers often have the protagonist doing things we would never have the courage to do.  That’s okay.  We might feel like doing it – if only we had the guts to do it. Or we might think the character is stupid for doing that.  But, that’s also okay as long as the reader understands the motivation, can see the need to do this from the protagonist’s point of view.

We must make the reader really care about our leading lady or leading man.  This person is someone the reader would like to know, spend time with, have coffee with or maybe just watch a sunset with. Now, the protagonist is a real person.  And now, we want the readers to say, and to feel, that the protagonist deserves better.

The basic premise in most novels is that the protagonist is trying to achieve something, to reach some goal, to accomplish some task. Part of our job as writers is to make the reader pull for the protagonist.  That goal must become important to the reader.  The reader can think the goal is silly, or not worth the effort, or perhaps even a bad idea.  But, it is our job to make the reader hope that this leading character will actually achieve that goal.

Say the protagonist is a woman trying to cross a line. It could be a goal line, a finish line, an imaginary line, or a line between two countries. It makes no difference. It is the goal she has set for herself. She has worked hard to get close but there are so many obstacles, and they seem to grow bigger and more difficult the closer she gets to that line. And suddenly, it doesn’t look like she will make it. Now, the reader actually may think it is not the thing to do. It’s too dangerous, or it’s likely to cause grave physical damage. If she doesn’t stop now, she could end up dead, or in the hospital. She should give it up. But, it is extremely important to the protagonist, and because it is, the reader is going to back her. “I don’t think you should do this, but if you must, I’m with you all the way.”

As the reader turns the pages at this point, the writer wants to make it so compelling that the reader is actually feeling the strain of trying to cover the last few feet. The reader’s muscles have tensed up, and perhaps the reader is actually leaning in the direction the protagonist is trying to go. Do it right, and the reader will be affected physically, not just feel the struggle to advance, but will actually strain (unconsciously) to help the woman achieve her goal.

Not easy to accomplish.  But do it and you have a character the reader will remember.  And that’s the key to success.  The reader will remember to tell others about this great character.  The reader will look to buy the next book featuring this character.  You will be on the road to success.

The keys. Make the reader identify with the character; care about the character; feel for the character; help the character reach her goal.

Next: the case for the plot.

A Blog Tour – And a Giveaway

The Underground Authors have teamed up withthe Lone Star Literary Life (LSLL) to present a Book Blog Tour for the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series.  For 12 days, the books in this series – now standing at 21 books – will be reviewed and discussed by various members of the Lone Star group.  Each day from November 27 to December 8, the Magnolia Bluff books will be the focus on he LSLL website.  In addition to the reviews, LSLL will also hold a giveaway.  Anybody who clicks on the links to the reviews will be entered in a drawing. Here are the locations where the blog will be each day.

11/28/23 The Plain-Spoken Pen Death in the Absence of Rain
11/28/23 StoreyBook Reviews Eulogy in Black and White
11/28/23 LSBBT Blog Series Spotlight
11/29/23 Forgotten Winds The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy
11/29/23 Carpe Diem Chronicles Only the Good Die Young
11/29/23 It’s Not All Gravy When Bad Things Happen to Good Mice
11/30/23 Rox Burkey Blog You Won’t Know How. . .or When
12/01/23 StoreyBook Reviews The Flower Enigma
12/01/23 Writing and Music The Killer Enigma
12/02/23 Reading by Moonlight Men Lying Dead in a Field
12/02/23 The Clueless Gent The Shine from a Girl in the Lake
12/03/23 Jennie Reads The Dewey Decimal Dilemma
12/03/23 Forgotten Winds The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma
12/04/23 Chapter Break Blog Justice
12/04/23 The Plain-Spoken Pen Bye Baby Bye
12/05/23 Shelf Life Blog Texas Summers are Murder
12/05/23 The Book’s Delight Born and Bred Texan
12/06/23 It’s Not All Gravy Who Killed Lilly Paine?
12/07/23 Reading by Moonlight Second Chances
12/08/23 The Page Unbound A Chance of a Ghost

Hop on and sign up for some free books, OR a $25 Amazon gift card.  The reviews, synopsis, and author comments might lead you to getting some interesting books, and meeting some interesting authors.  And it’s free to enter.

I’ve read most of these books and each one was god and provided hours of entertainment.

Thanks for your time,    jim

 

 

 

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles Add a New Book

Today, we’re featuring a new book from Kelly Marshall, a talented writer of mystery and suspense.  Two years ago, the Underground Writers invited Kelly to join us in our super anthology. She joined and here is her second book in our super anthology. So here is Kelly Marshall to tell us a bit about her latest addition.

The Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles project was born, and we all got busy writing books about a fictional town in Texas where murder became far too commonplace. We are close to completing our second year with my book Bye Baby Bye.

Madison Jackson, a police officer with the Texas Department of Fish and Wildlife, had a pretty tough time in my first book when she was abducted in Mexico. Captured by the CJNG Mexican cartel, she was auctioned off to a cartel big-wig and forced into a loveless marriage.

Fast forward to 2023. Her husband is incarcerated in Supermax Federal Penitentiary. Madison awakens to a parent’s worst nightmare-her infant daughter has been kidnapped from her crib. Frantic and infuriated, Madison, along with her father, joins forces with the Texas Rangers.

It’s a wild ride that includes meetings with the United States Attorney General, the Texas State Governor, and the warden of Supermax.

When the meetings don’t bear fruit and Anna is still missing, Madison and a contingent of friends and Texas Rangers storm over the border to find the “low-belly son-of-a bitch” that stole Anna.

An exciting tale, told as Kelly Marshall knows how to tell it.  You can read more about and from it by clicking on this link:  https://tinyurl.com/56zu5zx2

El Dia de los Muertos

The Day of the Dead vs. Halloween

El Día de los Muertos, of Day of the Dead, is not a Mexican version of the U.S. Halloween.  They both have parades, costumes, celebrations., music, dancing, and lots of food.  But the background is quite different.  In many Latin countries,skull 1 The Day of the Dead is believed to be a time when the line between the real world and the spirit world disappears.  For two days, the souls of the dead awaken and visit the living world. The living welcome them as honored guests, invite them to the celebrations, and leave the deceased’s favorite food and other offerings at the grave-site.  It is a time to honor the dead relatives, bring them back and include them in the celebrations. It is a happy time, remembering those who have passed away, but maybe will rejoin the living if only for a day.  Offerings are an important part of El Dia de los Muertos. Families will often have an altar at home honoring deceased relatives. And this is a time to clean and decorate graves.

El Día de los Muertos originated perhaps 3,000 years ago in Columbian Mesoamerica. The Aztecs held a cyclical view of the universe and saw death as an integral, ever-present part of life.  In medieval Spain, people would bring wine and “pan de animas” (spirit bread) to the graves of loved ones on All Souls Day.

Our Halloween probably originated with the Celts, perhaps 2,000 years ago.  Their New Year began on November 1. So, October 31 was the end of the year and the boundary between old and new – perhaps between the dead and  the living. Bonfires were built to burn crops and animals as a sacrifice to the gods in hopes of a better new year.  The Catholic Church adopted this into their celebrations with two Catholic holidays: All Saints Day, Nov. 1 and All Souls Day, Nov. 2.

But today, it has lost much of the old traditions. We no longer take time to remember past relatives or include them in our celebration. it is a time to decorate one’s house with signs of the dead and ghosts, to visit neighborhood homes and businesses to collect candy, and for older Americans to dress in costumes and go to a party.

And the industry officials say that one quarter of all candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.

A Spark of Imagination

Jodie Wolfe creates novels where hope and quirky meet. She’s been a finalist in a number of contests. Today, she reveals how one bit of quirkiness managed to get into her latest novel. It’s a fun read.  I think you’ll enjoy it.

It first started with a love of guinea pigs. When my sons were young, we had several furry pets. The first to join the family was Fluffy. We didn’t know a lot about raising guinea pigs at the time. We placed our new pet in a glass aquarium so we could easily watch the new addition to the family. Our standard poodle would sit for hours on end watching the guinea pig. We called it “‘Fluffyvision”.  🙂

Unfortunately, Fluffy wasn’t as healthy as we thought, and she didn’t last overly long. My sons were soon asking for a replacement. Next came Squeakers. When we were bringing her home in the van, she squeaked the whole way, which is how she got her name. She was an incredibly intelligent guinea pig who knew to run to the refrigerator, and when opened, which drawer held the carrots – one of her favorite treats. She lived for many years. When she made an untimely demise, we went to the pet store and found two more guinea pigs – Checkers and Cocoa. By this time my sons were in high school.

One day I had a photo frame on my entrance hall table. I’d recently purchased the frame and hadn’t decided what to put in it yet. The frame came with a photo of a woman in it. One of my sons asked me who it was, and I teasingly said, “That’s your great Aunt Gertrude. She lives in Texas on a guinea pig ranch.” We spun all kinds of stories about the factitious family member.

So, when it came time to write the third book in my current series, I told my sons that the heroine’s name was Gertrude. They immediately encouraged me to somehow add guinea pigs to the story. I didn’t know if it was a feasible option since my books are set in the 19th Century. I started researching to see if it was a possibility. I learned about Queen Elizabeth I who had a guinea pig when she was a little girl. Some sites even mentioned the exotic pet trade in Virginia as early as 1627. I had enough information to know I could in fact include guinea pigs into my story.

Here’s a sneak peek at the back cover of my new book, Wooing Gertrude:

Enoch Valentine has given up finding peace for his past mistakes. He throws everything he has into being the new part-time deputy in Burrton Springs, Kansas while maintaining the foreman position at a local horse ranch. But when trouble stirs on the ranch, he questions whether he’s the right man for either job.

Peace has been elusive for most of Gertrude Miller’s life, especially under the oppressiveness of an overbearing mother. She takes matters into her own hands and sends for a potential husband, while also opening her own dress shop. Gertrude hopes to build a future where she’ll find peace and happiness.

Will either of them ever be able to find peace?

Thanks, Jodie, for giving us a peek into how some “quirkiness” got into one of you novels.  And I must add, Wooing Gertrude is available now on Amazon And dear reader, please leave Jodie a comment, maybe on how some little bit sneaks into one of your novels.  Thanks.  jim

Here’s where you can find Jodie online:

Jodie Wolfe is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), and Faith, Hope, & Love Christian Writers (FHLCW). She’s been a semi-finalist and finalist in various writing contests. When not writing she enjoys spending time with her husband in Pennsylvania, reading, walking, and being a Grammie. Learn more at  .www.jodiewolfe.com

Should 1984 be renamed 2023?

some banned bksThis week is Banned Books Week.

And in case you haven’t heard, book-banning is in full swing in the United States.  In the 2021-2022 school year, more than 1,600 books were banned across 32 states.  Texas and Florida lead the nation in book banning.

PEN America leads the opposition against banning books.  Founded in 1922, PEN stands for poets and playwrights, essayists and editors, and novelists. Its founding members included  Willa Cather, Eugene O’Neill, Robert Frost, Robert Benchley, and Booth Tarkington (the first president).  It is now part of PEN International (founded in 1923).

Current and past members include Edward Albee, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, E.L. Doctorow, Roxane Gay, Langston Hughes, Barbara Kingsolver, Norman Mailer, Thomas Mann, Arthur Miller, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, Richard Russo, Sam Shepard, Susan Sontag, John Steinbeck, Anne Tyler, and many other well-respected people in the literary world.

In February, the ACLU joined with librarians in Missouri to file a federal suit over Senate Bill 775, a school library obscenity law that opponents say forces librarians to censor their collections under the “threat of arbitrary enforcement of imprisonment or fines.”

In March, library advocates in Llano County, Texas, won a preliminary injunction and order to reinstate more than a dozen banned titles at their local public library and to stop future bans while the lawsuit proceeds. In his order, federal judge Robert Pitman held that the library leaders infringed the constitutional rights of their users by unilaterally removing books they deemed inappropriate or disagreed with.

And in May, PEN America and Penguin Random House joined forces with a group of authors and parents to sue school administrators in Escambia County, Florida, over the removal of allegedly inappropriate books from school libraries  Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Acadia University who tracks free speech in education, claimed “Every single Republican-controlled state where the legislature is currently in session is considering a new educational gag order’ bill. Many even target university libraries ….” It is increasingly focused on an evolving array of subjects, themes, and identities — including U.S. history, race and diversity, social emotional learning, LGBTQ+ identities, and sex education.

A lawsuit in Texas is perhaps the most high-profile suit in an escalating legal counteroffensive being waged by freedom to read advocates in response to an ongoing, politically-motivated surge in book bans and state-level legislative attacks on the freedom to read. Republican State Representative Matt Krause sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency asking if any of the schools in the state have the books listed on a 16 page spreadsheet, as well as how much schools had spent on these 850 books. Supposedly trying to protect the teenagers, he none the less included Teen Legal Rights, Gender Equality and Identity Rights (Foundations of Democracy), Equal Rights, We the Students: Supreme Court Cases for and About Students, and Peaceful Rights for Equal Rights

An article in PEN stated, “The Supreme Court has held that ‘one is not to have the exercise of his liberty of expression in appropriate places abridged on the plea that it may be exercised in some other place.’

Under some of the laws, librarians can be fined or imprisoned for not purging books the lawmakers have deemed inappropriate.

Here are some of the books being banned in many areas.  Charlotte’s Web, Maus, (Holocaust graphic novel),  The Handmaid’s Tale,  the Harry Potter books,  To Kill a Mockingbird,  John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Looking for Alaska (NY Times Bestseller, NPR’s top Ten Best-Ever Teen Novels, Time Magazine’s 100 Best Young Adult Novels of All Times, and a TV miniseries), The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (NYT Bestseller, American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, Best Book for Reluctant Readers, major motion picture), and The Lion Children’s Bible: Stories from the Old and New Testaments (banned in Florida).

And considered to be one of the most influential books of the 21st century, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer, has been banned in many schools. It deals with themes of death, trauma, and grief in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Maybe the book 1984 should be renamed 2023.

Please leave a comment – your thoughts on banned books.

The tough life of the writer: case #1,477

One of the goals for many new writers is to get an editor at one of the big, New York publishers to read their manuscript.  Lo and behold, my first book got just such a read.  Acceptance day was indeed a joyous day.

Some weeks later, I received a letter from the editor.  Not one of those canned letters: “This just doesn’t fit our current publishing schedule.” No, this was a personal letter.  He was quick to say he would not be considering my book for publication. But, he was willing to give me a reason.

It was too unrealistic.  Well, it was a murder mystery, set mainly in New York, and involving a highly prized professional athlete. I quickly scanned the story in my mind looking for this problem. What was unrealistic? Fortunately, the editor was kind enough to explain his objection. And I had to read it three times to come to grips with his objection regarding realism. He said, and I quote, “You have this person talking to his computer.”

Unrealistic?  Perhaps, I should have said, “Yelling at the computer.”   Or maybe screaming at the inanimate, pain in the neck, machine. Maybe a threat to toss it in the rubbish bin if it displayed another 401 error,  or the simple, and very helpful, “Something went wrong.” That might be more realistic.

Was this editor from the dark ages? Had he ever used a computer?  Perhaps the victim in my murder mystery should have been a computer – or an editor.

But this man was the gatekeeper for a large New York book publisher.  And for that particular company, I was locked out.  My central character was too unrealistic. Who could identify with him?

I finally decided that this was a 107-year-old editor who thought computers read holes punched into paper tape and why would I even have a human interact with a machine? Perhaps I should have labeled the book as fantasy.

Scrap that book. Begin on the next book. And let the writer stay silent if he had a beef with his machine.

A true story, highlighting the tough life of a writer.  Care to comment?

An Unusual Anthology

Here’s a blog from another member of the Underground Authors. I think you’ll enjoy this bit from Joe Congel.

My Journey into Magnolia Bluff, Texas started as a fan. I loved the idea of a group of authors getting together to promote and support each other’s work. I was also intrigued with their group name. They are collectively known as The Underground Authors. I’d already had a great experience with this concept as a member of the WolfPackAuthors, another group of talented writers who banded together to promote and support each other’s work. As a member of the WolfPackAuthors we branched out from just promoting our individual writing into collectively putting together two short story anthologies.

The Underground Authors did the same thing. They put together a collection of short stories all centered around one theme–a single picture of a boat. Then, of course, came the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles. A mystery/crime series that spans several sub-genres within that category. Everything from cozy mystery to psychological thrillers.

I read every book as soon as it was available. There were nine titles released during the first year. I loved the diversity of the stories and the writing styles that each author brought to the table. And I wasn’t alone. There were a lot of other readers that also looked forward to each new book. The Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series was a hit.

Somewhere along the way, the group decided to expand as they geared up for the second year of the series. I received an email from CW Hawes asking me if I would be interested in joining The Underground Authors and writing a book for the series. I jumped at the chance.

And now, my offering for year two of the series is being released this month, September 18th.

It’s currently on pre-order for a limited time price of just 99¢. Second Chances: Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles, Book 17

You can get your copy here: SECOND CHANCES

You can also get the entire series by clicking here: Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles

Here is the blurb:

Retired New York Police Detective, Brandon Turner wanted to move as far away from the Big Apple as possible.

Pointing a finger at a map, he ends up in Magnolia Bluff, a small town in the Texas Hill Country.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to retire here as he’d hoped. While exploring a park with his dog and the real-estate agent showing him the property, they discover a body. They report the death and, as far as Turner is concerned, that’s where it ends. But it’s not that simple.

This body was not the first. There were others and all the evidence points to drugs. The local police are not savvy enough to solve these crimes on their own and ask Turner for help. But the former detective has other ideas. He intends to leave his past life where it belongs… in the past. But he soon realizes that he just can’t stay away from the case. Vowing not to work with the local detective, Turner begins his own investigation, putting himself, his dog, and the woman he just met in danger.

Can Turner and the local police set aside their differences long enough to stop a potential drug ring from destroying more lives? The town’s residents are counting on it. As for Turner, he just wants to solve the case as soon as possible so he can start enjoying his retirement.

___________________________________________________

I hope you’ll give Second Chances a try. It’s a little bit cozy and a little bit not. I think you’ll enjoy it. I know I enjoyed writing it.

The BB gun

I’m sure all of you have seen “The Christmas Story”, with Darren MacGavin.  You’ve seen it.  I lived it.

I was raised in Texas, so of course I had cap pistols.  But no caps.  Well, I had no caps, officially.  Mother could see me playing cowboys and Indians and having a cap gun, but certainly no caps.  Caps exploded and things that explode can damage a young boy.  But occasionally, someone would give me a roll of caps and I could shoot the bad guys and give it the proper bang! so the guy would know he was dead.  But such battles were not fought at 1823 Maryland.  No siree.  Around the corner on Marsalis, at the home court of Jimmy McVey.  His mother had no problem with exploding things.  And in spite of that, Jimmy lived to be an adult with both eyes.

A BB gun was an entirely different matter.  Those were not allowed around, with or without BBs.

You guessed it.  A BB gun would shoot your eye out.  Without question.  Guaranteed.  Now, this only came from my Mother.  My Father, raised in southwest Texas, on the frontier, so to speak, and spending lots of time on the ranch of his cousins, understood the value of guns.  We never had one in the house.  But they had them on the ranches my Father roamed.  And, he had both his eyes.  He did wear glasses, but I am convinced that was not a result from an errant BB.

But Mother was definitely a city girl.  Wise in the ways of urban living.  And she understood BB guns.  They would put your eye out as certainly as milk came out of a bottle.

So my formative years were formed without the benefit of a BB gun.  Imagine my excitement when several of my grade school buddies divided into two warring teams, ready to do battle with honest-to-goodness BB guns – AND, they provided me with a trusty Roy Rogers rifle, capable of holding fifty BBs, and shooting an opponent fifty yards away.  Well, fifty feet anyway.

Needless to say, I could hear my Mother’s constant warning about the dangers of such weapons.  But we were at John Hope’s house, far from my Mother.

The game was afoot.

John Hope lived across the street from an immense protestant church that rambled over most of a block, with buildings here and there, bushes, trees, walls, crannies and nooks, hiding places galore.  This would be a long and glorious fight and surely my team would win.  Before long, I spied one of the enemy, moving stealthily to my right.  I lined up a perfect shot and prepared to shoot him in the heart.

Suddenly, before I managed to squeeze off my first round,  I am in great pain. I had been shot!  Directly and squarely between the eyes!

I crouched down, reverently laid down the Roy Rogers rifle and felt just above my nose, just between my eyes.  There was a small, neat dent, and it burned like fire.  And my ears rang loud with my Mother’s voice.  “You’ll get an eye shot out.”

My God.  She was right.  As if a sign from God, the first incident of my first BB gun fight had been a shot between my eyes.  A half inch right or left and I would have lost an eye.  She knew.  My Mother knew, the way mothers everywhere know.  She knew with that perfect vision mothers have that I was not meant to play with BB guns. Now, I knew.

Carefully, I picked up the trusty Roy Rogers rifle, turned and walked across the street to John Hope’s house.  I laid the shiny, superb piece of craftsmanship down on John’s porch and started walking the nine blocks back to my house.  I rubbed the small dent between my eyes, willing it to smooth out so mother would not notice.  It didn’t.  It stayed there for years, a constant reminder of the wisdom of mothers and the foolishness of young boys.  My Mother never commented on it, though I am certain she noticed, certain she knew how that dent came about.

Never again did I ask for a BB gun for Christmas or birthday.  Mother was right.  Maybe if I had been raised on a ranch, or on the frontier of 1910 southwest Texas.  But I was a city boy, who had a great desire to keep both his eyes.

Be Careful …

Be careful …

Quite a few years ago, my wife, Earlene, and I journeyed to Oklahoma to repair a rental property.  It was an old house, sitting on eighty acres out in the country, with no close neighbors.

As we sized up the house, it became clear it needed much more work than we had planned. We needed to rearrange rooms, add walls and doors, paint the house and fences and more.

We loaded all the tools we possessed, headed to Oklahoma, and booked a motel room not far from our project. Each day we went to the house, worked on it, and returned to the motel, leaving all our tools at the house. It was, after all, in a remote area and few people drove by and fewer even noticed the house.

One day as we worked installing a new door, a man walked into the room where we were working. Unannounced. He just appeared, no knocking. In fact, he had been standing in the doorway from the hall before I even knew he was in the house.

I pulled myself together and asked if I could help him.  I really had in mind, help him out the door and off our property.

“I see you’re making some improvements on this house. Are you staying here, or just working on it during the day?” And he appeared to be inventorying our tools.

To say alarms were going off in my head is like saying there’s sand in the Sahara.

“We’re here most of the time,” Earlene answered.

He looked at her, nodded, then looked back at me. “Do you lock the place up when you leave at night?”

I scanned the room, noting the tools. We didn’t have much in the way of power tools. But what tools we owned were in this room. Packing them up each night and unpacking them each morning would be a sizable chore. “Absolutely. We lock it up whenever we leave.”

“We certainly lock it up tightly,” Earlene said.

He nodded, turned, and left.

We listened as he walked through the house and out the front door.

“Should we be worried?” Earlene asked.

I just shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. We don’t have expensive tools, but they’re all we own.”

“You think we need to spend the night here?”

“We could. But for how long? We’re weeks from finishing.”

Work slowed. Every few minutes one of us would ask a question or make a comment about the man and his visit. Who was he? What did he want? Why did he ask about our locking the place at night? And ever so often the question was, should we pack up our tools tonight?

About twenty minutes later, I heard a car door close, and several minutes later, the same man walked into the room again. I started to ask him to leave, but he spoke first.

“I noticed you don’t have many good tools for the work you’re doing.” He stuck out a device and said, “This will make getting the hardware on the doors more accurately and much easier.  And you really need a nail gun. You’re much more likely to split that molding trying to put it in with a hammer.” He stepped back through the door, then returned with a nail gun and a compressor. “And I’ve got a couple of other things that will make your job go faster. I’ll bring those by tomorrow.”

I didn’t know what to say. Earlene said thank you.

“My name is Gary and my business is house repair and I know how much good tools can help. But they’re expensive. So I wanted to make sure you would keep them locked up when you weren’t here.”

During the next few weeks, Gary supplied many helpful tools and even more helpful advice. We became good friends. Eventually we convinced him to manage our rental property. Over the years, he repaired many problems with our rental and rarely charged us for his work.  “After all,” he would say, “friends help.”

So, the moral of this story is – be careful … about your first impressions.

jim