Guest Post

Guest Chick: Debra Bokur

Good morning! This is Patricia, wishing you a happy Wednesday. I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know a little about award-winning writer Debra Bokur. Debra is the author of the Dark Paradise Mystery series and I’m so pleased to welcome her to Chicks on the Case. Please give my new buddy a warm welcome. Debra, the mic is yours!

Sticky Labels

When I was a kid – a mere second-grader, to be precise — the adults in my life labeled me as “unpredictable.” These things tend to stick, of course, and I’m still teased at family gatherings. You can be the judge whether or not it’s deserved.

I was a fledgling member of the local Brownies troupe, which met weekly in the activities room of one of the local churches in my small hometown of Greenville, Rhode Island. To reach the meeting space, our group was marched by a teacher along a sidewalk from William Windsor Elementary School that just happened to intersect with the street my family lived on. It was a short walk, and I remember that I enjoyed both the strolls and the meetings, where cookies were served and unframeable artwork was celebrated.

The thing is, my dog, Freckles, had recently had puppies. Even then, it was hard to separate me from dogs, cats, and other critters, and the longing to be at home with Freckles and her new babies proved overwhelming — a far more powerful lure than an hour-and-a-half spent fooling around with popsicle sticks and yarn.

Author Debra Bokur, standing in front of her Magical Mystery Camper Van.

The afternoon of the next after-school meeting, as we reached the corner of Smith Avenue, I lingered at the back of the line and ducked behind Bennie’s hardware store on the corner. Absolutely no one noticed. It was, in retrospect, my first clandestine spy mission: escape the Brownies and get home to Freckles.

I slipped up the sidewalk and went home (remember when no one locked their doors?), where Freckles and her puppies were cuddled together in a basket. No one was there, which was the beginning of the trouble. When I was discovered missing at the group roll-call, my mother was located at the hairdresser’s just up the street. Then my father, and my uncle, who was our town’s fire chief, were called, and a full-scale missing child search began. When someone finally thought to check at home and found me playing with puppies, I was in trouble that lasted for years (thankfully, my reputation for being a difficult child protected my unfortunate teacher). I was also kicked out of the Brownies, and told I was not Girl Scout material.

Author Debra Bokur’s Magical Mystery Camper Van.

“Deb is just too unpredictable,” the adults collectively complained. Not like my younger siblings, who were well-behaved and could be counted on to stay in line and go where they were told.

The “unpredictable” sticker persisted. Rebelling against it only earned me further labels: strong-willed, stubborn, persistent, difficult and driven. These days, I embrace every one of those labels, because the traits they represent launched my career in newspapers and magazines and carried me around the world — leading, ultimately to my true love: books.

Copies of Debra Bokur's books: The Fire Thief, The Lava Witch, The Bone Field.

I readily confess that I’d still rather spend time with my four-legged family members than sit through any meeting involving sticky glue and finger paint. On that count, I’d say I’m pretty darn predictable.

Readers, were you also given a childhood label that you initially resented, but which proved to be one of your strongest adult attributes? I’d love to know! 

About the Author

Frequently accused of drinking too much tea and getting lost deliberately, award-winning writer Debra Bokur is the author of the Hawaii-based Dark Paradise Mysteries series (The Fire Thief, The Bone Field and The Lava Witch, Kensington Books Publishing). She is the former poetry editor at Many Mountains Moving literary journal and a contributing author to Spreading the Word: Editors on Poetry (The Bench Press, 2001). Her work has been widely published in literary journals and national publications. A journalist and magazine editor for more than 40 years, she remains a regular contributor to Global Traveler Magazine.

Website: https://www.debrabokur.com

Substack: https://debrabokur.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debrabokur/

38 thoughts on “Guest Chick: Debra Bokur”

  3. Some days I wish I’d had a label like that, but no, I was the good kid, or as my fun-loving rebellious younger sister used to say, the “perfect one”. That usually occurred when she was being punished for something I told her not to do! Rebels did have more fun though! I am definitely NOT the perfect one. That myth has been dispelled in spades!

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  4. I was the kid who always got in trouble for “talking to her neighbor” in class. Too “chatty,” was what they called me. (And it never went away: I got called out by a professor in law school once for talking to my neighbor. Pretty embarrassing.) But I embrace it; it means I’m friendly, right?

    Thanks so much for visiting the Chicks today, Debra, and I love your camper van!

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    3. Thanks! It was a fun project, but I don’t know if I’d do it again. And being chatty opens worlds — worlds being other people, of course. I’ve gotten chattier over the years, and spontaneous conversations with strangers in check-out lines and other places have become the norm – with some fascinating discussions!

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    4. I received the same “Lisa is often chatty in class” comment on my report card every time, Leslie. It really upset my mom, who was a teacher.

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  7. Great post! I love that you were deemed too unpredictable to be a Girl Scout! LOL. The thing I always got in trouble for at school? Just like Leslie, it was talking too much. I was always chatting with my neighbors, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me now.

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  8. In 4th grade at a Catholic School, my lay teacher (I had had nuns for the first three years of my education), told my father that I was a menace. He asked why and she said that I finished my work early and then went around the room helping other students and talking. My father said then give here more work. That woman was a pain to anyone that ever had her for a teacher. She never helped us. She lived right down the street with her husband and two poor children. My husband still says she almost ruined his life. He was a year ahead of me. So sad that some teachers were like that. I was in Brownies and Girl Scouts but would rather have had a dog and stay home with it. I did not get one until I was 10.

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          1. I think that not only little girls but also and more importantly little boys. She had two children–Marilyn and Dennis and they always looked pathetic just like her. How could a Catholic school in the early 1950s hire her. Just because she was a Catholic and lived two blocks away? They looked just like her and I do not know what her husband looked like. Scary in small town Texas.

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    2. A “menace,” ha!! I was called into a teacher conference in pre-K for my daughter, who told her (mean) teacher that her rain boots were ugly. (They were.) Also she pressed too hard on her crayons.

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