As I ready for the fall writing season, The Penny becomes the focus. Based on the life of Penny and Bud Harper, it will transcend the lifespan from WWII through Korea, Vietnam, and into the modern. As I continue to research, make notes, and gather opinions of the beginning concept and pages, I wonder how many of us know how families are affected from experiences in the military as they travel from place to place and from stress to stress; how the world changes around them and how fast that change may occur. It’s been a remarkable journey to sit with Bud at different venues and have him tell stories – good and bad – about what he went through. It’s even more remarkable to sit and listen to the family describe events somewhat differently – not to dispute facts but to have different reactions, emotions, and long-term effects. I believe the most difficult piece to this is learning how to love and admire Penny; or maybe to realize she was as human as anyone else. But together, Penny and Bud began an experience that brought forth another generation. They spawned relationships, history, and touched lives all over the world. In a sincere epitaph, Penny wished never to be forgotten. I would suggest that within the pages of this forthcoming novel, she will not only be remembered, but brought to life again through the relationships that remain even today – seven years after her death. My hope is that the reader will experience every raw emotion, every unexpected turn-of-events, and fall under the spell of how a life can connect so many for so long. We may have written every word through history and repeated story lines with massaged titles, but now more than ever we need to know how connected we are and how our motions and emotions may hurt or heal another. I’m hoping the salve for the modern-day wounds of resentment and hatred of our fellow humans oozes from the pages, and one can look at another and realize we exist for each other.