The Self-Awareness Seminar

“Those characters! “Why can’t I do this?”  “But if it were worded like this…”  “How come there’s no romance?”  “But I wanted to…”  No! No vampires or werewolves or popular fiction stuff that’s glutting the market.  No supernatural stuff except what’s ‘normal’ for any fictional character.  So many things to fuss about.  So many unresolved issues.  Now the characters are starting to ask questions about their very existence.  We can all hash this out.” said the author.

“Y’all didn’t even exist ‘til I got into pondering proper ID of wild edibles and other wild stuff” said the author.  

Redtail piped up, “Redtail’s a weird name for a girl.  How come you saddled me with that one?” 

The author began, “Now don’t get all offended when I tell you it all started over a dead bird.” 

“Oh no, I won’t,” said Redtail, “That’s really up to you, anyway.” 

“I found a roadkilled red tailed hawk, but wasn’t sure about the ID.  There were a couple points on which I wanted to resist calling it a red tail.  I thought it was too small, and the wings were too pointy, and that the overall coloration was too pale, but those were all variations of a red tail –the wings being not as pointy as I originally thought.” explained the author. 

George chimed in, “So why’d this young lady become Redtail?  Yer sayin’ she’s really a dead bird?”

The author continued, “I thought it would be fun to have a prop for my wild edibles programs to help me stress proper identification of things, I wanted something that was blatantly not what it was labeled.  The first thing that popped into my mind was a Scotsman who couldn’t be.  I pictured a Barbie (maybe not that brand) in a kilt with a bagpipe, and I’d call her a Scotsman.  I imagined kids saying, ‘That’s not a Scotsman!’  To which, I’d answer, ‘But there’s a plaid skirt, a bagpipe –what more do you want?  It’s a Scotsman.’  I figured she needed a name, so I named her after my reluctantly-identified Redtail, since that’s what got me on the topic.  And of course, my mind likes to wander, so it did.  How might such a character appear?  What’s her back-story, other than a mere dead bird.  That’s where all you guys came from.”

Dave, Little Al’s son, said, “So you mean my dad’s really a dead bird and my story-dad’s just imaginary?” 

“It’s not that simple,” said the author. 

Sarah, the police dispatcher, said, “You really oughtta shorten ‘the author’ in some way.  I’ll bet that’s already getting irritating to type out every time.  How ‘bout ‘Mr. A’ or something?” 

“I guess that’s better than my secret agent name,” said Mr. A.   Mr. A continued, “Hey, you guys are getting me off track here.”  Mr. A explained the meeting.  “I called you together for an odd session of brainstorming.  I wanted to illustrate the Redtail story, but didn’t want to take the time of drawing it myself or trying to get just the right stuff from another illustrator.  What do you guys think?” 

George said, “You mentioned 1/6 scale figures in something you wrote yesterday.  –Wait a second, I wasn’t in that writing, so how’d I know that?” 

Mr. A said, “Not right now.  Let’s try a flashback here, or, well, time is sort of an odd thing when writing.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,“ fussed Redtail, “I, or the real me, was only born in December of ’16, so I’m really only about three months old, yet in the story, we’ve concluded I’m 23 years old.  George is in his 60s, but you came up with him after me, so really, he’s younger than I am…” 

“Just work with me here.  We’re going to turn back time a bit.  We can do that. We’re all, well, you guys, anyway, are just imaginary,” said Mr. A.

“Wow, so here we are, back in time, trying to get a grip on Mr. A’s wanting illustrations for the story he’s writing,” said Elder Bart Fera, owner of Fera Manufacturing. 

“This is so cool!” said Linda-Jean, the town’s librarian. She continued, “I am talking with Elder Bart Fera, who founded a company that started over a hundred years before I was born.” 

Elder Bart asked, “What company is that?” 

Linda-Jean said, “Why, it’s the T.D.Fera Manufacturing Company.  You should know that.” 

Elder Bart questioned again, “T.D.Fera?  Why T.D. when I’ve already got Fera Manufacturing?  What’s the T.D. for anyway?” 

Big Al and Gus said, in near-unison, “Thistle Dew!  Everybody knows that.” 

Al continued, “You guys make nearly everything that appears in our illustrations, OK, except that only two illustrations have happened so far, but for your T.D.Fera Manufacturing Company story –Wow, which preceded this one.  Yeah, you’re right, time is screwy here.  We also get stuff through Big River Mall, but it ultimately comes through T.D.Fera’s shipping department.”

Lena spoke, for the first time in any of the stories, “C’mon guys, us getting this straight in our minds doesn’t really matter for purposes of our existence.  Besides, Mr. A’s making us all confused.  Let’s just start creating illustrations.  He mentioned a campfire scene where one of us wanted a picture to remember the event by.  You know, that would be cool.  I think I’d like one –dang, he did it to me, too.  I guess I’m the one who asked for it.” 

Frank, Lena’s husband, asked, “So what all would we need for this picture to happen?”

Lawrence Douglas, who went by his proper name, since he was taking charge, said, “Who all have we got here?  All the main characters?  We got Redtail, George, Gus, Frank, Lena, and a couple extras, so far.  I don’t have a physical representation yet and neither does Sarah.  Linda-Jean might, but the possibilities for that look way too young –no offense, Linda-Jean.  Rick might have a rep, if he’ll accept being a Ken doll.  We really need to chart this out on paper.” 

Little Al, from the service station said, “Organization.  I guess that’s why Larry’s the mayor.” 

Lydia, the confident little girl in the homeschool group said, “George and Redtail will say what we need for the campfire because they like to go camping.”

George asked, “Well what’s the picture supposed to look like?  Just a dark border with our faces lit up by a campfire?” 

Redtail said, “Do we sit on logs or benches?” 

Lydia piped up, “It’s a camp-ground, so it’s camp benches.” 

Frank said, “I was gonna say logs for the same reason, but Lydia has spoken.”  They all gave a laugh.  Frank asked, “Mr. A, I know I’m not the only patrolman/law enforcement guy in town. 

Who’s the other one?” 

Mr. A said, “Not right now.  That’ll come if it’s needed for the story.  Pretend I’m not even here.  No, wait, it just hit me while I was editing this.  The police chief is Darrell Cord –don’t ask why.  I just know of one with a similar name.”

 “Can we just accept that most of us are older than we look?” asked Sarah.  “Then you’d have a likeness for me.” 

Lena broke in and said, “Hey, we gotta figure out a back story about a spin-off happening in a real-life home school group nearby.  Or might that go better in the “Thistle Dew Fera story”?”

Mr. A said, “I just looked at the TDFera Story and for now, I’ll try to work the homeschooler thing  in here.  The two –this one and TDFera, might be merged one day.  So now, the scene will go all wavy as we slip back in time…  Now remember, I’m not here, OK?”

                                                                      ***

Linda-Jean, Lena, Sarah and Big Al comprised the Portal Safety Board.  They’d been discussing for some time now, that the homeschool group had been using the Wilder Museum for a while and might likely stumble across the town’s secret.  It wasn’t illegal or anything, but the folks in-the-know just didn’t want to have to explain.  Too many would call it witchcraft or occult, but it was really merely imagination. 

Sarah opened the meeting, since she owned the Museum building.  “It’s come to my attention a home school group from the future, yeah, the future, has been dabbling in acquiring dinosaurs for our museum.  I just don’t think we can do that without way too much explanation.  We’ll get huge notice throughout the scientific world and Thistle Dew and Wilder will cease to be what we’ve grown to love.  We really need to let the group, or a few members, in on what’s going on before they discover it and get themselves in trouble.  Mr. A’s got a transcript of what’s happened, or about to happen, or whatever, depending on how this meeting fits into the whole time-thing.”

Linda-Jean, the Thistle Dew librarian, suggested the she make a portal that opened into a large building in which the homeschoolers could create a museum for their own use.  “Why did Mr. A just narrate that instead of letting me say it?  Anyway, we’ve got a portal that opens into an unused World War II aircraft hangar in England.  That was quite cool, Mr. A.  You simply read the transcript from that other author and we all were automatically familiarized with it.” 

Lena said, “What kind of shape is that hangar?  You know, the portals only work on old structures or parts thereof –Oh, “thereof” sounds so ‘official’.  The only reason our Museum has any active portal at all is because the south wall of the building is still original.”  Lena gasped, “If I remember right, that hangar is in pretty good shape, but, that’d be terrible if the kids went into some portal just to have a wall crumble behind them.  We’ve gotta be sure of the condition if we were to let them use a portal like that.”

“I believe an introduction is due before we get too far,” suggested Big Al.  “I’m Big Al, as opposed to Little Al or Normal Al, but that was decided at a future city planning meeting and is another story.  (Wow, this time-transcendence when we’re in self-aware mode is cool –confusing, but still cool.) I’m on the Portal Safety Board because all the orders that go to other worlds go through me and the portal in the Thistle Dew Hardware store.  Linda-Jean’s on the board because she’s the librarian and it’s the library through which the portals were discovered and even created.  Oh, she’s got a responsibility-laden job.  She can actually make a portal IF she does it just right.  She only taught one other librarian she met in England how to make them.  Lena’s on the Board because she works at T.D.Fera Manufacturing, the other-side company through which we get lots of our stuff.  She uses the portals daily.  And then there’s Sarah.  She owns the Museum building and has a huge stake in portal operations as it pertains to the homeschool group.”

Sarah continued, “If we suspect anything resembling portal abuse, we’ll have to take swift action to insure the portals are closed for good, well, for anything Mr. A. doesn’t personally approve of anyway.”

“We really hope Mr. A. didn’t open a can of worms prematurely by soliciting input,” said Big Al.

Linda-Jean said, “There’s quite enough drama in simply having responsibility for these portals.  We don’t want any more drama to actually happen in town than would be normal for a small town.  We really want to stay like a Hooterville, Pixley, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction place.”

“So how do we approach the homeschool group?  And why does the spell-checker keep underlining “homeschool” wanting two words or a hyphen when it looks and feels so right as one word –and you made me say what you were thinking again, Mr. A.” said Sarah (and Mr. A.)

Unbeknownst to the readers (OK, I guess it’ll soon be beknownst) some time has passed.  That black void of nothingness the characters experience as Mr. A. puts down his pen for a while has cleared, but given them time to think and build up thoughts…

“Chill y’all!” said Mr. A.  “I set my pen down last night and now when I pick it back up you all want to talk at once.  Lots of you guys aren’t even at this meeting.”

“Sorry,” said Redtail and Pastor Tix in unison.  Believe it or not, they wanted to mention vampires and zombies.

“Let’s regroup.” said Mr. A.  “The Portal Safety Board (PSB), which is pretty secret in itself, has to approach the homeschoolers about keeping the portals safe and secret.”

Sarah began again, “We need to insure Thistle Dew-Wilder stays the laid back neighborly happy place at which it began in Mr. A’s head.”

“I’ll take notes,” said Linda-Jean.

Lena, the most mercenary and daring of the group, explained her findings on the portals.  “None of the portals access any sci-fi/fantasy worlds.  They only open into other places that exist in our world.  There just aren’t any werewolves, vampires, fairies or space creatures or armies of goblins or witchcrafty-occulty stuff that plagues so many other fictional works out there.  That’s in other worlds, which this ain’t.  I’ve been in all the portals in existence.  All a portal is, is a door.  They open only into places which a few library people carefully create them to open into, and they know they don’t want any little storytime kids to wander into real danger.”

Big Al added, “The portal, itself, is important, but for its use, it’s also important to remember our museum is only a small town 1800s retail clothing and tailor shop.  We’re far from some big 5-story marble-floored megalopolis behemoth or a museum like you always see in movies.”

Linda-Jean said, “I think we oughtta let the readers have a little background on portal-creation.  Chrissy Ellmaker made the first known portal years ago when she worked at the Thistle Dew Library.  That was in the 1800s when the library was still new.  After her program, that doorway of hers got rolled up and tucked away in the library attic and stayed there ‘til it got found in the early 1970s –probably close to a hundred years after it was made.  Chrissy didn’t know what she’d made.  Somehow, and Mr. A hasn’t figured out how to put it into words yet, I learned how to make the portals.  I taught one other librarian how to make them.  I met her in the same town the hangar’s in.  She has a portal in her library that opens into…  Never mind.  I won’t say where.  Suffice it to say, she can visit Thistle Dew/Wilder when she wants to.  (OK, Mr. A,  She’ll be called Kate Dickson. –you gotta get all these place/name connections to the real world written down in your backstory.)”

Sarah said, “I think we need to have a simple document to present to the very first homeschool group to use the museum.  Yeah, Al, this time-transcendence thing is neat!”

Rules for Portal Use, as Determined by the Portal Safety Board of Thistle Dew, Missouri 

[overheard:  “Why can’t we call it Wilder or Thistle Dew/Wilder?”  “It’s just simpler this way.  We’re registered as Thistle Dew.”]

1. Portals are NOT toys. 

2. Portals are local tools for learning and for community logistics. 

3. A portal is used only on the spot for which it was designed. 

[“I’ve got two that…”  “Never mind that.  You’re the only one with access to those and you know how to use ‘em.  And Lena’s got a special one, too.”]

4. The Portal Safety Board is the only approval authority for portal use.

5. Unauthorized use will be…  Well, it won’t be good.  Just imagine the repercussions with which the author could hit us.

[‘I don’t know if we need a whole lot more now.  Let’s see how this works.”]

“Oh, here it comes again,” said Big Al, as the scene goes all wavy and time changes.

Lena said, “Hey, that’s some cool music coming from that radio.”

“I didn’t know we had a classic rock station nearby,” pondered Linda-Jean outloud.

Sarah saw a newspaper: “I think it’s 1978.  Yeah, that’s when the Wilder History Club started at the Museum!  I remember!  They were eventually absorbed by a homeschool co-op early in the 21^st century.  That first club called themselves “The Relics” and the name stuck.”

Linda-Jean said, “Sarah, be careful you don’t meet yourself when you go in there, because…”

“Don’t be silly.  Dr. Who always crossed his own timeline despite his warnings to others, and he came back for a next episode.  Besides, I’m the only me there is,” said Sarah.  “I’ll go into the Museum and see if Mike’s there –he was the first Relics president.”

To make the story shorter, or presentable for now, the document was delivered to the first Relics president, and passed down from president to president, co-op leader to co-op leader and respected by all.

“So that means the meeting’s over then?  Good!” said Redtail.  “I wanted to say there’s gonna be vampires in chapter 13 or 14 of the RTMac Story.” She gave a little giggle. “OK, it’s gonna rain anyway and lots of mosquitoes are gonna come out.”

Pastor Tix said, “There COULD be zombies in the story.  They’re mentioned in Zechariah 14:12 and 13.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

Mr. A felt he needed to add: “I don’t think this part of the tale is over with.  I’m having fun with it.”  

T.D.Fera Manufacturing --for RTMac Story

About half a mile east of town, and about a mile north on a gravel road, depending on whose map you use, is the Thistle Dew Fera Manufacturing Company.  It was founded well over a week ago by the grandfather of Bart Fera, who now runs the place.  T.D.Fera manufactures just about anything the folks in Thistle Dew/Wilder might need.  It's odd, but they're extremely diverse.  They're not known for being of exceptional quality, but the people of the town know they can get it from T.D.Fera Manufacturing.

Folks can place orders at the Hardware store, but very few people know what happens after that, and they don't ask questions.  Linda-Jean from the Library along with Frank's wife, Lena, seem to know how the whole system works.  Of course, Big Al, from the Hardware store, knows the workings, too.  By the way, Frank, who was mentioned back a couple sentences, is one of the law enforcement officials in town.  It's all a legal operation, but still, shrouded in mystery.

The whole T.D.Fera thing started a while back (before self-help weekends were popular) at a self-awareness seminar at a campground, the location and name of which is now long forgotten.  This self-awareness seminar was called together by the author, and answered by most of the main characters in the RTMac Saga, along with a respectable number of the extras.  One of the characters got the wild idea of wanting to preserve the memory by a painting, etching or drawing, but posing would just take too long and the campfire would probably go out.  Then a photo was suggested.  Everyone agreed the photo would be faster, but becoming material, rather than imaginary would require time and lots of supplies or props.  Where would we, I mean they, get those?  They’re expensive --particularly since the characters and author chose to do the materialization through 1/6 scale action figures like Barbie, Ken, G.I.Joe, etc.  They’d even be more difficult in other scales.  So the characters of the story made known their need for a diverse manufacturing company.

Bart’s grand dad, Elder Bart, suggested he open another manufacturing company in Thistle Dew.  Thus was born, Thistle Dew Fera Manufacturing Company, to distinguish it from the original, Fera Manufacturing Company.  Elder Bart shortened it to T.D.Fera.  (Why Elder Bart is named that, and not the younger being named Bart II, is a mystery, like the company, itself.)  Bart added an occasional “‘n’ Grandson” to the T.D.Fera, for ease of product naming, in case the product began with a vowel.  Thus, we get, a Thistle Dew Fera cookstove or Thistle Dew Fera bicycle or Thistle Dew Feran axe or Thistle Dew Feran extra dozen people in the crowd.  The added “n” just makes it read better.  The key for a T.D.Fera product is the user or viewer knows what it is.  It doesn’t have to be pretty.  The characters all agreed that readers were already using their imaginations, so the props didn’t need to be photo-realistic, as that term is known in the physical world.

So how does the system work?  I’m glad I asked that (smooth transition, wasn’t it?).  For instance: Redtail needs a bicycle.  That’s all good and well, until it comes time to illustrate it visually.  Al has to get the order, and he sends it to T.D.Fera (at night, or clandestinely, of course, since nobody sees it).  I’ve heard sometimes Big Al gives the order to Frank and he gives it to Lena, or Linda-Jean gets the order and gives it to Lena or delivers it herself.  Lena works at T.D.Fera, and Linda-Jean knows the directions to the place.  Lena can take an order, herself, but she’s not often seen in town.

The actual factory workers are physicals, or readers, like you and I.  Anyway, the order is received at T.D.Fera.  It goes through Planning, which determines whether or not it can be done, then is sent off to The Shop which actually creates the item.  So they get an order for a bicycle.  Planning says, sure, we’ll just make a cardboard cut-out.  The Shop sets to laying out the bicycle in 1/6 scale.  It’s really easy.  If the bicycle is 5 and a half feet long, we’ll call that 5.5 inches, which is now in 1/12 scale.  Too small, so we’ll multiply that by two to make the bike 11 inches.  That’s 1/6 scale.  If the shop is really good at converting by dividing measurements by 6, they can make the scale change in one step.  So that makes a 12 inch figure 6 feet tall in… in…  ‘real-life’ ‘physical life’ ‘tangible’ –that’s hard to find a term for that.  Redtail and George and Big Al are ‘real’ in your mind.  They’re ‘physical’ when visually illustrated, as well as ‘tangible’.  Anyway, we’ll just use ‘real-life’ for convenience.  An 11 inch doll would be 5’6” in real life, and an 11 inch long bike would be 5’ 6”.  So a 1/6 figure should be able to ‘ride’ that T.D.Fera bicycle.  If the illustration is just the bike, scale doesn’t matter, like for George’s truck here.  [photo forthcoming] It’s 1/64 scale, and the woods is actually a Missouri Conservationist Magazine photo.  But with your imagination, you know what it’s supposed to be, and shouldn’t have real trouble with it.

The whole process is fun.  The customer places the order by either going to the Thistle Dew Hardware Store, Lena, Linda-Jean or, and here’s a little mystery, telepathically through the author.  Here’s where there’s even more mystery.  We all know librarians can connect us to different worlds and even times.  It seems one of the old Thistle Dew Library librarians made a paper doorway for one of her children’s programs.  This doorway turned out a little more functional than anticipated, and the librarian who made it didn’t even know it.  There must have been some magic in that rolled up door they found, ‘cuz when they placed it on the wall it beg…  No, that sounds too familiar.  Anyway, there was something weird about it.

A few future librarians figured out how to make these doors, and worlds got connected to Thistle Dew.  The neat thing about the doors is they can be put up and taken down in several places around town.  One of the places is in upstairs in the storage room of the Thistle Dew Library.  Another place is on the back wall of the Thistle Dew Hardware store –inside or outside.  One librarian even figured out how to make three doors that could be put up together for a double or even triple door, which is handy for large orders.  Another place the doors work is at the T.D.Fera shipping department.  They’ve developed a tall, two-car garage door.  There are several other libraries around the worlds that have these doors, but not very many.  We don’t, at this time, know where those doors are.

The original door is stored, rolled up, in a cardboard tube upstairs at the library.  The hardware store has another, much smaller door –about dumbwaiter-sized, in which is stored the triple doors for larger orders.  That small door is gently folded and in one of Big Al’s desk drawers.  It’s been taped a few times as the corners weaken through use, but it still works.  Nobody’s really sure how Lena gets to and from work.  Al or Linda-Jean could be in on it, but we really don’t know.

Backstory for RTMac

BACKSTORY

Back in the first cold snap of December, 2016, I spied a roadkilled hawk as I drove by at 55 (Yeah, I’m one of those irritating guys who sets their cruise at the speed limit).  This hawk didn’t look to me to be a run-of-the-mill ordinary red tail or kestrel.  I know I’m not supposed to pick up birds of prey or parts thereof without permission, so I pondered what it might be as I drove on.  At an earlier Missouri Master Naturalist meeting, I heard how sometimes conservation agents pick up roadkilled specimens for their taxidermists to work into educational displays, so I asked if they’d like a call if I ran across an interesting kill while out on my delivery route.  Our agent said ‘yes’ and gave me his card so I’d have it handy.

There lay the crumpled raptor.  It was obviously larger than a sparrow hawk but I thought it looked quite a bit smaller than a red tail.  Mostly white belly poked toward the road while a wing tip underside peeked from behind.  The back looked to be mostly light brown.  Nothing really distinct to me --what is it?  So I popped into the next library on my route and hit the field guides.  They only had a National Geographic guide, and Brad Jacobs’ “Birds in Missouri”.  I didn’t spot a good match, but merlin and female northern harrier were suspects, but I wasn’t convinced.    I drove by Tuesday and figured it was a Missouri Department of Conservation-worthy specimen.  I called my friendly neighborhood conservation agent and described what I’d seen and he asked if I could pick it up and keep it frozen. 

I picked the bird up Wednesday morning (yes, it’d stayed frozen, so it didn’t stink up my van).  Still puzzled.  The color didn’t point to anything with which I thought I was familiar.  The size was still a puzzler.  The wing shape looked almost falcon-like.  At least harrier was ruled out.  When I got home, I pulled the bird from the bag and spread it out as much as I thought I could without breaking anything.  I took several photos.  I looked through my books I had at home, before posting the photos on Facebook for advice.  I looked in Audubon, National Geographic, Peterson, Usborne, and Golden field guides, and in bigger Reader’s Digest, Brad Jacobs, Doubleday Birds of America, Michael Vanner’s Encyclopedia, D&K Smithsonian books, some specialty guides and more.  And yes, I do have a library at home.  I still didn’t find a match to convince me of an ID.  A Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) friend recommended Facebook’s Hawk ID group.  I asked two other bird-expert friends.  One gave an e-mail for one of MO’s most active professional birders and I sent her the photos, too.

To shorten the tale, I was relying too much on a couple features on which to base my ID.  Most of the more experienced folks and experts told me I had a small pale juvenile red tailed hawk.  Only 2 respondents said they weren’t sure.  I’m pretty certain, now,  its a red tail –but still, maybe an out of the ordinary specimen.  I don’t know if I’ll ever see it all thawed out so I can give it a ‘proper’ measuring and spreading of the wings.  The point of all of the above is the whole ordeal really got me thinking about ID. 

Then a prop for my wild edibles programs popped into my head –something that’s not what it’s ID’d to be.  And that first thing to pop into my head was a Scotsman who obviously wasn’t.  Then the story came on how she got ID’s based on a couple flimsy bits of evidence…  So, the Scotsman who couldn’t be, named after the critter which started my ID dilemma, was born.  Come to think of it, “THE” red tail roadkill might’ve been born around May, ’16, too.

I didn’t misidentify my hawk, because I didn’t settle on an ID.  I did, however, resist making the ID based on a couple features which I thought precluded its being what it actually was.  Nature’s cool.  Not everything fits into one species-specific mold.

 

 

So why the female main character?

First off, she’s the first thing that popped into my head when I thought about a misidentified program prop.  I don’t know why.  It’s just how it was.  It was suggested I should use a male character, to eliminate any innuendo or dirty-old-man thoughts from readers’ minds. I could have done that, until I pondered how I might react to strange people or anyone I didn’t really know on my property.  I’ll admit, it’s probably a sexist thing in my character choice.  I picked a girl, because I know boys.  I was a teen boy.  I was a male in his 20s and 30s…  I trust having young female renters more than young male renters.  We even allowed some female college student house-sitters while we took a trip to England.  I used to be a young male renter –I did stupid stuff.  I could usually get the hatchet to stick in the wall (I did do my own repairs and repainting), but I managed to keep a trail through the beer cans kicked clean to the fridge.  I’ve recently experienced male college students and female college students renting the house across the road from where I work.  It’s done nothing to show me I should trust young guys living on my property.  The guys just seem to trash a place worse than girls.

If I was to discover a campsite on my place, I’d want and need to know who it was and why they were there.  If I didn’t like the reasons, it’d have to go.  It’s probably a guy-thing, but if I was in George’s position and discovered a boy camped out on my place without permission, I’d probably be more apt to have a defensive, get-outta-here, move-along sort of attitude than a protective attitude.  I think it’s still a good choice, and there ain’t gonna be any hanky-panky.  I never described the characters’ physical appearance.  (OK, I guess George did tell the clerk at Walmart that Redtail wasn’t skinny or fat)  I’ve not mentioned whether they were black, white, tan, or even green.  You’ve only got one exact age, and that was only guessed by the characters. I chose a college student because during breaks, they could disappear for weeks or even months without contact or missing persons reports.  

I Googled stress-induced memory loss and it’s a real thing.  I’ve also consulted some law enforcement on what they’d do in the case of Redtail, and they said they really couldn’t do anything, since she has permission to camp on George’s place.  Even the library card issued without ID wasn’t without consult.

Redtail’s appearance, in my head, is based on a figure I ran across while trying to find the “right” Barbie to act as a physical Scotsman prop.  George’s appearance, and even his being a survival trainer, is based on a friend I ran across on Facebook, and subsequently met and did some wild edibles programs for.  The town librarian is loosely based on two of Corder, MO’s librarians at least in name –a blend of retiring and new librarian.  Jeanna, Corder’s present (early 2017) librarian, said one day as I walked in with my delivery, “That was our mayor…” about a patron who was just leaving.  He was a cheerful fun-acting guy, so I asked his name.  “Doug Lorenz,” Jeanna said.  I smiled and told her, “I got the name for Wilder’s mayor –Lawrence Douglas.” 

Many of the story settings are based on actual places: The Pipes were from my childhood –a place in Golden Valley, MN, where we kids would sometimes take a break while we were off on our suburban hunting excursions.  The culverts where Redtail got her crayfish are at Knob Noster State Park.  The Laundry Room is based partly on some deeper curves in the creek behind my house.  Redtail’s campsite is based on rock formations at Roaring River State Park.  George’s home is based on several farmsteads from my childhood.  The conservation area behind George’s place is based on Baltimore Bend and Ralph and Martha Perry Conservation areas.  George’s dog is based on the blue heeler/border collie, “Arnold” who lives at the parsonage at my church.  Thistle Dew, MO, is based, quite loosely on Dover and Corder, MO and the map of Thistle Dew is based fairly closely on Fayetteville, MO. 

Names: 

-Redtail, I explained above. 

-George Peterson comes from an old friend I stumbled across about the same day I got the portal idea.  The old friend’s name was George Peter M…last name.

-Sarah, Frank and Lena were fairly arbitrary names.

-Darrell Cord, the police chief, is named from another police chief with a fairly similar name.  The original chief is a one-l Darrel, and you’d spot the similarity in the last name, if you knew the guy.

-Big Al and Gus were just big-sounding names.  I thought they oughtta be burly sorts.

-Linda-Jean named for retiring Corder librarian, Linda, and new branch manager, Jeanna.

-Mae-Mae, George’s deceased wife, just popped into my head and I used it.

-Rick, the current Relics student leader, was an arbitrary name-choice.

-Lydia, an outspoken confident young student of about 6 or 7, came to mind when looking at a card signed by a homeschool group which came out to my place for a wild edibles walk.

-Rita is an arbitrary name, too, but I did know a waitress named Rita which could have subconsciously connected that name with catering.

-Little Al isn’t really ‘little’ but to distinguish him from the bigger Big Al, the town decided to call him that.  Al is a stereotypical mechanic’s name, too.  I picture those blue patches embroidered with Al, Bob, Tom and other short names.

-Dave, Little Al’s son, was an arbitrary name-choice, too.

-Tom is an acronym Redtail came up with to name The Old Man who originally called her Redtail.

-Chrissy Ellmaker is the creator of the first portal, and is based on a real librarian at Knob Noster.  The real librarian, made a paper doorway for a program from which the story-portals are inspired.  I wouldn’t doubt her name’s been mispronounced like I spelled it for the story.

-Kate Dickson, the English librarian who’s got a portal, is loosely named after the mom of an ‘adopted’ university student we had a few years back.

-Bart Fera –the “Bart” part is arbitrary, but the Fera fits in with Thistle Dew (This’ll do) Fera (for a) Manufacturing Company.

-Elder Bart for Bart’s grandfather just sounded like more fun than calling grandson Bart, “Bart the Second”.

-Pastor Herman Ulysses Tix is a wonderful name for a pastor.  I looked up “Tix” to make sure it was a real surname, and was fairly surprised to find it.  Herman U. Tix –hermeneutics is the word meaning ‘how we study the Bible’.

-Big River Mall is Amazon.com, of course.

-Wilder comes from the overarching background of wild edibles.  I’ve also got a website (in the works) called wilderedibles.com.  Thistle Dew is explained in the text of the RTMac Story.

-Donowutt County

-Donowutt Community College Home of the Voles

-Higginsburg Home of the Fightin’ Isopods

-Chuck, an arbitrary name that popped into mind for Sarah’s deceased husband.

I’ll add more as they come to mind.

Thistle Dew town square is mostly fairly well maintained buildings going back to the 1800s, boardwalks, hitching posts, hidden HVAC/and other modern utilities.  This historic small town is based on a painting I saw upstairs in Lexington’s library.  I thought I recognized the town, and then I spotted the remains of the stairs and walkway of the 1800s buildings.  I’d sure like to find that painting again and at least take some photos of it.  The old foundations of the buildings are still visible in Dover, MO.   Sarah’s place was owned by Sarah and her husband.  Wilder Museum is also owned by Sarah, but she’s letting the local homeschool co-op run it.  Wilder Bait and Tackle is one of the two bigger employers in town.  Gus’s family owned Wilder Bait and Tackle since the 1870s, making high quality wooden plugs.  Rita’s Catering is the other big employer.  They each have around a dozen employees. 

Sources of supply for illustration purposes are T.D.Fera Manufacturing and Big River Mall.  Most of the visible illustrated characters come from Big River, though some are from local small towns and many are from China.