Mostly Friendliness
Dear Maureen and Shannon,
I’ve started reading your book and am intrigued by the friendships of Evie (how do you pronounce her name anyway?), Sam and Vicki. They each seem so different yet fit together perfectly. Do they represent real people in your lives? How do I find friends like them? I feel like I should replace the ones I currently have.
Signed,
Mostly Friendless
Dear Mostly Friendless,
Let’s start with do not replace your friends! Good, deep, loving and fun friendships are made and crafted with time. We all change, we grow, we fall and rise again, we learn with the blessing and gift of time. Many friendships go through different life stages and sometimes those paths separate and travel in different directions, but often you will find those are the very friends who you know will drop everything and pray for you when needed. Those bonds don’t break easily!
As for our three favorite girls, Evie (pronounced eh’vee), Sam and Vicki, they are unique and fun aren’t they? I should also add they are made up. It is much easier to write friendships to be perfect than it is to be the perfect friend.
We were, however, inspired by some real life! As sisters, we are so similar in many ways. You probably couldn’t tell our voices apart if you couldn’t see us (I guess we won’t be narrating our own audio!), and we laugh at the same time and finish each other’s sentences, but our personalities are quite different. How we view situations are different. One of us is a natural empath. One of is more of a “you’re fine, buck up” kind of girl. One is a glass is half full and the other is oh, I live for challenges kind of girl. You would think that would have put us at odds, wouldn’t you? But it hasn’t, instead it has added a depth and richness to our friendship. It has brought balance when we have had to work together or face life crisis’.
When creating our characters, we knew where the story was going to go over the series. We knew we wanted deep, sister-like friendships. Between us, we have four daughters and four daughter in-laws. That’s ten women in our group not counting our littles. We get girls. Mostly. We drew a little bit of all of us and combined all of them into these three characters. A little homey, a little crazy, a lot brave, and a touch of sarcasm to round them out. When you see Evie, Sam and Vicki, you see a representation of ourselves and our women. They are not perfect, but they do fit perfectly.
We hope we can encourage you to be the friend who can be asked to help by praying. And we trust God will, in turn, create those same kind of friends for you.
In friendship,
The Poppets