I’m proud as punch
of the picture above. The lady is Jude Walsh, another internet friend I’ve
never met. We belong, with Pat Bean of last night’s blog, to a small writing
group within the larger umbrella of Story Circle Network. And three of us
published books this month. Jude found a way to celebrate all three in one
picture. Yay! The other two are Pat Bean's wonderful Travels with Maggie, reviewed yesterday in my blog, and Linda Marshall's memoir, A Long Awakening to Grace, next on my reading list.
And that of course
segues easily into my excitement for tomorrow night’s signing. I hope it’s on your
calendar and in your plans. 5-7 at the Wine Haus, 1628 Park Place. Cash bar
with snacks provided. I so hope you can come join the fun. I may even have a
special costume for the event.
Pigface and the Perfect Dog is the second of
my Oak Grove Mysteries, following The
Perfect Coed. You may remember Susan Hogan—she is associate professor of
English at Oak Grove (Texas) University; her partner, Jake, is Chief of Campus
Security. Aunt Jenny, the maiden lady who raised Jenny, came to Oak Grove to
help Susan, who was accused of murdering a coed in The Perfect Coed. How much help Jenny was is debatable, but she
made a fast friend in Judge John Jackson and stayed in Oak Grove.
This time around,
Susan thinks she’s about to meet her maker when she confronts a rifle-carrying
man, who looks like a pig, in a grocery store. Jake investigates the body of a
young college student, shot in the back and found in an empty pasture. Aunt
Jenny showers love on the new puppy a young man from the grocery gave her but
she must get rid of that heavy collar.
Before it’s all over,
there’s a shooting, breaking and entering, threats and an attempted kidnapping,
a clandestine trip to the woods late at night. Will Susan land in trouble…or
the hospital…again? Will Susan and Jake survive this as a couple? Susan is
still prickly but she learns some lessons about life, love, and herself. And which
dog is the perfect dog? You’ll have to decide for yourself.
Writers lives may
be solitary, but they are never dull. I had the craziest dream last night. It
had to do with a crime that could only be solved by a horse. If the horse was
scared when left alone with a certain person, then everyone knew that person
was the villain. In my dream, I read that final scene in a book—a real
cliffhanger, and the scene only came at the last two pages. In a semi-awake
stage, I tried to remember what book it was because I wanted to go back and
re-read it. But then it dawned on me that it was not in someone else’s book—I wrote
it. For much of the night, asleep I’m sure, I wrote and rewrote that scene And
then it grew into a story that branched off from the first scene, although I
don’t remember much of the story.
Strange for me, a
committed dog person who’s more than a bit uncertain around horses, to have
that dream. Perhaps it will show up again tonight, and I can figure it out.
Hope to see lots
of you tomorrow at the Pigface celebration.
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