Ever wonder where authors get their ideas? Sometimes they percolate for a very long time before they find a place in a story. A good example is this super shirt.
My latest book, Super Hec, came out this week. It is the third book in the Anderson Chronicles, and it tell the story of what happens to geeky middle schooler Hector Anderson when he decides to take up running. The faded, old t shirt that figures throughout the story has a story of its own.
My latest book, Super Hec, came out this week. It is the third book in the Anderson Chronicles, and it tell the story of what happens to geeky middle schooler Hector Anderson when he decides to take up running. The faded, old t shirt that figures throughout the story has a story of its own.
Super shirt first shows up at the very beginning of the story, when Eddie, Hec's best friend, pulls it out of his backpack. The forever disorganized Hec has realized that he's forgotten the t shirt he uses for P.E., and his grade will suffer if he can't dress out. Fortunately for Hec, Eddie carries this old t shirt as a spare, saving Hec's grade but making him the butt of jokes in the locker room.
When Sandy, the girl of Hec's dreams, comments on the shirt, it becomes a talisman for him. He is convinced his "lucky" shirt is helping him train for a 5K road race. Eddie's father, the original owner of the shirt, shares training tips with Hec as he remembers his glory days on the Stanford track team. As Hec's legs strengthen and his runs become easier, he can't bear to be parted from Super shirt. It becomes so stinky that his mother begs him to let her wash it.
When Sandy, the girl of Hec's dreams, comments on the shirt, it becomes a talisman for him. He is convinced his "lucky" shirt is helping him train for a 5K road race. Eddie's father, the original owner of the shirt, shares training tips with Hec as he remembers his glory days on the Stanford track team. As Hec's legs strengthen and his runs become easier, he can't bear to be parted from Super shirt. It becomes so stinky that his mother begs him to let her wash it.
Super shirt made its first appearance in my life when I was a young bride back in 1980. My husband and I were moving across country, and I was packing the content of a desk drawer when I came upon an unexposed roll of film. I took it to the store to have it developed. When I returned a week later to pick the pictures up, I flipped through the snapshots, then told the man behind the counter that he had made a mistake. I didn't recognize any of the people in the pictures, nor any of the Italianate, stucco buildings. Clearly, he had given me someone else's pictures.
The man smiled. He explained that the faded colors indicated that the film had been exposed a long time ago, and had lingered, undeveloped, in the can for a long time, perhaps years. He suggested I take them home and show them to my husband. Perhaps he would recognize the people and places that I didn't. After an argument, I agreed to take the pictures home, but I was sure I would return the next day, vindicated by my husband's inability to recognize those people and places. I was wrong.
The man smiled. He explained that the faded colors indicated that the film had been exposed a long time ago, and had lingered, undeveloped, in the can for a long time, perhaps years. He suggested I take them home and show them to my husband. Perhaps he would recognize the people and places that I didn't. After an argument, I agreed to take the pictures home, but I was sure I would return the next day, vindicated by my husband's inability to recognize those people and places. I was wrong.
The pictures, it turned out, were five years old. The Italianate building were on the Stanford University campus, where my husband had attended, and the pictures were of him and his classmates. I had never been to Stanford. I had never met most of the people in the pictures. But the humiliating part was that I hadn't even recognized my own husband, even in the picture in which he was wearing a shirt I had seen many times.
In that picture, my husband is standing triumphantly at the top of Mount Whitney, California's highest peak. He was a young man at the top of his game and on top of the world. His horizon seemed limitless, the future unclouded. By the time I married him, the t shirt was faded and had some holes, but he still loved it and the memories it brought back to him.
A lot has changed in the nearly 40 years since I developed that picture, but I am happy to say that my husband and I both aged better than the t shirt.
A lot has changed in the nearly 40 years since I developed that picture, but I am happy to say that my husband and I both aged better than the t shirt.
Jennifer Bohnhoff is an author who still runs with middle school students at the school where she teaches English and coaches the cross country team. Her latest book, Super Hec, is available in both paperback and ebook from Amazon.
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