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Why is it so hard to feel comfortable in our own skin? And as that skin gets older, why do we still feel like young kids, still trying to figure things out? This story is about a young woman who learns about love, youth and possibility from a very old man.

Although I’d love to experience something as magical as what happened to Persey, the people and events in this story are 100% unrelated to my own life. The idea for this story began one morning in 2014, while I was coasting between reality and a very vivid dream about living in a tree house. Up in this tree house, surrounded by breeze and birds and calm, I’d noticed a large lever sticking out of the trunk. I’d mistaken it for a branch, but when I pulled on it, I felt a low rumble and heard the crunching of waking gears. The tree house rotated one hundred and eighty degrees and everything changed. I had a new view with fresh possibilities. I was overcome by an empowered ease. As I let the dream settle in my mind, Persey appeared and then Adam came along, then Persey’s dad and her friend Kirby… then Shady Pines popped into existence, along with Denise and Rodger…

It started as a short story and quickly grew into a book. I self-published it and then took it down, then did both again. Somehow it seemed to be permanently riddled with typos no matter how many times I proofed it! At some point, I decided to nix all typos by turning it into an audio book. While editing, it occurred to me that some ambiance would be cool. Wind, I think, it was. Then I thought, “oh, a thump would be cool for when she jumps down from the tree.” Then before I knew it, I’d downloaded hundreds of sounds from freesound.org, as well as recorded a bunch of my own.

When recording the dialogue, I thought the experience would be enhanced by “doing voices,” which I quickly learned I am not good at. Instead I used Audacity to change the pitch of my voice. (My 94-year-old Mema is the exception– she does the voices for the old ladies in chapters 3 & 7. Her home and neighbors are also the inspiration for Shady Pines and its residents. In late-2019, she started dating her boyfriend and I am happy to say their love has made both of them younger!)

If you listen to this story and enjoy it, please review on iTunes! That would make me very happy.