Who is Jane Jardscg? A few years ago our Lala Book Group decided to combine our various writing talents and embark on a novel enterprise! We spent the better part of one of our meetings making plans for writing a book. The Great Lala Novel!

We would need a nom de plume, of course, and the obvious choice was Jane. (Jane Eyre…Jane Austen…Jane Doe…)

We combined the initials of each of our first names to give Jane her surname: Jardscg – Jennifer, Andrena, Robyn, Denise, Sally, Colleen, Geigy. .

At this point I should officially introduce you to the Lalas. (In the picture we’re each holding one of our very favorite books.)

We’re all happily married with mostly grown children. In the back row you see Robyn on the far left. Robyn is a church secretary. And she is, without a doubt, the record keeper, mind and memory of our Lala group! Jennifer, probably the most intelligent woman I know, is next to Robyn. When her sons went off to college Jennifer herself returned to get her degree, and is now an RN. I am beside Jennifer. Next to me is Colleen, who is an elementary school teacher. (And by the way, was my son Matthew’s first grade teacher.) In the front row, Denise is on the far left. Denise works with finances in an office. Sally is beside Denise. She may be our busiest Lala, juggling her own college classes and a job at an elemantary school. Next is Geigy. She and her husband are missionaries in Tokyo, where their children go to Japanese public school.

We decided our novel would take seven months to write, and coincidentally enough, there were seven women in the group at that time! We would write our chapters anonymously. We put seven slips of paper in a basket that night, and drew lots to decide our month and order of writing.

The first author began chapter one that very month.

Our method of passing the manuscript was very cloak and dagger! At our next meeting, writer number one covertly placed a manila envelope on the kitchen counter of the house where we were meeting. It contained a copy of the Chapter One manuscript for each of us, including herself.

Then Author Number Two wrote her chapter, moving the story along. She brought seven copies in a manilla envelope to the home where we were meeting, and sneakily placed it on the counter.

And so it continued for seven months.

And then we had our unveiling meeting. We sat around the kitchen table and each of us tried to guess, and finally admitted, who had written which chapter.

We laughed at the plot holes and time warps, and agreed that Jane Jardscg has multiple personality disorders!

So now I invite you, dear reader, to follow me into the world of Jane Jardscg. In the coming days and weeks her novel will be serialized on this very blog!

You too will have the opportunity to guess which of the Lalas wrote which chapter.