Writing Contest, life lessons

In between editing the pet magazine, preparing the library budget and grandmothering, I have entered the over 60 PEN Texas contest. As background, I remember leafing through a book in the library at the Theta house in Austin in around 1964 and being fascinated with an account of a life told in checks. The series of checks revealed a life in Hollywood in 1931 (writen by Wuther Grue) and published in a big book.

Last year I came across the same book ( Vanity Fair 1931) and thought that this could be adapted to Dallas from the 70s to 2006 and tell the life of a privileged young woman. It was harder than I thought to organize the events and the different banks (there were lots of bank changes in the time)! Anyway, I sent it off and we'll see.

I used events from my own daughters' lives (the OB/GYN, the ballet school, cotillion) but other events (obviously, since my daughters grew up to be perfect, unspoiled, intelligent and beautiful) are made up or drawn from friends or acquaintences who weren't so blessed. Looking at their lives makes me realize that you can do everything you think is right and still be wrong.