The Character Mac

I've had a couple of friends ask if I were the character Mac in The Possessor. The answer is no. Mac was my nickname growing up, but that is as autobiographical as it gets. Mac is a compilation of many young boys who grew up in the fifties. It was an innocent time. During the summer, I would leave the house in the early morning and my parents wouldn't see me again until late in the afternoon or early evening. We'd actually walk from Meyer and Prospect in south Kansas City to Swope Park. We'd roam all over the park until we were hungry, and then walk back to someone's house for peanut butter sandwiches. Other times we'd go buy a coke and a candy bar and keep on playing. A coke cost a nickel and so did a candy bar. My favorite treat was a bottle of coke with cashews from a vending machine: pure heaven! We'd sit around and talk about girls as if we really understood them. (Sometimes we still do that!) Very few of us had air-conditioned homes, so we spent most of our summer outside. We had many sleepovers during the summer. Played a lot of baseball, and went swimming. I think one of the wildest things we did before we were sixteen was run around the block late at night in our underwear during a sleepover. I guess you could say we were modest streakers for our time. Compared to early teenagers today, we were pretty naive, but as I look back on those times, they were a lot of fun.

The Possessor is free is you have a Kindle and Amazon Prime.

Aunt Holly in The Possessor

Aunt Holly's strong character in The Possessor is a familiar figure for many of us who grew up in the 30s, 40's, and 50's. Aunt Holly is based on my mother who brought those skills with her when I was growing up in Kansas City. Like many women who had to live through the depressions and then World War II, she baked her own bread, made her own lye soap, and made many of our clothes. She was liberated before her time although she didn't understand the women's movement because she could do anything she wanted. She sold real estate and was good with money. Her greatest weakness was her grandchildren.  Aunt Holly has a jovial side and my mother was pretty serious most of the time, so I took a little bit of her cousin, Sylvia and melded her into Aunt Holly. I don't think there was a time in my life when I was with Sylvia that she didn't laugh. She had a deep throated, belly laugh that made you want to laugh. Whether at funerals or weddings, Sylvia saw the funny side of life. The Aunt Holly's are fading from this world but they are being replaced by another time of strong woman who can hold a job, raise kids, and attend PTA meetings. She's just as organized and strong as Aunt Holly.

Kindle Readers

Everyone knows about the Kindle Readers. They are separate reading devices that allow you to download books and magazines from Amazon.com. What you might not know is that there are other types of Kindle software that allows you to read that same book or magazine on your computer or smart phone.  There is even a Kindle reading application for the IPad! The neat thing about having a Kindle and/or the Kindle applications is that you can sync them. I can start reading on my Kindle reader at home and then when I'm at the doctor's office, sync my Kindle reader on my smart phone and continue reading where I left off. I could then go to work and open the Kindle reader on my PC and sync to bring up my book again.  You may not want to read on your smart phone but in a pinch and the magazines are old in the doctor's office, it ain't bad.