Help Solve a Real Mystery!!

My guest today is Sue Senden, and she has an unusual story to research and tell. Sue says:

Most families have some sort of secrets they prefer to gloss over or rewrite their history in some way. In my family, there was the grandfather I never met, Henry. He died long before I was born. No one ever talked about him. He was as elusive as smoke. It took many years to learn why. When I finally discovered some information about him, it was the beginning of a mystery, of a quest and a need to discover what all had happened.

My grandfather was the skeleton in my closet.

He was murdered.

Murder is not something that happens and it is over once the case is closed. It is a crime that goes on affecting people for generations. This is a murder mystery within my own family the weight of that event has permeated my life to the depths of my being. It was a crime no one in the family talked about. My grandmother never spoke of her slain husband, so we knew little about him, my mother and her sister were children when it happened, and they suffered their own traumas over the event they witnessed.
So, I am setting out on a quest to find out more about him, his death and the murder. Since the records are old, little is on the internet, and I must travel to where the crime occurred and dig into the archives for some answers.

This murder is set in a turbulent and desperate era against a backdrop of crime, political corruption, great wealth and the power it wielded. It made headlines from coast to coast. It could have been a crime created by the best noir writers of the era, but it was not a story made up in the mind of a writer, it happened. It happened to my Grandfather; it happened to my family, it happened to me for I carry the remnants of that tragedy in the fiber of my being.

It is a story I want to write. It is the story I must tell. It is a book I will write.

That is where you come into this project. By your generous support, I will be able to travel half way across the country to see the records first hand and hopefully even find someone still alive who recalls this case. It is not something that can be done vial the internet, it must be done in person.

I do not know where it may lead me. I do not know if there will be complete answers. I expect this quest will generate more questions that will take me in new directions. I will chronicle this adventure into the dark past of my grandfather’s life and death. Come with me. Help me get some answers and heal an old wound that has scarred my family for generations.

The paranormal aspect: A strange event happened recently, my grandfather, Henry, came to me in a dream and said, “Research my past.” Please help me find out what he wants me to know.

***

If you’d like to help Sue find the solution to this mystery, please check her out on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1448775067/skeleton-in-my-closet

Joe January, Hero of the Novel One Hot January by J. Conrad Guest

Bertram: Who are you?

Joe: My name is Joe January. I was a private investigator from the South Bronx, circa 1940. Was once described as an indignant Humphrey Bogart. Who am I to argue? The difference between Bogie and me is that I was the real McCoy. Where he took the scripts that Hollywood wrote for him, I took on the tough cases nobody else would. Unlike Bogie’s, my bumps and bruises were the real deal, not makeup.

Bertram: What is your story?

Joe: One Hot January is anything but a story, although it could be construed as a Hollywood type script Bogie might’ve been interested in bringing to the screen were he alive today. Not being a scientist, I can’t tell you the how behind what happened, only that it did happen. I know, it reads like science fiction, spanning two centuries and dealing with time travel and alternate realities, while the denouement is less than satisfactory—boy loses girl, boy finds new girl, loses her, finds the first girl and this time she loses him. But such is life: a happily ever after, while often promised, is never a given.

In a nutshell my story could be termed what Nietzsche called “the bungled and the botched.”

Bertram: Are you the hero of your own story?

Joe: Funny, just not in a humorous sense, but I’ve been accused of arrogance in my self-depiction, creating a sort of comic book superhero of myself. Yet in youth, we often view ourselves as invincible. It isn’t until later that we realize how fragile life is; furthermore, that we see the repercussions of our actions.

Antihero was a term first coined in the early 18^th century to describe certain protagonists, those whose armor was less than shiny, indeed, tarnished. They often fall short of literary ideals, just as happens in real life. Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Polish-born Jewish American author who won the 1978 Nobel Prize in literature and was noted for his short stories, wrote: “Children have no use for psychology. They detest sociology. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff. When a book is boring, they yawn openly. They don’t expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish allusions.”

Yeah, I’m an antihero.

Bertram: What is your problem in the story?

Joe: Imagine an alternate history in which the United States fails to enter World War II in time to help the Allies defeat the Tripartite before Germany becomes too strong to defeat. Imagine a future in which Germany has perfected genetic engineering and is systematically eradicating whole nations in an effort to secure the empire Hitler vowed would last a thousand years; a future in which Hitler lies in a cryogenic chamber, awaiting treatment for a cancer for which a cure has been discovered. Imagine a future in which a faction of genetically engineered people, opposed to Hitler’s tyranny, travel back in time to amend future history by influencing Churchill to withhold from U.S. Intelligence the vital decrypt specifying the date and time of the raid on Pearl Harbor. Now perhaps you begin to see my problem in the story.

I managed to uncover this seemingly impossible plot by agreeing to help a pretty young woman from Gramercy Park locate her missing father—a Professor of Archeology from Columbia College who was tasked with preventing the secret of Hitler’s location from falling into the wrong hands.

But the real meat of my story is about regret: how, through my own foolishness, I lost the two women who meant the most to me.

Bertram:  Do you embrace conflict?

Joe: I always find myself at the center of conflict. It seems to find me the way it finds the protagonist of any good detective novel. Do I embrace it? Does anyone ever embrace conflict? I don’t run from it, which is not the same as embracing it. I guess, as Philip Marlowe could tell you, it came with the territory during those years I was a PI. Like Marlowe, it became a way of life for me—fighting, in my own way, for truth, justice and the American way.

Bertram:  Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?

Joe: I approached J. Conrad Guest in 1992 with my story. He was an unknown back then. He had talent, although it was unpolished; still, he was no hack. What I liked about him was that he refused to write the formula drivel that the major publishing houses seek today.

It was a chance meeting, and I suspect he didn’t believe he could complete the project. Our encounter resulted in January’s Paradigm, the first book in the January trilogy. He’s since written the second volume, One Hot January, and the final volume, January’s Thaw. Both are forthcoming from Second Wind Publishing. Combined, they paint a profile of a man out of place out of time.

Although it took him ten years to complete the project, I’m pleased with the result. I think he managed to remain true to my story as well as my voice.

Bertram:  What do you need?

Joe: There was a time, in my youth, when I would’ve said the only things I needed were a challenging case and a beautiful woman with whom to lay for an evening of divine debauchery. The first was true, until circumstances deemed it necessary I find a new career. The second was a lie. Unfortunately it took my losing Lindy to make that clear to me.

Bertram:  What makes you angry?

Joe: Having been thrust one hundred years into the future in the blink of an eye, perhaps it’s easy for me to see how the world, our society specifically, has devolved: pornography, pollution, global warming, corrupt politics, terrorism, the pursuit of materialism—the American Dream—as a basis for happiness, and for all our purported connectivity through the Internet and cell phones, we are more disconnected than ever.

Why does there have to be a battle between the sexes? “Battle,” by default, denotes a winner and a loser. Sometimes the only way to achieve victory is through negotiation—by seeing an issue from the other’s perspective. If more people, men and women alike, attempted to see through the eyes of their partner, I daresay there’d be far fewer unhappy couples and fewer divorces.

Bertram: What, if anything, haunts you?

Joe: That after I abandoned Lindy—it wasn’t my choice, merely circumstance over which I had no control—she’d had to marry another man out of necessity. We met once, Lindy and I, thirty-five years after the accident that took me from her. It took her a moment, but she recognized me and I knew her feelings for me had never diminished. Furthermore, that she forgave me the betrayals of my youth as well as my abandonment of her.

That anything but chance meeting resulted in my finding the closure I needed to give my past self a second chance to find the love he didn’t yet realize he had.

Bertram: Are you lucky?

Joe: Most people either find love or love finds them, and they hold onto it, stay with it their entire lives. They are the fortunate ones. The unfortunate manage to make it out of this life without experiencing love, perhaps taking solace in the juxtaposed adage that it is better never to have loved than to have loved and lost.

I was fortunate in that love found me not once but twice, in two different centuries. In the first case I never realized what I had until it was too late. In the second, I fully realized what I had, but knowing didn’t prevent my losing her. You could say I’m living proof that one can be both lucky and unlucky in love.

Love found me the second time a hundred years after the first time. Her name was Ecstasy, and she once told me that she loved my loneliness—a man out of place out of time. I surmised that her love for me was born of pity. I didn’t have the heart to tell her my loneliness was the result of my losing the one woman who, at one time, mattered most to me. To this day I regret that I never told her how much she mattered. After Ecstasy was killed, I often wondered if she might not have known that all along—that my loneliness was for a woman who could never threaten to usurp her place in my life.

Bertram:  Are you honorable?

Joe: At one time I thought I was. I never stole money from a client for services I failed to provide; but that’s only a part of my life. I never kept secret from Lindy that I had other lovers and patted myself on the back for my honesty, crediting her for her choice to accept that arrangement. But in retrospect, such an attitude was anything but honorable. Once I realized I would never again find my way back to my own time, to enjoy the warmth of Lindy’s familiar and loving embrace, I lived my life to honor her memory, because it was the right thing to do and the only way I could make up for my treatment of her.

Bertram: Did anything newsworthy happen on the day you were born?

Joe: I was born on October 21, 1911. Newsworthy events of October 21 include:

         The Battle of Trafalgar began in 1805
         Thomas Edison invented the working electric light in 1879
         The first transatlantic radio telephone was made, 1915
         Trumpeter and bebop pioneer Dizzy Gillespie was born in 1917
         A new typewriting speed record was established by Margaret B. Owen in New York City, when she typed 170 words a minute with no errors, 1918
         Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame was born in 1956, as was my biographer, J. Conrad Guest
         The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum—the only building in New York City designed by Frank Lloyd Wright—opened in 1959

Bertram:  Who was your first love?

Joe: That would be Lindy, my gal Friday in 1947. Sadly, I never told her how I felt about her. Then one day I was gone—whisked into the future. I took little comfort in knowing she still lived in her own time. To me, in 2047, she was dead and buried. Obviously she got on with her life after I abandoned her. But I like to think I could’ve made a difference in her life, the way it turned out for her.

Bertram: Who is your true love?

Joe: Ecstasy Givens, who I met the very day I arrived in 2047. I needed her in order to survive in the 21^st century. Initially I loved her for her body, but in time she came to mean much more to me. In losing Lindy I learned what love is. Ecstasy was the beneficiary of what Lindy taught me, which pains me even if I imagine Lindy might be proud of the Joe January she in part helped to mold.

Bertram: Have you ever had an adventure?

Joe: Duh. Read One Hot January and January’s Thaw.

Bertram:  Was there ever a defining moment of your life?

Joe: The day I was transported into the future. Not only did it save my life, it defined how I lived the remaining days of my life.

Bertram:  What is your most prized possession? Why?

Joe: My memory—specifically of Ecstasy and Lindy. Since they are both gone from me, they—their memories—are all I have.

Bertram:  What is your favorite scent? Why?

Joe: Smell and memory are intimately linked. Since Ecstasy was killed my favorite scent belongs to those items that still bear her essence—the clothing that remains in our closet, the afghan with which she covered herself while reading on cold winter nights.

Bertram:  What is your favorite beverage? Why?

Joe: A single malt scotch—Aberlour a’bunadh (pronounced ah-boo-nar) is my favorite. If I have to explain why, you’re obviously not a scotch drinker and wouldn’t understand anyway.

Bertram:  What is your favorite item of clothing? Why?

Joe: That would be my fedora, which I was forced to give up wearing in the 21^st century. You’ll read why in January’s Thaw. In the 1940s it defined who I was, as it defined Bogart’s screen persona. But I wore mine first, and my persona wasn’t make believe.

Bertram: If  you had the power to change one thing in the world that didn’t affect you personally, what would it be?

Joe: We face many choices each and every day of our lives, which over a lifetime add up to myriad decisions. Whether we choose to act or to refrain from acting affects the world and ourselves. There is nothing we do, or choose not to do, that doesn’t leave a mark on us. All of which lends credibility to the theory that countless universes exist, the result of the choices we make (or fail to make) and their interactions with the billions of other choices made or not made by others.

Too New Age for you? Remember, I come from an era before New Age.

See also:
Excerpt from One Hot January by J. Conrad Guest
Interview with J. Conrad Guest, author of One Hot January
Chapter One — One Hot January by J. Conrad Guest

Click here to buy: One Hot January

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Blog Jog Day

Welcome to Blog Jog, a one-day trot around the highways and byways of the blogosphere. Feel free to look around before you move on to the next blog in the jog.

With so many authors contributing their interviews to this blog, there is something for everyone. If you don’t know where to start, you can begin by reading my interviews with the recalcitrant hero of my WIP, Part I and Part II. If you are an author and would like to contribute your own interview, please check out the character questionnaire for instructions. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Everyone who leaves a comment on this post will be entered in Second Wind Publishing’s best contest ever — a chance to win a copy of every title Second Wind will publish in 2011. Wow! So, be sure to leave a comment, then jog on over to visit author Melinda Clayton.

If you would like to visit a different Blog in the jog, you should be able to find the entire list of participants at: Blog Jog Day.

Detective Elton “Smoke” Dawes from the Winnebago County Mystery Series by Christine Husom

Bertram: Who are you?

Smoke: Detective Smoke “Smoke” Dawes with the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department in central Minnesota.

Bertram: Where do you live?

Smoke: A few miles outside the city of Oak Lea, the county seat of Winnebago County.

Bertram: What is your problem in the story?

Smoke: Professionally, it’s finding out who the bad guys are, identifying their crimes, and bringing them to justice. Personally, I’ll plead the fifth.

Bertram: Do you embrace conflict?

Smoke: It would be more accurate to say I confront and try to resolve conflict. It comes with the job.

Bertram: How do you see yourself?

Smoke: As a good brother, a good cop, a good friend. Loyal, dedicated, determined.

Bertram: How do your friends see you?

Smoke: Pretty much the same way I see myself, plus, some say stubborn as an old mule.

Bertram: How do your enemies see you?

Smoke: Some of them want to kill me. I do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Bertram: Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?

Smoke: She’s got a pretty good handle on what makes me tick. I’m not a guy that exactly wears my heart on my sleeve and the author respects that.

Bertram: What do you think of yourself?

Smoke: As an honest guy doing an honest day’s work, no matter how long that day gets to be. I fight against injustice, do what I can to help victims of crimes, and put bad guys away. 

Bertram: Do you talk about your achievements?

Smoke: Don’t have to, they speak for themselves.

Bertram: Do you have any skills?

Smoke: I’m a damn good interviewer, and have the ability to work as hard as I have to on cases.

Bertram: Do you have money troubles?

Smoke: No money troubles. I live a pretty simple life, outside of work. I make a whole lot more than I spend. All that overtime.

Bertram: What, if anything, haunts you?

Smoke: Unsolved cases and cases I’ve worked where kids are victimized. That’s hard to take.

Bertram: Do you keep your promises?

Smoke: I don’t make promises I can’t keep.

Bertram: Are you healthy?

Smoke: I’m very healthy, especially for a guy pushing fifty.

Bertram: What was your childhood like?

Smoke: I have an older brother and a younger brother. We were a rough and tumble crew, liked good-natured fighting, which our mother always made us take outside so we didn’t break furniture.

Bertram: What in your past would you like others to forget?

Smoke: The incident that earned me the nickname Smoke. When I was a junior in high school, a young woman and I were in my father’s fish house ice fishing one winter day when we forgot about fishing for a while. I accidentally kicked over the kerosene lamp and didn’t notice it until the fish house was on fire. The young woman thought it was funny when she told our friends, “Where there’s smoke there’s fire and ‘Smoke’s’ real name is Smoke.”

Bertram: Who was your first love?

Smoke: My first real love was a woman I met while serving as the Lake County Sheriff, in northern Minnesota. I wanted marriage, she didn’t. It nearly broke my heart.

Bertram: Have you ever had an adventure?

Smoke: Almost every day working as a Winnebago County Sheriff’s detective. We get some pretty tough cases, which Corky Aleckson tells about in the mystery thriller series.

Bertram: Was there a major turning point in your life?

Smoke: The above mentioned lover I wanted to marry who preferred an open-ended affair. I left the northern Minnesota county I was working for and returned to Winnebago County, my home.

Bertram: What is your most closely guarded secret?

Smoke: You want me to share it with a whole lotta people? I have very deep feelings for someone, and it’s best to leave them buried.

Bertram: What is your most prized possession?

Smoke: I like in a log home on forty wooded acres with my own private lake and a duck slew. It’s my sanctuary.

Bertram: Do you have any hobbies?

Smoke: I like fishing, hunting, canoeing, playing my guitar, going to my nephews’ ball games, and tying flies and lures for fishing.

Bertram: What is your favorite scent?

Smoke: The way a woman’s hair smells when it’s freshly washed. Must be from a moment in time way back when.

Bertram: What is your favorite beverage?

Smoke: Coffee, black. It helps keep me alert when I’m working, no matter the time of day or night.

Bertram: If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you rather be stranded with, a man or a woman?

Smoke: A woman with a bottle of clean-smelling shampoo.

Bertram: Where can we find out more about the Winnebago County mystery series?

Smoke: At Amazon and Second Wind Publishing. The books are called: Murder in Winnebago County, Buried in Wolf Lake, and An Altar by the River.

Manuel Enriques, Hero of Indian Summer by Dellani Oakes

Bertram: What is your story?

Manuel: My story is still being written, but a portion of it is chronicled in Indian Summer by Dellani Oakes.

Bertram: Who are you?

Manuel:  My name is Manuel Enriques and I am confidential aid to Governor Ferdinand Deza.

Bertram: Where and when do you live?

Manuel:  I live in the beautiful town of St. Augustine in the Florida territory.  The year is 1739.

Bertram: Are you the hero of your own story?

Manuel:  What is a hero? A man who does what he must to protect that which he holds dear. I am such a man. If that makes me a hero, then I accept this role gladly.

Bertram: What is your problem in the story?

Manuel:  The problem is that there is a pesky British spy wandering around causing trouble. The beast is wily and sly, but I’ll catch him, have no doubt.

Bertram: Do you embrace conflict?

Manuel: Conflict is in many forms. If it is in the form of a beautiful woman, I embrace and make love to it. If it is in the form of this annoying little fly speck of a spy, then I spit on it and grind it to dust beneath my heel.

Bertram: How do your friends see you?

Manuel: I haven’t many friends, but those are very close. They see me as strong, intelligent, passionate with women, stubborn and capable. How do you see me, cariña?

Bertram: How do your enemies see you?

Manuel: My enemies never see me. They are dead long before that. If by chance they do catch a glimpse, it is as of the face of death.

Bertram: How does the author see you?

Manuel: Ah, my beautiful Dellani. If it were not for Gabriella, such stories we would write together! She sees me as romantic, passionate, handsome, slightly dangerous, and very well appointed.

Bertram: Well appointed?

Manuel: You will have to read my tale to find out what I mean by that.

Bertram: Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?

Manuel: As accurately as any woman may know a man’s heart, yes.

Bertram: What are your achievements?

Manuel: That is perhaps not a question I should answer here, eh, cariña?

Bertram: What makes you happy?

Manuel: Would you like to me say something poetic like a beautiful sunset or the seagulls above the water? I am not poetic man. What makes me happy is very simple, my love for Gabriella. It drives me, moves me to be the best I may be.

Bertram: What are you afraid of?

Manuel: I am afraid that what I am capable of will one day consume me. And I am terrified that I will lose Gabriella.

Bertram: What, if anything, haunts you?

Manuel: In a soldier’s life, are there not many things to haunt him? What haunts me, cariña, is better left forgotten.

Bertram: Do you keep your promises?

Manuel: Always. It is a point of honor.

Bertram: Are you honorable?

Manuel: As much as I am able to be given circumstances.

Bertram: That sounds like a very cagey answer.

Manuel: And it is the only one you shall get.

Bertram: Do you have any distinguishing marks?

Manuel: Oh, yes. I am very well appointed.

Bertram: You would love for me to ask again what that means, wouldn’t you?

Manuel: No, I would like you to read the book and find out.

Bertram: What is your most prized possession?

Manuel: My most prized possession? Must I have just one? Perhaps my pistol. Or my best pair of boots? No, not really, although I am rather fond of these pants.

Bertram: Oh? Why is that?

(All PB gets is a sly grin and a slow, wicked wink.)

Bertram:  Where can I find to book so I can read more of your story?

Manuel: You can find it at Second Wind Publishing, LLC and at Amazon.

Karl Joseph Wildbach, hero of Hand-Me-Down Bride by Juliet Waldron

Bertram: Who are you?

Karl: My name is Karl Joseph Wildbach and I’m a younger son of the local miller.

Bertram: Where do you live?

Karl: I live in German’s Mill, PA, but most of the time I wish I didn’t.

Bertram: What is your problem?

Karl: My relationship with my father has always been difficult, but that doesn’t seem as important anymore as getting my peace of mind back after the long years I spent as a Union soldier.

Bertram: Do you run from conflict?

Karl: Well, that’s not a question I’m happy to answer, but I do run—in my case, into the army, and now that I’m back home, all I really want to do is leave again.

Bertram: Do you have a goal?

Karl: To live honestly, to succeed through my own merits and not be beholden to any one.

Bertram: Do you have any skills?

Karl: I was raised to be a farmer, to know about land, crops and animals. I was also taught to balance the mill books, something I surprised myself—and everybody else—by learning to do darn well.

Bertram: What do you want to be?

Karl: A free man, free of my memories, and free of all the obligations my father has tried to wrap me up in.

Bertram: What makes you happy?

Karl: Not much these days, although seeing a field of corn in tassel, or buckwheat in bloom can take me out of myself. A piece of Divine’s blackberry pie and a fresh cup of coffee…

Bertram: What are you afraid of?

Karl: My temper—and of losing it like my father used to.

Bertram: What makes you angry?

Karl: Things that don’t make any sense—which seems to be a lot of the things that make this world go around. People who don’t stand up for themselves make me angry too.

Bertram: What makes you sad?

Karl: Thinking about my mother, who died the night I ran away. If I’d been in the house, maybe I could have saved her.

Bertram: Are you lucky?

Karl: You must be kidding!

Bertram: Who was your first love?

Karl: Well, that would be Miss Dawn McNally, my best friend’s sister.

Bertram: Who is your true love?

Karl: Don’t have an answer for that one yet. Maybe someday, but I’m not ready for a wife just yet.

Bertram: What is your most prized possession?

Karl: My saddlehorse, Buck. He’s a dream to ride, and he’s a looker. It’s vanity, I guess, but I’m always proud to ride him out.

Bertram: Do you have any hobbies?

Karl: Those are for old folks who have time to waste. I’m at work, one way or another, from dawn to dusk, making sure the mill turns a profit, and that’s fine by me.

Bertram: What is your favorite food?

Karl: Chicken pot pie, the way our cook, Divine, makes it. She doesn’t stint on the chicken. Sometimes she puts it all under a good pie crust instead of using noodles, but that’s more for Sunday dinners. When she uses noodles, she’ll balance a big hunk of chicken–white or dark–right on top of the bowl she serves you.

Bertram: Name five items in your purse, briefcase, or pockets.

Karl: Five? Let’s see. I’ve got a handkerchief, a pocket watch and a good sharp folding knife. If I’m riding the fields and ‘susing the crops, I’ll take a notebook and a pencil stub along, but that’s about it.

Bertram: How do you envision your future?

Karl: I’m heading out west to tame some raw land. I’m hoping for the good luck and the good health to make my fortune by the work of my own hands, and to be away from German’s Mill, from everybody who knows me, and start my life fresh.

Bertram: What is your most closely guarded secret?

Karl: Cassie Taylor, the little brown girl who is growing up with the good Reverend Taylor and his wife over in Yellow Springs.

Bertram: How can we learn more about your story?

Karl: Juliet Waldron wrote it down in a book called Hand-Me-Down Bride. You can find it at Second Wind Publishing or Amazon. You can find out about Juliet here.

Constance Fairchild Hero of The Mills of God and The Well of Souls by Justin R. Smith

Bertram: What is your story?

Constance: I’m an 18 year old girl who likes to write poetry and study the Ancient Egyptian language.

OK — that’s being evasive. I’m also rather wealthy (my Board of Directors has the preposterous idea that I own 10% of the American economy).

I’m breaking an age-old family rule by mentioning that — our family has always valued anonymity. I suspect my grandfather had a Wall Street Journal editor murdered to keep him from publishing a story about us.

No danger of that happening to me, (at least now): I’m the only one left in my family.

My grandfather (or his minions) had my parents murdered when I was 14 — and then they murdered my aunt and uncle. After my grandfather died (of a stroke!) his subordinates planned to kill me too.

Bertram: Who are you?

Constance: My name is Constance Fairchild. I guess I answered some of this above.

OK — I guess I have to bring this up too. Promise you won’t laugh at me, though (some people do): I believe in reincarnation and recall a past life (by the end of The Mills of God, in complete detail). I have psychic powers too. In The Well of Souls, these powers become positively terrifying (but they save my life).

Bertram: Where do you live?

Constance: Right now, I live in New York City — in the penthouse of the Park Place Hotel with my housekeeper Matilda Appleby. My grandfather bought the hotel so he’d have a secure place to stay when he was in town.

I still operate it as a hotel, though. I love the hustle and bustle, comings and goings, conventions, etc. And I suppose it makes me feel less lonely.

In The Well of Souls, my adopted son, Tim, and his cat, Hamlet, live with Tilda and me.

Bertram: Are you the hero of your own story?

Constance: Of course!

Bertram: What is your problem in the story?

Constance: In The Mills of God, I walk a tightrope, struggling to survive and protect my friends. In The Well of Souls, I battle conspiracies to take over the American government and a terrorist plot to blow up New York City with a 20 megaton hydrogen bomb.

Bertram: Do you embrace conflict?

Constance: No, but it always embraces me.

Bertram: Do you run from conflict?

Constance: Never!

Bertram: How do you see yourself?

Constance: As a shy, introverted person with a good heart.

Bertram: How do your friends see you?

Constance: The same way, I hope!

Bertram: How do your enemies see you?

Constance: As a introverted dingbat, probably. Actually some members of my Board of Directors also think that of me. My friend, Derek Kolodny (deputy director of the CIA), says being underestimated by one’s enemies is always a good thing.

Bertram: How does your author Justin R. Smith see you?

Constance: As his favorite character, I hope! Actually, I can’t speak for him; he has enough trouble speaking for me.

Bertram: Do you think Justin portrayed you accurately?

Constance: He’s a stickler for accuracy! The man is positively obsessive!

Bertram: Do you have a hero?

Constance: I have many heroes: the great mathematician Leonhard Euler, the philosopher and detective Emmanuel Kant, and the greatest poet in the English language, Emily Dickinson.

Bertram: Do you keep your achievements to yourself?

Constance: Yes. My small circle of friends know about them. They are the only people I’d ever want to impress.

Bertram: Do you have any special strengths?

Constance: My brains and psychic abilities.

Bertram: Do you have any special weaknesses?

Constance: I’m shy and terrified of many social situations.

Bertram: Do you have money troubles?

Constance: Those are the only troubles I don’t have!

Bertram: Are you lucky?

Constance: It depends on your definition of luck. Most people think I’m very lucky because I’m wealthy.

I’m not a party animal who enjoys expensive jewelry and fast cars — the trappings of wealth. I’m the kind of person who brings a book to a party — and reads it! My housekeeper, Tilda, says I’m the anti-Paris Hilton: if I ever ran into her, there’s be a nuclear explosion.

Bertram: Has anyone ever failed you?

Constance: My parents, in many ways.

Bertram: Has anyone ever betrayed you?

Constance: Yes, my first boyfriend.

Bertram: Do you keep your promises?

Constance: Always!

Bertram: Are you honorable?

Constance: I try to be.

Bertram: Are you healthy?

Constance: Yes.

Bertram: Do you have any handicaps?

Constance: No.

Bertram: Do you have any distinguishing marks?

Constance: What do you mean? A birthmark behind my right ear in the shape of a scimitar? No.

OK, I’m a bit — how shall I say it? — large-chested and men are always hitting on me (when my bodyguards aren’t looking).

I inherited that from my mother who always claimed to have been an actress. I never found any movies with her in them, though. Maybe she was a porn star who Father became infatuated with. Maybe that’s why Grandfather despised her so. Maybe Grandfather’s minions only intended to kill Mother and Father was collateral damage.

My God — your innocuous question has stirred up so many others!

Bertram: What was your childhood like?

Constance: I was raised by nannies and, whenever I got so attached to one that I called her “mother,” my biological mother fired her.

I must have filled a hundred spiral-bound notebooks with my musings, my poems, and a diary of all my dreams. I called these notebooks ‘my research’: My past life undoubtedly influenced me as a child. It was no accident Nanny nicknamed me ‘the professor’. There are no accidents.

I lived in the grim concrete canyon of Park Avenue South, in a twenty-four-room apartment on the fifteenth floor. My room was the first off the main hallway, and my window overlooked an inner courtyard. Even now, I remember that clearly.

I had a print of Hieronymous Bosch’s Hay Wain on the wall opposite the window. It was inspired by the Flemish peasant saying, ‘Life is a wagon of hay and we all run after it grabbing as much as we can get.’ The central panel depicts a hay wagon with a mob of people chasing it. Men kill each other and women prostitute themselves for the hay. The right edge of the panel shows the people physically changing into the animals they’d always been. And the right panel shows them entering the gates of Hell. On the rare occasions she entered my room, Mother called it ‘That horrid thing!’

Perhaps she saw herself among the writhing throng.

Bertram: Do you like remembering your childhood?

Constance: No.

Bertram: Did you get along with your parents?

Constance: On the rare occasions I saw them, yes. When they threw parties and receptions, I was confined to my room or told to go to a movie. Many of their friends didn’t know they had a daughter.

The year before they died, Father promised we’d spend Christmas together as a family. On Christmas Day, my nanny told me they’d flown to Paris the night before.

Bertram: What in your past had the most profound effect on you?

Constance: My past life gave me the skills I needed to survive.

Bertram: Who was your first love?

Constance: A crazy German performance-artist named Walter Hildebrand.

Bertram: What is your most prized possession?

Constance: My most prized possession is a computer printout I found in Switzerland. It’s covered with two seemingly random arrays of numbers. As for why I value it so much — you have to read The Mills of God.

Bertram: Do you have any hobbies?

Constance: Writing poetry. Here’s a sample, from The Well of Souls:

Childhood is a difficult time —
Each season — an arduous birth.
Playing amid unnoticed grime —
Drawn taut between Heaven and Earth.
Graven masks in memory’s shadows —
From times and tales long lost
Haunt their moonlit meadows,
Endowing lives — storm-tossed.
Each awakening stirs a fear —
No adult’s terror can match: —
To pristine eyes — new worlds appear —
New minds must grasp from scratch.
Where they find childhood’s courage, though —
Is a secret — only children know.

Bertram: What is your favorite music?

Constance: I love classical music. My favorite composers are Beethoven and Sibelius. I love the regal bearing of Beethoven’s Ghost trio, and the refined terror of Sibelius’s 4th symphony.

Bertram: What is your favorite item of clothing?

Constance: A dress and piece of jewelry that I’ve only worn twice. They are my parents’ last gifts to me and my most treasured keepsakes. My parents were going to visit me at school in Switzerland and give them to me as a graduation present.

The jewelry is a diamond tiara my grandfather commissioned from Cartier’s, supposedly modeled after the tiara Napoleon gave to Josephine.

The dress is an ankle-length evening gown. Tiny black fish-scales cover it, each reflecting an iridescent rainbow in the light. When I wear it, my slightest movements send cascades of color rippling up and down my body.

Bertram: Name five items in your purse, briefcase, or pockets.

Constance: A pocket computer so I can jot down poems when they occur to me. A lipstick. A hair brush. A can of mace. A sheaf of papers needing my signature, from my company, Horizon International Corporation.

Bertram: What are the last five entries in your check registry?

Constance: I don’t know. My accountants handle that for me.

Bertram: Thank you for being so candid. If someone wanted to know more about you, who should they contact?

Constance: Justin R. Smith, the author of The Mills of God and The Well of Souls. http://www.justinwordsmith.com/ 

Oh, and here’s a picture me writing out my responses to your questions:

Paul Priestly, Hero of Disco Evil: Dead Man’s Stand by Rod Marsden

Bertram: What is your story?

Paul: I was straight out of high school. I had an okay job as a bank teller. Then I visited a disco one night and became one of the undead. I got revenge on some people who had wronged me but I have made a lot of enemies. I once wanted to believe in superheroes. I once believed with all my soul in make love, not war. The disco destroyed that belief and I want it back. I know now I cannot get it back. I will continue to fight those who took it away from me. I will also fight those who will strand against me and defend those against make love, not war.

Bertram: Who are you??

Paul: I am a vampire.

Bertram: Where do you live?

Paul: I do not live. I unlive where I can. I am neither alive nor dead. I must find shelter during the day or be destroyed by the rays of the sun.

Bertram: Are you the hero of your own story?

Paul: I am the tragic hero of my own story. Others may not agree with this. I must have blood. I try to only kill those I see as undeserving of life. In this way I try to make the world a better place.

Bertram: What is your problem in the story?

Paul: My problem is that I am always being hunted. Members of the Secret Compass, an outfit out to destroy all vampires, are after me. I am also being pursued by the Rising Sun Group, an Asian concern also out to do me in.

Bertram: Do you have a problem that wasn’t mentioned in the story?

Paul: No problem I can think of off hand. Maybe I need love and I need to move away from violence but both are impossible for me to achieve.

Bertram: Do you embrace conflict?

Paul: I didn’t embrace conflict at first but now I have developed a death wish and want to take as many of the enemy with me as possible. I will die my second death with some sense of honor.

Bertram: How do you see yourself?

Paul: I am the victim of circumstance suddenly given the opportunity to right the wrongs I was afflicted with when I was human. I have destroyed many who would spit upon make love, not war.

Bertram: How do your friends see you?

Paul: My only friend was Lilith. She sired me. She was given her second death in New York. She went out in a blaze of glory. I miss her. I know she saw me as the ally she needed. She wanted to destroy brutish men who could have been Nazi thugs in another life. She destroyed men such men. She also realized brutish women were to blame for there being brutish men in this world. She needed me to take out the brutish women.

Bertram: How do your enemies see you?

Paul: My enemies should see me as the great avenger of wrongs but they don’t. One sees me as the killer of his niece. Most see me as simply another vampire that has to be slain.

Bertram: How does your author see you?

Paul: I think the author sees me as a troubled soul…maybe a reflection in some ways of his own troubled soul. He doesn’t agree at all with my methods but he understands where I am coming from.

Bertram: Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?

Paul: The author did his best. If he was undead he might have done a slightly better job.

Bertram: What do you think of yourself?

Paul: I am an avenger! I right wrongs! I try to only hurt those who deserve it. The thoughtless savage woman dies at my hands and I lift the thoughtful angels among women up onto my shoulders to where they can see and experience the beauty of our world. I destroy their enemies…Well, some of their enemies…I wish Lilith was still around to take out the male trash.

Bertram: Do you have a hero?

Paul: Lilith was my hero. She’s gone now.

Bertram: Do you have a goal?

Paul: I will make those who spat upon the Hippy ideal of make love, not war very sorry.

Bertram: What are your achievements?

Paul: I have taken much blood from women who, in my opinion, did not deserve to live. I have also recruited, sired women over into vampirism so they might join me in my quest to make the world a better place. I have not been entirely successful in this last regard but one does one’s best.

Bertram: Do you keep your achievements to yourself?

Paul: I do hide dead bodies so the vampire hunters don’t catch up with me if that is what you mean.

Bertram: Do you have any special strengths or weaknesses?

Paul: I am much stronger than a human and my senses are far more developed. I can change form and also summon vermin to my aid when I am under attack. I have the usual vampire weaknesses. Not to be discussed with you. Now if you were not human…

Bertram: Do you have any skills?

Paul: In bat form I can fly. I can also mesmerize my victims.

Bertram: What do you want?

Paul: I want the Hippy paradise promised to me that was taken away by the Disco scene and the people undeserving of life!

Bertram: What do you want to be?

Paul: I want to be cared for, I want to feel like a superhero.

Bertram: What makes you sad?

Paul: I am saddened by the fact that I have never experience human sex and, being now undead, never will. I gain whatever sexual pleasure I can from the taking of blood.

Bertram: What do you regret?

Paul: I regret not being able to save Lilith.

Bertram: What is your biggest disappointment?

Paul: I am disappointed by the Disco. Promises were made but not kept.

Bertram: What was your childhood like?

Paul: It was a quiet childhood. I grew up in a good household. I miss my family.

Bertram: What in your past had the most profound affect on you?

Paul: My first visit to a disco. Also the night at a disco Lilith came into my existence and took my life. Three nights later I was undead and the avenger you see before you.

Bertram: What in your past would you like to forget?

Paul: My family. in my present condition I cannot be with them. Also the night Lilith died her second death. It was horrible!

Bertram: Who was your first love?

Paul: I would like to say Lilith but it’s not true. She was more like another sister to me. I suppose I have never had a first love.

Bertram: What is your most closely guarded secret?

Paul: The fact that I cannot really turn back the tide of time and mend what the Disco has broken.

Bertram: What is your most prized possession?

Paul: My honor. I need it to continue my work.

Bertram: What is your favorite music?

Paul: Goth nowadays. I grew up on the Beatles.

Bertram: What are the last three books you read?

Paul: They were vampire novels written by women I had sired into vampirism.

Bertram: If you had the power to change one thing in the world that did not affect you personally, what would it be?

Paul: Kill Disco completely and create a world where women are beautiful, happy and have flowers in their hair and they are not cruel to men because men in this world would never, ever be cruel to them.

Bertram: What makes you think that change would be for the better?

Paul: Everyone would be happy and those that wouldn’t…well, I could dance on their graves!

Bertram: If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you rather be stranded with, a man or a woman?

Paul: A woman. I only drink blood from a woman unless it is bottled blood or plasma.

Bertram: How do you envision your future?

Paul: I will soon die my second death. It will be glorious!

Kendra DeSola the Hero of School of Lies by Mickey Hoffman

Bertram: What is your story?

Kendra: I don’t have stories, I have issues. I’d tell you about them but you’d be sorry you asked.

Bertram: Who are you?

Kendra: My name is Kendra DeSola and I teach Special Education in a city high school.

Bertram: Are you the hero of your own story?

Kendra: Well, I think I am but I have been told I wouldn’t get any awards for my behavior.

Bertram: What is your problem in the story?

Kendra: I’m sort of being set up. First I thought it was just to make me look like a child molester, but things went down hill after that.

Bertram: Do you embrace conflict?

Kendra: No, it finds me because I keep asking too many questions.

Bertram: How do you see yourself?

Kendra: An idealistic and strong-minded young woman.

Bertram: How do your friends see you?

Kendra: A pig-headed compulsive who has a mother hen complex. Hey wait, those are my friends?

Bertram: How do your enemies see you?

Kendra: Now you have me confused. I’ve been called a snoop, I can say.

Bertram: How does the author see you?

Kendra: She thinks I can get out of all the dubious situations she writes me into without long-term consequences. Me, I’m not sure about that.

Bertram: Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?

Kendra: Of course not. I would never lie…

Bertram: Do you have any special strengths?

Kendra: Definitely. I can figure out what people are really thinking and if they’re lying to me or not.

Bertram: Do you have any special weaknesses?

Kendra: Maybe it’s a weakness to not give up on kids that nobody else wants to deal with. Sometimes that feels like a weakness. Or maybe a punishment.

Bertram: Do you have any skills?

Kendra: I can think really fast when I get into trouble.

Bertram: What do you want?

Kendra: I wish I could get rid of some of the rotten people I work with. Oh god, that doesn’t sound good, after what happened. I must mean that if people really knew what goes on, there would be a lot of changes in the schools.

Bertram: What makes you angry?

Kendra: I don’t like being lied to and I don’t like being discounted because I teach Special Ed.

Bertram: What makes you sad?

Kendra: Professionally, the fact that nobody wants my kids in the schools. Personally, I’d rather not say.

Bertram: What do you regret?

Kendra: I regret not being able to stop what I think was a murder. Those damn cops, they didn’t believe me!

Bertram: What, if anything, haunts you?

Kendra: The sister of a coworker told me I didn’t care about him until it was too late.

Bertram: Has anyone ever betrayed you?

Kendra: You mean, like they betrayed a confidence? I have to say no because I’m pretty cautious about who I trust. In fact, I’m not sure I like all your questions but I’m trying to be patient here or my author will be very angry with me.

Bertram: Have you ever failed anyone?

Kendra: You have to ask them. My author thinks I might have. What does she know?

Bertram: Do you keep your promises?

Kendra: Um, well. Usually. When they deserve to be kept.

Bertram: What was your childhood like?

Kendra: It was okay until my older brother got set up to look like a drug dealer and went to jail. By the time the truth came out he’d already served several years!

Bertram: What in your past would you like others to forget?

Kendra: If anyone saw the slanderous email about me, I hope they forget that fast!

Bertram: What is your most closely guarded secret?

Kendra: That trouble at Standard High, I know some stuff.

Bertram: Do you have any hobbies?

Kendra: I play on line fantasy computer games and I love home decorating.

Bertram: What is your favorite scent?

Kendra: Anything that doesn’t smell like my classroom.

Bertram: What is your favorite food?

Kendra: Cheese crackers because I don’t have to cook them.

Bertram: What is your favorite beverage?

Kendra: I love coffee, I have to say. Maybe because I can cook it.

Bertram: What are the last five entries in your check registry?

Kendra: What are you, the FBI? The detectives didn’t even ask for that!

Bertram: What are the last three books you read?

 Some boring thing about bilingual education, the book I got written into “School of Lies” and I reread “Lord of the Rings.”

Bertram: If you had the power to change one thing in the world that didn’t affect you personally, what would it be?

Kendra: I’d do something to shelter all the homeless animals. Right now I’m–oh, I can’t tell you that because I’m not supposed to give anything away.

Bertram: How do you envision your future?

Kendra: I will be teaching for a long time but I’ll be in a decent school before long, I just know it!

Bertram: You said you got written into School of Lies. Where can I get a copy of the book?

Kendra: I got mine from Second Wind Publishing, LLC. It’s also on Amazon.

Sophie Nieman, heroine of Hand-Me-Down Bride by Juliet Waldron

Bertram: What is your name? Who are you?

Sophie: My name is Sophie Neiman, and I’m the second daughter of Albert and Anna Neiman of Osnabruck, in Northern Germany. I have four sisters, one older and two younger.

Bertram: Where do you live?

Sophie: I am an immigrant, and today I live in German’s Mill, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Bertram: Are you the hero of your own story?

Sophie: I’m the heroine.

Bertram: What is your problem in the story?

Sophie: I have many problems, but the biggest is how to help my mother and my sisters back in Germany. They are now very poor, because my Papa died. Although he was an official in the City of Osnabruck, his pension was not enough for us all to live on. My mother works as a governess. My oldest sister, Ursula lives with Uncle Rudolph and cares for him and his household, but he is stingy and unkind. I agreed to travel to America to marry a wealthy older gentleman who wanted a “pure German” bride for a second wife, but the morning after we were married, I awoke to find him dead. Herr Theodore did not include me in his Will, so now I have nowhere to live and no idea of how to support myself.

Bertram: Do you have a problem not mentioned in the story?

Sophie: No. I have many problems to solve, but they are all part of my story.

Bertram: Do you embrace conflict? Do you run from conflict?

Sophie: I would rather avoid conflict, because I was raised to obey those in authority. However, I have my pride and a strong sense of right and wrong. If you treat me unfairly or condescend to me, I will challenge you.

Bertram: How do you see yourself?

Sophie: My family has fallen on hard times, but I am still a lady and a dutiful daughter. I understand that life is not a bed of roses, and that personal sacrifice is often required. I try not to brood or be sorry for myself, although sometimes it is not easy. I try to live by the Golden Rule. Secretly, I am hot-blooded. Falling in love came close to destroying me, so, here in America, I keep a tight rein on my feelings. I don’t trust men.

Bertram: How do your friends see you?

Sophie: As a reserved person who does not easily show her feelings, but who has a kind heart. A church-going Lutheran lady, who, nevertheless, is not afraid to get her hands dirty and work.

Bertram: How do your enemies see you?

Sophie: As a cold opportunist, who agreed to immigrate and marry Herr Theodore strictly for his money.

Bertram: does the author see you?

Sophie: As a proud, brave, and well brought up young woman who is willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill what she sees as her duty to her beloved family back in the old country. Sophie tries to follow through on the obligations she has, but life has a way of throwing her curves she doesn’t expect. She is more adaptable than she gives herself credit for.

Bertram: Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?

Sophie: Yes.

Bertram: What are your achievements?

Sophie: I can play the piano and sing. (People always seem to enjoy it.) I can sew my own clothes. I have good taste in literature and music. My biggest achievement is that I dared to come to America to marry a man I’d never seen because my family was depending upon me. It might seem desperate, but it was also the bravest thing I’ve ever done.

Bertram: Has anyone ever failed you, betrayed you?

Sophie: Yes, my best friend Lisel and Herr Captain Frederick, back in Osnabruck. They ran off together, although they both knew I was in love with him. My poor friend Lisel paid for her mistake, because Frederick proved to be nothing more than a wicked seducer, who dishonored her and abandoned her. I wish I could help her, but I do not know where she is anymore.

Bertram: Do you keep your promises?

Sophie: Yes.

Bertram: What in your past would you like to forget? Or perhaps something you wish had never happened?

Sophie: Even more than wickedness of Captain Frederick, I would like to wish away the death of my sister, Anna. She had consumption and we managed to find the money to send her to the sanatorium, but she did not recover. She was so young! God has certainly taken her sweet soul to his bosom.

Bertram: Do you like to remember your childhood?

Sophie: Yes! The early part was so happy for our family. We were not rich, but we had a nice apartment and we were respected because Papa was a high clerk in the Osnabruck court. My Papa indulged us all. We went to school and studied music, too. After my studies were done, I could read, all I ever wished to.  We walked in the parks on nice days, and had dinner with friends. Sometimes, we hired a carriage and visited the countryside for picnics. After our Papa died, we lost so much! Our lovely apartment and my piano and the books were the first to go. Some of Papa’s “friends” and their families were no longer in evidence, and we were lonely. Mama found work, and she was so tired and sad all the time, it was almost as if we had lost her, too. Next, my big sister Ursula left us to go work for Uncle Rudy on the other side of the city. That was when I began housekeeping and sewing and looking after my little sisters, Rosemarie and Lizbet. I worked very hard so that my mother would not have to come home and feel that things were not well-taken care of.

Bertram: What is your most closely guarded secret?

Sophie: How close I came to running away with Captain Frederick myself. My days and nights were full of dreams of him, of yielding to his passion, but somehow, even though he asked me to come away with him, thinking of my mother and my sisters—of my father and what he would have thought—kept me from doing so. If I were more impulsive, I might have ended up like Lisel, disgraced and lost. Deep in my heart I know I am not more moral than my friend, only more cautious.

Bertram: What is your favorite scent?

Sophie: I think it is the honeysuckle. I blush to admit it, because honeysuckle grows all over the front porch at the millhouse, where my husband used to sit with me while we were courting.

Bertram: What is your favorite color?

Sophie: Green, because that is a color we didn’t see much of in the poor neighborhood we lived in after Papa died. Here, in German’s Mill, there is so much green! So many beautiful trees, like the big Linden trees next to our house, or the poplars which line the roads, or the sycamores down by the river! All the fields are a bright sunny green in the springtime. Also, I love the fine Philadelphia green linen dress my Aunt Ilga bought me to wear.

Bertram: What is your favorite music?

Sophie: I love Bach most of all. His music speaks to my soul and quiets all my sad and stormy thoughts. I wish I played better, so that I could play more of his music. Herr Schwann, at our church, has been giving me lessons, but we are all so very busy all day here, and so very tired at night, it is hard to always practice.

Bertram: What is your favorite hobby?

Sophie: I am learning to ride a horse, one which my dearest Karl Joseph has purchased for me. I never could have imagined having such a privilege, and it is the greatest fun to ride her out into the countryside. Her name is Polly, and she is gentle and sweet-natured. I love to go to the stable and brush her. I feel like pinching myself every time I see her there, munching her hay. I can hardly believe that such a fine creature is mine!

Bertram: What is your favorite food?

Sophie: I love chicken with dumplings, and have learned to make them from the best cook in all America, the woman who cooks for us at the millhouse, Mrs. Divine Daniels. She also makes the very best cherry dampfnudeln (sweet dumplings with cherry sauce) I have ever tasted, either here or in Osnabruck.   

Bertram: If you had the power to change one thing in the world that didn’t affect you personally, what would it be?

Sophie: I wish everyone would be kind to each other, that they would not judge each other before they really know them. So much unhappiness and sorrow could be avoided if we would all give each other the benefit of the doubt, if we would not condemn others just for preconceptions we have about them. I have learned this only through experience.

Bertram: How do you envision your future?

Sophie: I hope that my birth family will be with me again, right here in America. As much, or possibly more, I also hope that I and my dearest husband will live happily ever after, right here in German’s Mill, Pennsylvania. If you’re interested in finding out more about me, Juliet Waldron told my story in Hand-me-Down Bride.