Below is a synopsis of my Roads Not Taken universe.  Should you need a reminder of what has gone on already, or want to catch up without reading the whole story to date (which I don't recommend *g*), here is where you can find the condensed version. You can click on each chapter title (in blue) to go directly to that story.  There are spoilers though, so read at your own risk!
 

As our story opens, it is a night filled with STARS on May 1st at Crabapple Farm in Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson, New York.  A woman is sitting in the dark as the clean-up from her 60th birthday goes on in the farmhouse behind her.  Shortly, her oldest granddaughter, who shares the same birthday, joins her.  After Katie goes off on an adventure into the game preserve, her Aunt Danielle comes out to join her mother, Trixie, on the porch.  Danielle asks her mother to tell her the story of when she and her father were engaged and her mother relates a night very similar to the one they now sit in, with the stars shining above them.  She misses her husband, who has been gone for ten years and begins to reminisce about her past.

Our story now begins on the day of Trixie Belden, Honey Wheeler, and Diana Lynch's high school graduation.  In LOVE AND A QUESTION, Trixie surprises her friends by revealing that their beaus (Trixie's older brothers) are visiting Sleepyside from Africa, where they have been doing volunteer work.  Mart Belden tells Diana he will be returning to Africa indefinitely and the two of them realize they cannot make their relationship work across so many miles and reluctantly end their courtship.  At the same time, Brian Belden is proposing to Honey by the Wheeler Lake.  As their family and friends prepare to celebrate, Trixie goes off by herself to call Jim Frayne.  He is in Indian Lake, New York, building the Winthrop School for Boys.  It is revealed that he and Trixie ended their relationship earlier that year.  They are struggling hard to remain friends.

THE FREEDOM OF THE MOON begins with the impromptu picnic at Crabapple Farm to celebrate Brian and Honey's engagement.  Diana is upset about her break-up with Mart and is comforted by her friend Nick Roberts.  Dan Mangan and Tad Webster, roommates at the White Plains Community College, arrive and it is revealed that Dan, who took Trixie to prom in the aftermath of her break-up with Jim, has been feeling more than friendship for his blonde friend.  He is hesitant to express his feelings, but under the moonlit sky, they share their first kiss.  After the girls take their graduation gift trip to Chicago, Trixie goes up to Albany, where she will attend SUNY, to visit Dan, who is transferring to SUNY and has found an apartment in a boarding house.  Trixie rents the room across the hall and the two of them share their first date and begin to explore their new relationship.

Near the end of summer, Trixie comes up to Albany and she and Dan share A BOUNDLESS MOMENT as they consummate their relationship.  Dan harbors insecurities based on his limited (and not pleasant) experiences, as well as feeling somewhat intimidated to follow in Jim Frayne's footsteps.  He doesn't realize that he is Trixie's first until afterwards, but is reassured by her love for him and his for her.

Jim helps Trixie move to Albany to begin college in A TIME TO TALK.  He is starting to have some doubts about breaking up with Trixie and impulsively kisses her in her new apartment.  Dan arrives and Jim discovers that the two of them are seeing each other.  Trixie feels guilty for not telling Jim about their relationship and calls him as he drives in reckless anger back to Indian Lake.  They apologize to one another and promise to talk and work things out.

Jim's MISGIVING about letting Trixie go leads him to remember the day of their break-up back in January and the excuses he made for their break-up, which seemed to make sense then; now he's not so sure.  As he is lost in these memories, Trixie calls and the two of them try to work things out.  Trixie doesn't want to hurt Jim, but she loves Dan and Jim realizes that.  He is sorry for what he lost, but doesn't want to lose his friendship with Trixie.

The story now does a flash forward two years.  Trixie is now a junior at SUNY Albany and in FRAGMENTARY BLUE she helps Professor Chapman solve a family mystery that involves the Dewey Library on campus.  The poetry of Robert Frost and the gorgeous stained glass windows in the library provide the clues Trixie needs to follow the treasure map and provide Dr. Chapman with the means to save his family home.

In MY NOVEMBER GUEST, Diana receives a surprise visit from Tad Webster, who has had a crush on her for years and took her to her senior prom when Mart was in Africa.  Though Mart and Diana split up some two and a half years ago, he still hasn't worked up the courage to tell Diana how he feels about her, though they have remained good friends despite the miles between them.  Tad flies to Chicago Thanksgiving weekend on an impulse, only to discover that her family has also come out to join her for the holiday.  Diana's roommate, Nick Roberts, calls from his holiday weekend in Vail, Colorado and makes it clear to Diana that Tad has romantic feelings for her.  Nick urges Diana to pursue the relationship and over, or rather under, the Thanksgiving table, she does.  Once her family returns to Sleepyside, she and Tad take their relationship to the next level.

In A WINTER EDEN, Honey is distressed over Brian's seeming unwillingness to talk about their future wedding.  They both agreed to wait until their wedding night to consummate their love, but Honey is getting frustrated and impatient, taking out her anger on Trixie while they are out Christmas shopping.  Mart returns from Africa for good and gets a part-time job at the Winthrop School for Boys while he completes his college education.  Honey and the three older Belden siblings go out to dinner, where they run into Honey's cousin Ben Riker and his fiancee Brooke Winston.  Honey gets upset again as Brooke talks about "setting a date", but something is afoot that she is missing as she runs off to the restroom fighting her tears.  Trixie and Brooke go after her, Trixie leaving strict instructions for Brian to catch the others up on what's going on.  As Christmas nears and everybody returns to Sleepyside to celebrate with their families, Honey confides in Trixie her frustration with waiting until marriage.  Trixie promises to help Honey figure out what to say to Brian, but manages to get her to wait until after the holidays.  On New Year's Eve, Brian picks up Honey for the New Year's Eve Ball.  They stop in a popular "parking" spot for awhile and Honey, no longer able to contain her feelings, throws herself and Brian and tells him she no longer wants to wait.  After Brian convinces her that they should wait until they're married and that they can set a date as soon as possible, he drives on to the community center where his holiday surprise for her is the simple and beautiful wedding he has set up with the help of their family and friends.  Honey and Brian are married as the old year winds down, and in THE SMILE, they share a tender and even somewhat comical wedding night.

As the new year gets under way, Mart is remembering the horrors of winter weather in BLUEBERRIES.  Unmindful of what he's doing he accidentally flings a shovelful of snow into the face of the beautiful Sally Drake, history teacher at the Winthrop School for Boys.  His situation goes from bad to worse, but despite his awkwardness and clumsiness, there are definite sparks between the two.  Mart persuades Jim to tell him who she is and after another less than civilized meeting, Mart knows he is in love.  Jim, in the meantime, struggles with the feelings he had for Trixie that have resurfaced since Brian and Honey's wedding.  In an attempt to move on, he asks Wally's waitress Renee Wallace out for a date.  Sally takes Mart to meet her large and warm family on their first date and they share their first kiss.  Jim's date doesn't go as well and after he drops off a disappointed but understanding Renee, he drives home, wondering how he will ever move on.

In ONE STEP BACKWARD TAKEN, Dan begins his training at the New York State Police Academy, where he will be required to stay during the week, only seeing Trixie on weekends.  She takes extra courses and works extra hours at her part-time job to fill the hours.  A surprise visit from Jim, who is dealing with governmental red tape in Albany for the school, stirs up some tiny sparks of remembrance in them both.  Jim invites Trixie up to Indian Lake for the weekend for some down time before her finals.  After a relaxing ride in the mountains, Jim impulsively kisses Trixie, sending her in tears to Mart's apartment, where she begs him to take her home, disturbed by what happened and how she reacted to it.

In WE VAINLY WRESTLE, Trixie struggles with her feelings and despite her apprehension honestly shares them with Dan, who reacts in anger and leaves to spend the weekend in Sleepyside.  Trixie struggles through her studies and finals, all the while uncertain of all that she is feeling inside.  She gets some comfort and advice from her mother, but it is in a dream that she finally realizes who her future is with.  She races off to the airport, where Jim is arriving from a conference in Houston and Dan is preparing to leave for a class trip to Virginia and in MEETING AND PASSING she seeks and finds the man she loves, Dan.

In COME IN, it is Trixie's 21st birthday and all the Bob-Whites gather in Sleepyside to help her celebrate.  Honey and Brian are greatly enjoying their newlywed status and are continually interrupted in their amorous assignations, first by Tad and Diana who pick them up on their way back from the airport, then by Diana yet again at Crabapple Farm.  They all head down to the lake for a picnic and swimming.  Mart and Jim arrive late and Dan assures Jim that he's working on getting past what happened between him and Trixie.  As the picnickers leave, Brian and Honey are left alone and sneak into the boathouse for yet another tryst, this time interrupted by Brian's parents, who sneak into the boathouse themselves as Brian and Honey race off in embarrassment.  Trixie and Jim share a moment in the B.W.G. Clubhouse and promise to keep the ties of friendship tight.

Act II begins with A LATE WALK, visiting each of our B.W.G. friends during their summer.  Mart and Sally walk out to the lake for a sunset viewing on Mart's birthday (June 1st) and Sally offers him her great-grandparents' promise rings, hoping he will someday ask her to marry him.  On their six-month anniversary (June 30th), Brian and Honey take drastic measures to rid the world of Boring Brian (skewing off into Chapterette 11A - CARPE DIEM).  On Diana's birthday (July 7th), Tad asks Diana to move in with him, in his new apartment in Chicago.  Jim works through the painful dual anniversary of his parents' deaths (July 23rd), supported by Joanne Darnell, a law student at the University of Michigan, who kicks his butt into gear to get back into the dating game.  Trixie and Dan visit Sleepyside on their way to a beachside vacation and Dan asks Trixie to marry him (August 20th), after opening up his closet of skeletons and sharing some of his painful past.

Trixie and Dan light-heartedly enjoy the newest phase of their relationship in A SERIOUS STEP LIGHTLY TAKEN, visiting briefly with Tad and Diana before heading off to Atlantic City, where a night at the casinos and too many martinis leaves Trixie with a hangover and the discovery that she and Dan got married the night before.  After a panic attack, Dan teasingly pulls the earring off her finger and tells her it was all a joke.  In an attempt to pay him back, Trixie sneaks around town weaving a secret web and at the end of the week presents him with a half-completed marriage certificate.  She intended it as revenge, but now she's not so sure.  Do they really want to get married on the fly?

After discussions and arguments with their common sense, Trixie and Dan decide to go through with the impromptu marriage in ONCE BY THE ATLANTIC. As a twist on their already twisted choice, they decide to keep the marriage a secret until their more formal wedding scheduled for exactly one year hence and make it a bet to see who can keep their mouth shut the longest.  On the beach, they meet an older couple, Arnold and Rose Walker, who serve as their witnesses in the most ridiculously silly wedding ever seen in Atlantic City!

Trixie and Dan return home to Albany after their vacation, stopping along the way to rescue an injured puppy in ON OUR SYMPATHY WITH THE UNDER DOG.  Dr. Bronwyn Meyrick, D.V.M. assists them and sparks some curiosity in Trixie about the veterinarian's past.  But Trixie has other worries to deal with at the moment - Dan has discovered her secret and torments it out of her.  Trixie applied to the U.S. Treasury Department during the spring and is accepted into their training program in Georgia.  It will mean time apart for the newlyweds, but Dan is supportive, as always.

Up in Indian Lake Jim tries to find THE COURAGE TO BE NEW.  In an interview with a prospective teacher for the Winthrop School for Boys, he finds himself curiously interested in a stranger who seems somehow familiar.  It turns out to be Hallie Belden, recently divorced from her French husband and back in New York.  Jim hires her as the languages teacher for the school.  When he takes her into town for lunch at Wally's, he runs into Renee Wallace, who is back from Rochester and is still attracted to the supple one.  Jim's dual attraction is further exacerbated by Joey Darnell's insistence that he ask one of them out, and Jim is surrounded by woman troubles.  Trixie and Dan come to Indian Lake to surprise Hallie with a welcome home party and Trixie manages to keep the secret of her marriage to Dan...but just barely.  Hallie pries her U.S. Treasury Department secret out of her.  Dan and Jim mend fences that have too long been teetering and encouraged by the turn of events, Jim asks Renee Wallace out on a date.

In the month of OCTOBER there's a lot going on with all our characters:

Thanksgiving finds several of the Bob-Whites GATHERING LEAVES in Sleepyside.  A light-hearted chaos at the Belden's traditional Open House brings together Beldens and Mangans (well, one secret Mangan, one already known Mangan), as well as Jim Frayne and his guests, Renee Wallace and her father.  Honey and Trixie try to root out Hallie's secret pain to no avail.  Jim and Renee go for a walk in the orchard, where Jim realizes something is bothering Renee.  But her secret remains hidden too, as the two of them long to deepen their relationship.

When Jim returns to Indian Lake, he gets a visit from Joanne Darnell in THE DEMIURGE'S LAUGH.  The two renew their friendship over lunch and Joanne taunts Jim over his compulsive orderliness.  They talk about Croydon Hall (the original name of the Winthrop School for Boys, when it was a state mental institution for the criminally insane) and the possibility of bringing all the Bob-Whites (and tagalong friends) to Indian Lake in the summer for "old home week".  Jim frets over Joanne's somewhat callous and shallow outlook on love and she teases him about his relationship with Renee.

Trixie and Dan celebrate their first Christmas a (secretly) married couple in IN WINTER IN THE WOODS. Dan picks up Trixie at the airport after she finishes her initial training in Georgia and secrets her away to Mr. Maypenny’s cabin while his former guardian is off visiting his nephew in Connecticut. Dan and Trixie and their exuberant beagle Penny spend a day alone in the game preserve, building traditions for their growing family. They go out together to get a tree and decorate it back at Mr. Maypenny’s cabin. Dan gives Trixie a digital camera, a pair of unique, dual-band wedding rings for their “official” wedding to be held in August, and a box full of Christmas cards from their many family and friends, which they open together in a tradition they hope to continue for years to come.

In my first “epic”, THE SECRET SITS, Jim’s girlfriend Renee is having nightmares after discovering a heartbreaking secret about her long-dead mother, Deirdre. She finally tells Jim about the troubles she’s been dealing with over the past few months, and in near-flashbacks (going back to overlap part of previous chapters OCTOBER and THE DEMIURGE’S LAUGH) and far-flashbacks (relaying the story of Deirdre’s death in 1979), the mystery builds. Deirdre was accused of killing an inmate at Croydon Hall by the institution’s director Dr. Kohlberg. Deirdre’s husband (and Renee’s father) Wally Wallace and his friends, Tom and Caroline Foster, are manipulated into covering up the murder in order to protect her. In despair, suffering from manic depression and guilt, Deirdre takes her own life. Renee is convinced her mother was innocent and Jim promises to help her, enlisting the Bob-Whites’ help. Before they arrive in Indian Lake for a week’s visit at the Winthrop School for Boys, they have their own stories to tell. Diana is interviewing a death row inmate, Rodrigo Garcia Vargas, as part of her final assignment in her photojournalism class. Dan and Trixie are bravely dealing with their time apart as she continues her government training in Virginia (earning accolades and a potential Secret Service gig from her director, John Washburn and they work to plan the details of their upcoming “official” wedding. Dan has other problems to deal with however, as Mart accidentally discovers the Mangans’ secret Atlantic City wedding and decides to milk it for all it’s worth, using Dan as his personal slave in yet another bet. Honey is the first BWG brought in on the Indian Lake mystery and she helps Renee to uncover some more details about her mother’s illness and death. She and Brian learn to make the most of their precious time together as he finishes up med school and prepares for his residence (in the mid-story chapterette PUTTING IN THE SEED). And Trixie and Dan unexpectedly suffer a seven-week separation, which comes to a passionate end in another chapterette, THE TELEPHONE. Once the Bob-Whites all converge on Indian Lake, they make short work of the mystery, discovering a hidden ledger in an old desk, talking with Dr. Kohlberg’s former mistress and secretary, learning that a rosary found at the scene was not owned by Deirdre as originally thought, and finding a photograph in the school basement that disputes Deirdre’s own confession in her suicide note. It is Diana who puts the final piece in place as she recognizes an unusual engraving on the rosary and returns to Chicago to confront Vargas with the truth. Deirdre is cleared, Renee and her father put the matter to a peaceful rest at last, and while Mart tries to get Trixie to confess her secret, it is Brian and Honey who make a final confession to the group instead.

In THE LESSON FOR TODAY, Mart plans a special birthday for Sally.  But first he has to get past two of the Brothers Grimm as first Simon, and then Sam, confront him with the rumor they’ve heard that Sally is pregnant (due to her buying the pregnancy test for Honey in THE SECRET SITS.  As it turns out, they are both just yanking his chain, having known all along that it wasn’t their sister who thought she was pregnant.  Mary leads Sally on a treasure hunt through the house to find her gift, a necklace with S-A-L-L-Y spelled out in sterling silver Scrabble tile charms.

The six-part story, THE TRIAL BY EXISTENCE, follows three of our Bob-White couples through their spring and summer.  Trixie and Dan find out that keeping secrets from each other isn’t as fun, or productive, as keeping their Atlantic City marriage a secret from their family and friends.  But they work out the kinks and end up both taking jobs in New York City.  Trixie has her first experience as a Secret Service agent when her job takes her to Beijing, China for a pre-advance trip in the chapterette, ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE. Brian and Honey suffer the stresses of his job and her unexpected pregnancy. Honey’s pregnancy becomes high risk as she is diagnosed with preeclampsia, forcing her to bedrest shortly before Trixie and Dan’s wedding.  When Brian has too much to drink at Dan's bachelor party, he has a very unnerving dream in a second chapterette, ESCAPIST - NEVER.  Jim and Renee suffer their own stresses as their relationship begins to unravel, mainly due to Jim’s unwillingness to open up to her.  And on the eve of the wedding, Jim and Renee finally admit to each other that they have no real future and break off their relationship.

Dan and Trixie’s “official” wedding is covered in the three-part story BLUE BUTTERFLY DAY.  Part 1 covers the morning leading up to the “I do”s, when Trixie and Dan discover that it seems almost everybody already knew about their secret marriage.  Part 2 covers the reception, when they find out that everybody really did know about their secret marriage.  And Part 3 covers a Bob-White gathering for old-times’ sake, where each Bob-White reveals a secret none of the others knew about them, and Dan takes Trixie to a very non-traditional wedding night site—the land that they will build their home on.  THE SILKEN TENT is their saucy wedding night activities.

TRESPASS begins the day after the wedding, as we take a closer look at Trixie’s cousin Hallie and her very unintended run-in with Sally’s brother, Dr. Simon Drake.  The two of them share a very love-hate relationship—without the love part—as they keep running into each other in New York City and Indian Lake and ruffling each other’s feathers.  It ends with Hallie in a tearful display that she isn’t aware Simon is observing.

In my winning 2008 NaNo novel, THE RUNAWAY, Brian and Dan team up to help teenage prostitute, India escape her life on the streetes with her pimp L.J.  In the process of trying to track down any family she may have, Dan discovers she is the daughter of veterinarian Bronwyn Meyrick, who helped Trixie and Dan save and then adopt their beagle, Penny.  Bronwyn strugged with alcohol problems after the tragic death of her husband and son and India ran away from home.  India discovers L.J. is trying to crack his way into a drug ring, using her as an incentive for the drug dealers, and runs off to seek Dan's help.  She and Dan help deliver Honey's baby, Matthew, on Halloween night.  When India visits the Beldens in the hospital, Brian coaxes her to tell him her whole story and tells her that he and Dan know about her mother.  India runs off, scared she is putting Brian and his family, as well as Dan and Trixie, in danger from the drug cartel.  Brian and Dan call in some additional help from Mart, Sally, Aidan, and Simon, and the group manages to rescue India and reunite her with her mother in a cliffhanger that needs to be seen to be believed.

Trixie is ready to join the White House detail on the Secret Service but first she must go through the vetting process in WHAT FIFTY SAID, a tongue-in-cheek character study of our Schoolgirl Shamus as her family and friends and acquaintances tell government agents Eric Severset and Cathy Muldosy what they know about Beatrix Belden Mangan.

In the closing story of 1999, ten vignettes count down to the new millennium with the characters of Roads Not Taken in IT IS ALMOST THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND. Trixie and Honey make plans to do some matchmaking in 2000.  India persuades her mother to allow her to go back to New York City to attend college.  The Beldens celebrate Christmas Eve with a surprise guest.  Dan and Trixie celebrate Christmas morning with gifts and a bittersweet knowledge that she will be off to Washington in just one week.  Tad encourages Diana to take a six-month internship in NYC with National Geographic.  Simon attempts to make peace with Hallie with a special gift for her.  Jo chastises Jim for not dating since his break-up with Renee and he asks her to be his date at the Bob-White New Year's Eve party in the Wheeler penthouse.  Mart proposes to Sally after he's assured she doesn't mind waiting three years for that dream wedding.  Brian and Honey celebrate their second anniversary with a long-awaited night of passion.  And the Bob-Whites Plus ring in the New Year with a series of "drabbles" (scenes of exactly 100 words) to lend some mystery for the next story in the line-up.