Tap, Tap, Tap

 "Tap! Tap! Tap!" Those are the first three words of the new hardback book that I got for Christmas. It was Nancy Drew 16: The Clue of the Tapping Heels. I don't know where my mom bought it, but I remember that it had that new book smell and it was mine! I didn't have to return it to the library.

Escondido didn't have a bookstore back then before the Escondido Mall was built in 1964. I asked where my mom could have bought it new on a Facebook Group page, "I Grew up in Escondido." Mom isn't around to remember. The consensus was the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew could be purchased at drug stores, grocery stores and even through the Sears catalog, which was a big thing at our house. I'd get my new underwear each year from that catalog and maybe one new school dress (we sewed the others.) 

 

But a new book was a treat, and I still remember this first new one about Nancy tapping out Morse code to get out of a basement. She was a smart girl detective, and I decided to become a detective after reading that. It was a short-lived goal. I was a farm girl, raised out in the countryside of Escondido and belonged to 4-H. I loved animals and wanted to be a large animal vet. My dream college was CalPoly, and I stayed on that path until one revealing day when my lamb got sick, and I needed to give it a shot. 

I woke up after fainting, and being the logical person that I was, I switched to plants and decided to focus on teaching the starving world to grow food. During college, they started killing Americans in Central America, so I changed from International Agriculture to Agribusiness and then to business with a focus on accounting and, later, computer programming. But I never forgot Nancy and my dream. My first solo novel was Murder in the Magic Kingdom, which combined my love of everything Disney and mystery. That title was taken, so it was published as Pixie Dust Death, A Wilma  Wallaby Genius Girl Detective Novel. 

This month, I signed an agreement with a UK production company that wants to develop Wilma Wallaby into an international kids TV show.  As a modern-day Enola Holmes, Wilma Wallaby is an aspiring kick-ass detective who thinks her bully of an older brother is always trying to murder her. You might remember a previous blog where I shared my childhood struggles growing up with a tyrant of an older brother. I still have a cap on the broken tooth from one of our fights that he won. I had a tiny closet in my room, and he'd stuff me in there for hours when my folks weren't home and lock me out of the house at other times. I hated being home alone with Stan. He'd hit me hard and threaten to do worse if I told Mom and Dad. He's dead now (no, I didn't kill him,) but I spent most of my childhood wishing I was an only child.

Getting back to Wilma Wallaby, there was one problem with my book; it was set in Disney World. Trying to get Disney to sign off on a murder mystery set in the happiest place on earth would take years. This month, I had to rewrite it to be set at a fictitious theme park in Florida, which I called Castle Country. It was fun; I invented rides, lands, restaurants, and hotels. There is Medieval Castle Land, Fairy Castle Land, The Swiss Alps and rides like Troll Trek and Screaming Sleds through the Swiss Alps. I think my Viking Cruise trip starting in Switzerland through the Rhine River castles last year finally paid off.

The new title is Wilma Wallaby Castle Caper - A Genuis Girl Detective Novel.

You can read for free with Kindle Unlimited or order it on Amazon. It opens similar to my favorite Nancy Drew - with a tap, tap - enjoy!

Amazon Link - https://us.amazon.com/dp/1736034863

You are Bigger

 

My granddaughter, Vrinda graduated this year from the University of North Florida with a degree in Biology with a concentration in Coastal Environmental Science.  My hope is that someday she will save our world from devastating climate change. One of my favorite memories of Vrinda was when I took her down to the beach when she was about two.   She would love to run out to the water’s edge but was terribly frightened by seagulls and would run back up to me on my blanket.  I knew she wanted to be out there with her sisters playing, so I had a talk with her and said, “You are this tall,” holding out my hand over her head. “the seagulls are only this tall,” as I moved my hand low to the ground.  “All you have to do is run towards them and shout, “Go Away, go away!  The seagulls are afraid of you because you are bigger.”  Vrinda tried it and was delighted to be able to make the seagulls fly away.  She would run up and down the beach shouting at them, “Go Away, go away!  From then on, her favorite game when we'd go to the beach would be to immediately clear the area of any seagulls.  

We were on a business trip when Janet went into labor with Vrinda.  I had asked our accountant, Lena to come over and help watch Chandra and Tulaasi after Janet went into the hospital.  Keith and I boarded the plane, thinking that when we arrived, we’d have another grandchild.  When we called from the airport, we found that although Janet was in the hospital; she had not had the baby yet.  We sent Lena home and took the girls over to our house to wait.  It seemed like minutes after we had arrived home that Janet had Vrinda.  We always thought that Vrinda waited until we got there.  We were delighted with this cute and smiling baby.  Vrinda was the first one that Keith and I had been around from the start, and I think that caused a special bond between us.  She tore a pretty big hole our hearts.  When they would bring the girls over to stay with us, Vrinda would always jump on my lap with her bottle hanging from her mouth.  She’d turn my head towards her and say, “Grandma, I want to tell you about my bad dream last night.”   Vrinda was special to Tulaasi.  Finally, no longer the youngest, Tulaasi seemed to rise to the occasion when Vrinda came along.  Tulaasi would lay on the floor and look at Vrinda and gently touch the side of Vrinda’s face. She would talk "baby talk" to Vrinda. Tulaasi was finally the bigger sister.

I grew up like the Gorgonites; the heroes of a movie called Small Soldiers.  They were not brave, instead they had a knack for hiding.  My brother was bigger and a bully who beat me up; both physically and emotionally.  I was insecure and thought of myself as little.  A friend at work one day said to me, "Sandi, you intimidate others."   I was shocked!  Me, thought of as intimidating?  How can that be?  He explained, "you're very smart and smarter than everyone else here.  They find that intimidating."  I had worked most of my life in the car business where having an education was not a strong point; in fact I rarely mentioned that I was a CPA and had a degree in Accounting with a minor in Computer Science.  Typically the General Manager or owner had a "PHD."  That doesn't meant an advanced degree, rather that meant "poppa had a dealership."  He got the job because his dad, grandfather, etc. owned the dealership.

Was I an intellectual bully?  I realized that I didn't like training people; I couldn't understand how they couldn't understand how things worked or aspire to a higher position.  I didn't have empathy for those that were content to be at the same level, lacking the ambition to learn more and grow.   My friend would lector me, "Sandi, not everyone can be the CFO like you; the world also needs file clerks."  Later when I started a software company, my "bigger brain" got worse.  When someone would be using our software and wanted our product to look like their old antiquated previous system, I didn't get it.  Didn't they want the speed and power of better technology?  

I'm not sure if I'll ever be cured of being an intellectual bully.  I never thought of myself as pretty, but I knew I was smart and could figure anything out if I had a manual or an Internet connection.  But I am also self-aware, so I've stepped down from running my software company and in my place are empathic professionals that work carefully with our customers, helping them use our software, regardless of their ability to learn or understand instructions.  I am trying to be bigger and stop yelling at people to "go away, go away!"

Visit my website for info on my books - https://www.sandijerome.com/