Behind the Story: Summer Camp

The picture above isn't actually from my new book, Faith & Hope, but it is from a time when I was starting to think about the story line. This picture is from late summer 2011. My husband and I were fixing our house up to sell because he had taken a new teaching job in another city. My sister and mom had come down to help for a few days. I am the one on the right and my sister on the left. I had been working all summer at Camp Doublecreek in Round Rock, TX. Let me tell you, it's a great camp, and I had a blast. But it was hard work. However, please note the AMAZING tan I had that year. I do miss that part.
At that point, my plot consisted of throwing two sisters together for a while who didn't get along. It was very loosely based on my own relationship with my sister. Don't get me wrong. I love my sister and always have. But we had several years where we didn't see eye-to-eye at all, and got along much better when we lived three states apart. So, my brain played with the idea of, "What would happen if two sisters who barely got along with each other were forced to live in the same house again?" Then, I had to figure out what would force that to happen. Several years before this, my sister had lost her teaching job. I though, okay. Why not use that. So, would she move for a job? Sure. But would it need to be permanent or temporary? What would she do? Then, I got the job at Camp Doublecreek. Perfect. A temporary summer position for the fictional sister to be able to work that would be in the area of her other sister. I didn't actually end up writing the novel for a few more years, after I had worked out a few more plot points in my brain.
In my book, Hope ends up spending the summer working at Camp TwinCreeks. See the resemblance? I fully admit I based the summer camp in my book on the one I worked at. What's the point of having all these different jobs throughout the years if I can't use them in my books? It's hot, sweaty, and exhausting. But it's also fun and ends up rewarding Hope in more ways than one. You'll just have to read the book to find out how!
To give you just a little extra, I went back and found a post I had written for the blog I kept back then at the end of the first summer I worked camp, and I'm sharing it below. Enjoy!

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I worked at camp all summer and all I got was. . .

• two staff t-shirts (slightly sweat and sunscreen stained)
• tan lines
• chigger bites
• mosquito bites
• sore muscles
• sweet memories
• new friends
• funny stories
• new experiences like climbing the rock wall and leading horses around to kids
• several Chick-fil-A sandwiches and Sonic drinks
• a couple icee pops
• a really great summer