Chapter 1 - Martha Street Market

I am so happy to announce there will be a fifth book to the Saginaw Series.

SPOILER ALERT - the following first chapter explains which band won the Michigan Talent contest from the last book, Daniel's Den.

Over Thanksgiving my husband's brother agreed to work on the cover of the fifth book, Martha Street Market.  D.A. Clifford is the artist for the covers of the Saginaw Series Books and I wasn't sure he would want to do another one.  But as soon as he said yes, ideas started forming.

Remember, Colleen and her family live above Martha Street Market.

This morning I began to write.

Best Friends, Katy, Jen and Colleen are just entering senior year at St. Mary Cathedral.

Chapter One - ROUGH DRAFT - Martha Street Market

Jen and Colleen walked to the Hoyt Library after school. They each had a term paper due in a week and they wanted to get them done before the weekend.  They both knew their parents would never let them do anything over the weekend if the term papers weren’t finished.

Jen asked her friend, “Have you talked to Katy?”

Colleen grunted.

Jen guessed, “I suppose that means you didn’t.”

Colleen looked like she was going to cry.  She turned to Jen to complain, “You know she isn’t talking to either of us.  She’s furious that we argued with her last week.”

Jen nodded her head in agreement, “I know, but this has gone on long enough.  She stayed home in her room all summer long.  She quit being a lifeguard at the pool.  She wouldn’t do anything with us and now that school has started you would think she would at least have lunch with us.  No… not the long suffering, the world is all about me, Katy. You should try living in the same house with the drama queen!  We used to be the best sisters in the world, but now I don’t think that will ever happen again.”

Colleen agreed, but she knew that Katy still felt so bad about letting everyone down when the band came in second in the Talent Michigan band competition.

It had been a long summer after that ill-fated concert in Detroit, Michigan.  They all had been at the concert.  Katy’s band, the Lifeguards, performed like pros.  They were so good, but the Wildcats were better.  No getting around it, the band that should have won, did.  After losing, Katy’s band broke up and then she began her summer of wallowing in self pity.  Jen and Colleen did all they could to get her out of the funk she was in, but nothing worked.

Finally they gave up. Colleen quit calling Katy and Jen just ignored her.  After a few weeks Jen tried again, but Katy only answered yes or no to all her questions and still wouldn’t leave their house.
Colleen and Jen walked up the steps to the library entrance.  After taking the elevator to the second floor they entered the genealogy and Saginaw Historical room.  They went their separate ways to gather books to research for the term papers. 

Jen was not happy having to go to the library.  She complained to her teacher, Sister Carmelita, that the topics to choose from were so specific that they couldn’t use the Internet to get enough sources to use for the term paper.  Sr. Carmelita smiled as she explained that was exactly why the topics were local Saginaw topics.  She told the students that not every single thing in life was on the Internet.  While they could use the Internet as one way to find sources for their term papers they also needed to learn how to research at a real library, with real books. 

Jen chose the Webber House as her topic; it was a building close to her heart.  The summer before starting high school she had fallen down the cellar stairs of the old mansion and had to be rescued! The officer who had been looking for her and the current owner of the Webber House eventually fell in love and planned on getting married this year. Jen took credit for getting them together.

Colleen was very happy to be in the historical section of the library.  Her topic was to report on the Hoyt Library.  After looking up Hoyt Library on the computer system, she pulled out the books she needed and took them to one of the large oak tables.  The librarian had warned her some of the books were very old and needed to be handled with great care.  After looking in the index Colleen carefully turned to the pages listed and began to read.  Almost immediately she became absorbed with the story.  After reading a few pages she motioned to Jen to come to the table. 

With excitement she whispered, “Oh Jen, our term papers are going to be connected.  Mr. Webber was Mr. Hoyt’s lawyer and good friend.  Mr. Webber actually wrote Mr. Hoyt’s will which set up a fund to build the library.


Jen became interested and read over Colleen’s shoulder.  Neither of them noticed Katy watching them from behind the bookshelves.  She felt jealous, left out and angry that they didn’t even notice her.  She turned and left the room without saying anything to her former best friends.
From A Light Shines Forth
Chapter 18

They ordered their favorite treat, strawberry kakigori, which was a big bowl of shaved ice, covered with strawberry sauce and strawberry ice cream. Noah set the huge bowl on the table and they both dug into it.  Between bites Stephanie asked, "Remember when we ordered our first kakigori?  We didn't know we could share, so we each ordered one.  We were shocked when each one cost 600 yen.  Then they gave them to us and they were humongous; we knew we couldn't each eat one."  Noah nodded his head, "Well, I thought five dollars was a lot to spend for a little dish of ice.  Good thing there was another couple from the base behind us.  We sold them yours and shared mine."




On a mission!

My daughter went to visit Robbie and Alicia in Okinawa. Before she left I asked if they could go have a kakigori to see if it was as good as my research said it was.  The text was
 "Yummy! We got Mango."

Our granddaughter, Sheala went to visit and they found kakigori at another place.



Research!

From A Light Shines Forth
Chapter 18

They ordered their favorite treat, strawberry kakigori, which was a big bowl of shaved ice, covered with strawberry sauce and strawberry ice cream. Noah set the huge bowl on the table and they both dug into it.  Between bites Stephanie asked, "Remember when we ordered our first kakigori?  We didn't know we could share, so we each ordered one.  We were shocked when each one cost 600 yen.  Then they gave them to us and they were humongous; we knew we couldn't each eat one."  Noah nodded his head, "Well, I thought five dollars was a lot to spend for a little dish of ice.  Good thing there was another couple from the base behind us.  We sold them yours and shared mine."




On a mission!

My daughter went to visit Robbie and Alicia in Okinawa. Before she left I asked if they could go have a kakigori to see if it was as good as my research said it was.  The text was
 "Yummy! We got Mango."

Saginaw's BEST Past, Present, and Future is a fabulous group on Facebook that is administrered by Sam Bashans.  The historical pictures are amazing.  Here is one of Andersen Pool in 1948. It shows how high the diving board was as well as a great view of the crow's nest where the lifeguards were on duty.  My eBook series, The Saginaw Series has the third book named after this pool. The characters in the book have jobs at Andersen Pool as lifeguards.  Click the picture to go to the eBook on Amazon. (Listed below this link are the other three books in the series: Webber House, Bertie's Bakery Heaven Scent and Daniel's Den.)