My last post told about the latest of my Danny Tompkins stories. But I’m not sure I ever did a post explaining the full series and what my goals are for it. I think, with posting story #7, the series is done. But I thought that after #6, and years later I got the idea for the new story. So I guess I should say maybe it’s done, or maybe it isn’t.

The first story in the series is “Mom’s Letter”. I wrote this back around 2006. A fellow writer told me about a short story writing contest and encouraged me to enter. The word limit was rather short. My critique partners said the story wasn’t well enough developed, and I didn’t submit it. Later, when not governed by a specific word count, I expanded the story. Critique partners now liked it, and I waited for an opportunity to do something with it.

Then came the beginning of 2011. That’s when I made the decision to self-publish. What to self-publish first? I had a history book almost done, but not quite. I still had a couple of months to go before it would be ready. But I remembered I had “Mom’s Letter” ready to go. And so I published it on Feb 13, 2011.

“Mom’s Letter” tells the story of Danny Tompkins, a 13-year-old boy who, on the last day of his first year at scout camp, learns that his mother has entered the hospital for the last time. Danny has the drive home from camp to ponder what life will be like without Mom. The story then fast forwards to the future, the Daniel, the adult Danny has become, finds a letter his mom wrote him during that week at camp, and remembers what it was like in those days.

That was all I figured on doing with Danny. But, as my writing continued, I realized I could make a series out of that, with the goal being to help teens who have experienced a loss to recover from the loss. And as I thought about it, the stories started rolling. “Too Old To Play” covered the wake and funeral. “Kicking Stones” was about going back to school. “Saturday Haircuts, Tuesday Funeral” told the story of how his dad dealt with his grief and that of his children. “What Kept Her Alive” told the story of his mother’s illness and suffering. And “Growing Up Too Fast” covered the struggles Danny had navigating his teen years.

As I say, I thought that the series was done at that point. I figured I had covered about all the things that a teen had to deal with. I hoped also that the memories of the adult Daniel showing how he got through the times would help a teen is similar situations. What more would I have to talk about?

If you read my last post, you know how “To Laugh Again” covered the return to normal after the period of mourning. That story came to me quite a while after I completed the rest of stories.

So, that’s where the series is. You can get an idea of it at this link. I hope some of you will take a look at it.