Category: Gist of Ridgewood

A look at my fictional rural town Ridgewood, Pennsylvania and the characters who live there.

Ridgewood Living

When I was at college years ago, I studied playwriting. I learned about stage and theater, the differences between three-act, four-act, and five-act play structure, and Aristotle’s Rising Action, Climax, and Denouement. I took what I learned to become a better writer when writing my books. While I wrote, I imagined my characters on stage … Continue reading Ridgewood Living

Ridgewood Growth

I started writing fiction when I was nine. They were baseball stories about the struggles, triumphs, and defeats of the game. During my early teens, I transitioned from writing stories about ballgames to writing stories about haunted houses and graveyards, supernatural creatures, and even aliens from other planets. I kept notebooks filled with plot ideas. … Continue reading Ridgewood Growth

Ridgewood Places

Last week, I celebrated my dad’s 90th birthday with him at his cozy one-bedroom apartment. We talked about current and past events, which led us to comparing now to then. He lives in the town he and I grew up in, so we talked a lot about the town’s scenic changes. The question “Do you … Continue reading Ridgewood Places

Ridgewood Beginnings

I was 13 when I created a fictional rural town that became Ridgewood, Pennsylvania. I was an eighth-grade high school student who owned a portable Remington typewriter. That instrument and my imagination allowed me to escape from the ordinary world. I’m not saying my life was boring or difficult, but like the child who turns … Continue reading Ridgewood Beginnings

Characters Who Stay

I was fourteen when I created my first book character: David Evans. His name came from the popular daytime gothic horror TV show in the US, Dark Shadows. His first name came from the boy character, David Collins, and his surname came from the waitress, Maggie Evans. Both characters had no siblings and lived with … Continue reading Characters Who Stay

Who Is Alice Myers?

I previously posted about the history of Ridgewood, a fictional town that appears in my stories and books featured here and at several online book markets. In that post, I mentioned a woman named Alice Myers, and in my haste to keep the post shorter than one of my short stories, I glossed over her … Continue reading Who Is Alice Myers?

New Story, Old Tale Again

Today, I’m presenting another edited repost from my old blog Vree Erickson. This one delves deeper into the “behind the scenes” of Ridgewood and Vree Erickson. Enjoy. Before there was Ridgewood, there was Ravenwood, a fictional town I created in my high school creative writing classes. In the center of the town that I named … Continue reading New Story, Old Tale Again