Lynn's Comments: There was a time when it seemed that every hour of my day was filled with things I had to do. I was involved with school projects, community projects, the theatre, art classes and the gym.
Lynn's Comments: One of our dental suppliers made up special gift boxes for Halloween. In each box was a small tube of toothpaste, a small spool of floss, and a brand new toothbrush. Year after year we gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste for Halloween until I thought we would get egged for not giving out candy. I then switched to candy bars. When Halloween was over that year, one of the local moms stopped me on the street and asked why we’d changed our routine. As it turned out, a lot of kids were looking forward to getting a new toothbrush!
Lynn's Comments: I introduced this rather ominous character "Dirk" to give both my readers and myself a break from the "sweetness" of the Patterson family. I wanted to inject a bit of creepiness into the mix.
Lynn's Comments: I also wanted the challenge of dealing with teenaged stepkids. This wasn't something I knew about from experience, so as soon as I began to do some research, I found myself in over my head!
Lynn's Comments: Wordplay like this made my work difficult to translate, so it was not seen in foreign language newspapers. This problem was pointed out to me on several occasions. Still, I couldn't resist having fun with English.
Lynn's Comments: With friends who were dealing with step-children and new, mature marriages, I had plenty of material to work with. The tricky part was in keeping the identities of the moms and children who talked to me openly about their lives secret.
Lynn's Comments: All of the Remembrance day strips were done for my mother, my dad, and his brother who were all veterans of the Second World War. My dad was an instrument mechanic and my mother ordered all the parts for the aircraft. They met in England and had some wonderful stories to tell. Uncle Joe was a motorcycle dispatch rider. He never spoke about the war.
Lynn's Comments: How lucky my generation was to have grown up in the post war era. My children, too, have lived in a peaceful environment. I worry about what’s happening now, however. Every day the newscasts are full of unimaginable posturing by powerful men with nuclear weapons who are sounding and acting like children.
Lynn's Comments: This strip was done when certain 4 letter words were rarely used and never in mixed company. Now, they are commonplace. How sad. There was a time when we were proud of our language, and now we are working hard to protect it.
Lynn's Comments: My mother did this. She bought my brother and me each a thesaurus and we were to learn a new word each day. Far from resenting this project, we enjoyed it. If you want to express yourself well, you need a vocabulary!
Lynn's Comments: Our dog Willy would wait until we had finished eating before he dug into his kibble. If there was the smallest chance of leftovers, he wanted to be sure he had room. I did this strip with compassion and understanding—I wouldn't want to eat the same thing everyday either!