I thought I would give you some insight into LaDawnya's World. LaDawnya's World began as a diary that I was writing while I was in college.  It began on February 26, 1994.  I began keeping a diary to help me cope with living in my father's shadow.  My father was a professor at the college that I was attending.  I had become frustrated with people always asking me where he was and asking me to give him messages.  I created this character. After a few months, I noticed that it would make a very good story to share with others.  So, LaDawnya and her world were created.  Since most of LaDawnya's life was centered around the church and her adopted mother's job, I created a church and her mother's company first.   I created the rest of the world sometime after that. The Church The name of the church was named Believer's Chapel at first, but I later changed that to GREATER BUELAHLAND INTERDENOMINATIONAL HOUSE OF REST.  Greater Buelahland Interdenominational House of Rest was inspired by my brother's fictitious church.  It was a joke that we had going.  When we would be leaving church to go home, people would sometimes ask, where are you going and he would reply, "I'm going to the Greater Buelahland Interdenominational House of Rest."  People would ask him to explain what he meant and he would respond, "I'm going to the Greater Buelahland Interdenominational House of Rest to get some rest."  It was a glorified way of saying that we were going home.  The church and the Greater Buelahland Fellowship just grew from there. The Company The company, SHIMMERS INCORPORATED, began when I had a project to do for an English class that I had taken in an earlier semester in college.  We had to do a project that required us to create a brochure for any kind of company we wanted.  I made a brochure about the company's scholarship fund.  We also had to do a PowerPoint presentation on the company as well.  I liked the company and I decided to use it for the story.  I decided to make Shimmers a family owned and operated company because I wanted to promote a positive look at African-American prosperity. When I made the company a family owned and operated business, that created a need for more characters, thus the Adams Family was born. The City The name of the city that LaDawnya lives in changed in 1998. The name of the city was going to be Centerville, because the city was the center of the story. In 1998, during the Full Gospel Associated Churches convention, I meet Evg. Dorinda Clark-Cole of the CLARK SISTERS.  I was responsible for caring for her and making sure that her visit to our church, Trinity Temple Full Gospel Church, was enjoyable. I had some fun waiting on her and I took some pictures with her. I had a picture of Evg. Cole on my wall at work. I was working on the story and the name of the city was getting to me. I really did not like Centerville anymore. I glanced at the picture of Evg. Cole and decided to change the name of the city to DORINDA in honor of EVG. DORINDA CLARK-COLE. The State The name of the state that LaDawnya lives in was created in a kind of funny way. I wanted to use my last name as the name of the state. I did not want to be conceited, so I figured using my last name was not a good idea. I decided to use a variation of my name. One day, a few friends and I were talking about how our last names were created. We went through the whole plantation thing and then we got creative. One of my friends last name was Brown. She said that her family got their name because of the color of their skin. We ran down everyone's last name. When they got to me, I just looked kind of funny and then said; "I know why we have our last name, because all of our family is crazy." (Mad Kin - Mad Kinfolk). After I thought about it for awhile, I said to myself, "I ain't mad at cha." Thus the name of the state was created, MADDOCHA, (Mad Atcha). I choose to an alternate spelling for the name of the state. (Apologize if this offends any of the Madkins family or anyone with the last name Madkins, this was not my intent.) More Cities In Maddocha Since I had created a state, I had to create some cities and towns. There are more than 120 cities in Maddocha. Some of the names of the cities and towns I made up, some I took from the Bible, and some I named after people in my life. Here is a brief list of the names of the cities and towns and who they are named after. HARDAWAY, the state capitol, was named after my favorite basketball player, ANFERNEE HARDAWAY. Pace was named after the ANOINTED PACE SISTERS. Cudetown and Chilton were named after two of my college professors. Sheldyville and Rysar were inspired by television shows. Sheldyville was inspired by the Simpson. Rysar was inspired by STAR TREK: GENERATIONS. Jouette was inspired by a manager that I had while I was working as a temporary employee. Shiloh means peace in the Bible so I added a place of peace in Maddocha. Tarleton Arms was inspired by the college that I went to, TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY. The Adams Family I use the name Adams as the family name in my story because the family that I created for LaDawnya was the first family I fully created. I made the ADAMS FAMILY a big family. I made this family big because I always wanted a big family. The leaders of the family had 10 children. Nine of which are still alive. I made the family a family that sticks together and shows love for everyone in the family. Every family has some secrets and scandals, so of course, I added a few secrets and scandals about the Adams' Family. The School The School District that LaDawnya's School, Clark Christian Academy, belongs to is the BAGLEY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT. The Bagley ISD started out as the Bagran School District for a project that I had to do for a Computer class. This class is also the reason that I created several of the cities that are part of the state of Maddocha. After some time, I changed the name of the school district from Bagran to Bagley. Two of the seven schools in the District are named after my Pastor and First Lady, J. B. Ransom Elementary School and C. Pitts High School. The school that LaDawnya attends, Clark Christian Academy is named after Dr. Mattie Moss Clark, the former International Music Department President of the COGIC. That's how LaDawnya's World was created. None of the people or shows that inspired items in LaDawnya's World have an affiliation with LaDawnya's World. LaDawnya's World does not have an affiliation with any of the people or shows that inspired items in LaDawnya's World. PLEASE VIEW THE AUTHOR'S NOTE FOR MORE INFORMATION.