Mother’s Day Blues

by Hilde Garcia

“Mommy, can I read you my story? It’s finished. It took me two weeks.”

“Sure, read away.” I always enjoy the words that my daughter weaves together. I listen while I drive choosing that over any music that could be playing on the radio.

“Ok." Victoria reads aloud.  
Disaster at School,
 by Victoria Anne Krol.
It was Monday and winter break had just ended. Percy, Annabeth and Grover were walking back to school. They got to school and started the day normally, but after lunch, Shawn, a kid that was late, cam in just in time for gym class. Shawn was mean and he started picking on Annabeth, Percy and Grover, when the teacher announced that they would be practicing obstacle courses.

Then the teacher asked them to get into 2 separate lines. No one disobeyed either. The teacher explained that they would be racing each other in pairs. Shawn was annoying Annabeth before they started, so I charged him with my sword pen, but he defended himself. I had no idea where he had gotten his sword! The all of a sudden, he disarmed me, then Annabeth mouthed at me, ‘he’s a monster’ and I understood. The monster was about to strike Annabeth when Grover, the satyr kicked it in the bottom with his hoof.

He went sprawling forward and then Annabeth stabbed the monster and it exploded into monster dust. Of course, nobody noticed because the mist-a-magical veil blindfolded them from what happened.”






“Wow,” I say.
Wow indeed. It’s fabulous. Well crafted, a great beginning, captures my interest. I already want to know what will happen next, so she’s hooked me. I feel like I might be an easy audience, a bit biased, but her story stands on its own merit, truly.


Did I mention she’s only in the third grade?

And she wrote her bio too: 
I, Victoria Anne Krol, live in California and am super interested in Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. I am very creative and I have a lot of friends.

She writes.

I write.

Maybe we will be a team. She’s asked me, but sometimes I feel that I am not worthy of her and her incredible imagination, which has been untainted by life. I cherish that and protect it for her- electronics are so limited in this house- I swear you’d think we had gone back in time.

On Saturday night, we visited the Iliad Book Store in North Hollywood, CA and closed the place down with a large purchase and children who were reluctant to leave. A breath of fresh air the owner told me. My kids had two friends with them who were also enraptured by the bookstore and it gives me hope that not all has been lost of the electronic generation.

This Mother’s Day, I will be writing with my sweetheart and maybe we will craft our first story together.

Mother’s Day blues for me? Not anymore. It was for a time when I had lost my own mom, but now I have Victoria, and she and I share our love of books and words. My son and his daddy too are bibliophiles and love to write, which surprised my son to find out earlier this year that he could be a published author.

For fun, here are some mother-daughter writing teams.

Enjoy!

Laura Ingalls Wilder was encouraged to write by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane who was a reporter and writer.

Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark have been co-authoring best selling mysteries for over 20 years.

Patricia and Traci Lambrecht, who write under the pen name P. J. Tracy, released Monkeewrench and their next title is Milk Run.

Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer co-authored Between the Lines, a YA book about what happens when happily ever after…isn’t.

Kristina McMorris and her mom, Linda Yoshida, wrote Flaherty’s Crossing.

Phyllis Christine Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast created The House of Night Series.

Blanche Day Manos and Barbara Burgess wrote Grave Shift, a mother-daughter sleuth team.

D. C. Cowan, a mother-daughter team who share the same first and middle initials, have created The Legend of the Black Roses, out on 12/31.

Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, and Ann Kidd Taylor who writes for Skirt have co-authored, Traveling with Pomegranates.

And because I have a son, not to leave him out, we have Sandra Blakeslee co-writing with her son Matt, The Body has a Mind of Its Own.

So you never know which one of my twins will team up with me.

Who knows, it could be both of them!