First off, I want to let everyone know that the free books have all been sent. If you don't have yours by the end of July, please e-mail me. They should be there before that, but that's the outside time when I calculate they should be there, with the exception of those going to Australia and Canada.

Please tell your friends that they can get a free copy of Unfinished Business by sending me an e-mail.

I have been traveling for the past month or so, an eventful, memorable trip, meeting my husband in Paris at the end of his conference there, then spending nearly a week together in London, and ending off that portion of our trip in Scotland. We then flew to the mainland, landing in Atlanta and driving to South Carolina for a military graduation for our son, and then took an unexpected trip to Washington D.C. to get rained on, and then back down to Atlanta and off to Utah to hang out with four of our children over the 4th. We got home yesterday.

Because of differing flight schedules, I found myself with a day in Atlanta with a car and no husband and decided to do something he would not find enjoyable. I drove to Jonesboro, outside of Atlanta, and went to The Road to Tara museum, toured the city and ended with a tour of an antebellum mansion that some say was the inspiration for the fictional Tara of Gone With the Wind.

A few years ago, I also took the opportunity to tour the Margaret Mitchell house, where she wrote the famous novel. As I toured the home and heard the stories, I found myself relating to Ms. Mitchell's writing style. She wrote the end of the book first. She did not write consecutively. She borrowed from real life, and many of her characters were based on people she knew. Her goal in writing Gone With the Wind was to create a female character who had "gumption." Likewise, I decided that the character of Beverly that I had created has "gumption." I continued to relate to many things they said about her, except of course, the part where her book became an all-time best-seller and the movie event many believe will never be surpassed. (But we are both brunettes.)

According to the tour guide, she had an ex-husband everyone called "Red" because of his hair, who was somewhat of a scoundrel, likely a model for Rhett Butler. Many believe she modeled Scarlett after herself. She shocked her neighbors by placing her maiden name (her pen name) and her husband's name on their mailbox, leading their neighbors to shun them because they believed she was scandalously living in sin. Fiddledeedee!

This year as I toured the museum, I noticed a stack of t-shirts in the gift shop that said, "I'm a Melanie." They were white with the letters in a soft shade of blue. "We can't keep the red 'I'm a Scarlett' shirts in stock," the sales lady told me. "Everyone fancies themselves a Scarlett. Nobody wants to be a Melanie." Like the choice between "Ginger and Mary Ann," nobody wants to be the sweet farmer's daughter when they could be the glamorous movie star.

I remembered back to my tour of Margaret Mitchell's home and how I had related to so many of the tales of this author upon whom Scarlett was loosely based and realized with some embarrassment, that I, too, probably considered myself a "Scarlett"--a survivor. I doubt I would have bought the shirt however, even if they'd been in stock, so instead I decided that with a couple of long airplane flights still ahead of me, a copy of the novel would be a good purchase.

This time through in reading it, though, I have been paying more attention to the downside of Scarlett. I think the part of Scarlett that people identify with is the "gumption," the ability to survive. But Scarlett is self-centered, vain, spoiled, and Rhett had it right when he said, "A cat is a better mother." In fact, I am convinced that they left Scarlett's first child, Wade Hampton Hamilton, out of the movie because in the book you almost forget Scarlett has a child, she pays so little attention to him. She spends her life zealously pursuing a man who is married to another woman, not to mention all the beaus she steals from other girls along the way. When she does the right thing, it is usually for the wrong reasons. She is relentlessly mercenary, always believing the end justifies the means. She marries men she does not love, and continues to dream of another man, even when she is married. She survives, yes, but as Ashley tells her, "Other people survive and still keep their honor."

Consider this. Who would share her food storage with you--Melanie or Scarlett? The subject of food storage came up at a dinner while we were traveling, and the fact was brought up that your food storage would do you no good when a disaster struck unless you were home or at the place where the food was stored. I responded that in a perfect world, first off, everyone would be prepared with stored food and supplies, and wherever you were when disaster struck, someone would share their food storage with you, while other people would be benefitting from your food storage, and we would all end up being fed. Of course, we don't live in that perfect world, but I have always figured that if I am going to starve to death because I shared my food storage, that would probably be a good last deed to have on the record. (I don't truly know whether or not I would do that, though, because as I write this, I'm not hungry.)

So let's contrast Miss O'Hara with Melanie, who manages to see good in everyone, even Scarlett. We see Melanie as weak because she is trusting, humble, unfailingly kind and somewhat naive, as well as not being strong physically. However, she is a loving mother, a faithful spouse and a loyal friend. In reality, she has a strength of character that Scarlett lacks. So why does the gift shop have a stack of "Melanie" shirts they can't sell?

I believe we need to rethink who we admire from this book and movie. When Melanie dies, Rhett Butler refers to her as "the only truly kind person I've ever known, a great lady." Frankly, my dear, that's the kind of thing it would be good to have someone say about you.

Next time through Atlanta, maybe I will buy the shirt, as a reminder to myself to work on being more of a Melanie. Or maybe I'll work on that tomorrow. "Because after all, tomorrow is another day."