Raisina Grape is born

It was 1974 and I was twelve years old. My sixth grade teacher, Ms. Reilly, allowed each student in her class to make a proposal to her in which we could focus on a topic of interest to us for a part of the school term. Ms. Reilly and I agreed that I could focus on creative writing since I loved to write stories and poems (although I use that latter term loosely!). I was thrilled! The only catch was that I had to read my writings to the class each week. I was painfully shy but was desperate to focus on writing so I reluctantly agreed. It was then that I devised the character of Raisina Grape, a 12-year old girl who traveled the world assisting her private-detective mother, Violet, as she worked her cases. My older sister, Sue-Ellen, who I idolized, loved the color purple, and was obsessed with all things Egyptian. So I gave Raisina purple hair and eyes; in fact, all of the characters and settings have names and characteristics associated with the color purple, grapes, or wine.

Over these many years, I eventually built on my short stories and developed the first Raisina book, in which she travels to Egypt (big surprise) with Violet. Because I created Raisina at a time in my life that felt simpler and less complicated, and because it was a time when my sister was still alive, I have kept Raisina encapsulated in that time period. This is why modern technologies and social media and such do not appear in the Raisina series.

I hope you enjoy meeting Raisina as much as I have enjoyed bringing her to life!