Awkward Introductions {Featuring Mae}

I love word clouds. So I decided to make one for my blog. You should, too--they're quite fun!

Anyway....

 I've been meaning to do this for a while. Since before NaNoWriMo, to be exact. I just haven't gotten around to it. Then, Meghan reminded me that I've written about 50% of a book about which you know NOTHING. I don't usually do this. As you all know, when I write something, I share it with the world and then talk about it constantly for about two weeks. This is very uncharacteristic. Providentially, I have nothing new to post about (except that I found a long-lost and much-beloved book from my childhood and have subsequently read it to myself each night before I go to sleep--but that's another story) and so I thought I'd take a minute and write out a short synopsis for To Bring Mae Flowers. This is gonna be one of those awkward introductions--the ones where you've seen a person for days and are just now being introduced. Yes. Totally my bad :3

All right. Here we go.

The story is set in the late 19th-early 20th century. It just about covers the entire lifespan of the main character, Mae, whose real name is Mary Ann, whose real real name is Anna Maria. It's extremely confusing--so much so that even I'm not sure I've got it right.

Anyway, Mae lives with her family in Philadelphia at the turn of the century. Her parents came to the United States from Germany, met, married, and had eight girls. Mae is second-eldest. The story begins on the morning of her older sister Sophia's wedding--Mae's seventeen and only slightly jealous. After a series of awkward, unfortunate and really to embarrassing to describe events (i.e. I still can't believe I wrote that scene) Mae lands a job as a telephone operator. Now, this may seem pretty dull--telephone operators today are those people who speak too fast and call you at three in the morning. But telephones in 1905 were novel--in fact, they were almost unheard of. So this was a pretty cool job. Much of this part of the story I filled in myself--for example, the kinds of people she worked with, how long she worked, etc. An important character who sprung from my creativity is Lydia, Mae's best friend who works at the telephone company. She is a main character throughout most of the rest of the story, and I've enjoyed writing her immensely.

For the most part, Mae's stay at the telephone company is uneventful except for one important thing (and, I kid you not, this is the honest-to-goodness truth, according to my grandmother): a man calls and begins stalking her. Not stalking in the creepy way, but calling over and over again and carrying on even though Mae isn't supposed to talk on the phone, only connect calls. Lydia assures her that every once in a while, a man will call, like the sound of a girl's voice, and call again. And again. It seems that this is exactly what the mystery gentleman is doing... until he asks to meet Mae. Then things get rather sticky. In the long run, Mae ends up in a small cafe' with Lydia hiding in a booth and her father hovering nearby. She meets her mystery man, whose name is Arthur. Arthur is British, which means he says cool things like "blast" and "Long live the King". Not really--but it would be cool if he did.

Now I'm going to stop narrating and do a really quick ending--I don't want to give anything away ;) Arthur and Mae marry after a short but extremely whirlwind-ish courtship, and Part One ends. Part Two is where Mae's two children, Mary and Joseph, come in. Part Two is also where Arthur takes Mary, Joseph, and all of the couple's savings and leaves for England, leaving only a note for Mae. This is where Mae's character truly comes out for me--she stops being a slightly vague and romantic-minded girl and becomes the kind of heroine this story deserves. I can't tell you any more, because I haven't written any more and am still researching England in 1915 (which is when Mae goes over to retrieve her two little children).

Okay. I think I covered everything. All in all, I love this book. I love writing it; I love researching it; I love filling in the little holes and speculating about what everything my great-great-grandmother Mae must have been feeling. It's pretty tough, but I'm enjoying every word I wrestle down onto my paper.

Meghan, thanks for the reminder! I hope you guys enjoyed reading a little bit about my novel--hopefully when I'm on my laptop I can put up a couple chapters for you to look at. Any questions? Post a comment or send me an email. I love questions like a fish loves...bubbles. Yeah. That's a lot of love.


Just about 15 days until Christmas!


Elisabeth~