Introducing Vree

First, Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms. I hope you have a wonderful day with your loved ones.

Now, I’m going to discuss the joy of writing—and one of my favorite fictional characters.

I began writing short stories about fourteen-year-old Vree Erickson in the early 1970s when I was her age. In those days, I typed my tales on thin letter paper (8.5 x 11 inches) using a portable Remington typewriter. I used carbon paper to make copies—usually two, sometimes three—which I shared with my friends. All my stories were mixtures of fantasy, mystery, and a touch of horror.

Verawenda is Vree’s proper first name. “Vree” is a nickname of VRE, which are the initials of her full name: Verawenda Renee Erickson. She was named after her paternal great-great-grandmother, Verawenda (Kaufman) Russell. Verawenda is a combination of the names Vera and Wenda, which were common English names in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Vree became a female friend of a teen character named David Evans. I named him after the child character David Collins in the TV series Dark Shadows. Evans is a surname from the show, particularly the character Maggie Evans who began the series as a waitress at the Collinsport Inn coffee shop. She always played with her hair when she was nervous—a trait I gave to Vree.

Vree began as an only child and lived with her parents in the countryside of Ravenwood, Pennsylvania, atop Myers Ridge. Dave was her neighbor; his twin sister Amy was her best friend. Dave’s best friend was Lenny Stevens who lived in town and had to ride his bicycle several miles uphill to visit Dave. Friendship was a common theme in those stories. So were dealing with ghosts and the supernatural—good and bad.

I stopped writing about Vree and her friends after high school and pursued a career in art, teaching, and photography, to name a few. Twenty years later, I found my high school notebooks and the stories inside them, and was pleased with what I had written. So, I donned my editor’s cap, renamed Ravenwood to Ridgewood (among other changes), and reworked several stories into e-books and paperbacks. I had a small run of success with them and ventured into republishing my favorite ones via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords as Steven L. Campbell from 2013 to 2016.

Thank you for joining me for this introduction of Vree. I plan to add more info about her, her past, her future, and things that make her a “real” fictional character, as well as my plans for upcoming books and dates of publication, and so much more. So, I hope you’ll join me … or should I say us?

Until then, good reading and good life to you.

—Steve, 5/8/2022

This post “Introducing Vree” copyright © 2022 Steven Leo Campbell at stevecampbellcreations.com – All rights reserved.