Distracted by a Novel

No, silly, not a novel I’m reading. One I’m writing but had put aside. Today was a stay-at-home and work day. I planned to put together the June Poohbah, the newsletter I do each month for my neighborhood, and then work on my memoir. But it was close to noon before I started any of that. I did get the Poohbah mostly put together and will wrap it up tomorrow. But then, after lunch, on a whim I decided to read that thousand-word opening I’d started on a novel a week or so ago.

It’s actually based on the incident of a semi-polite, unarmed intruder we had in the neighborhood about three weeks ago. At one point he was in the living room of a friend of mine—maybe I told you—and when she followed him outside as he tried to start her car, he said, “Stop yelling at me!” That line still makes me laugh, so I  invented a sort of inept intruder. Eventually, I fear, the story will have to have a more serious crime, because I don’t think this guy, who I’ve dubbed the “perfect stranger,” can sustain a whole book.

As novelists do, I moved the action from Fort Worth to fictional Oak Grove, home of Susan Hogan, Jake Phillips, and Oak Grove University/ Reading it today, more of the action began to play out in my mind, and I just kept writing. Kind of fun. I wouldn’t mind doing this for the time being—one day on the memoir, one day on the novel. I’m sort of between projects, waiting for edits on the eighth Kelly O’Connell novel, Contract for Chaos, and on my cookbook, Gourmet on a Hot Plate.

As for reading a novel for distraction, I’m between things there too. Think, with regret, that I’ve read the books in both Ellery Adams series that I’ve been following. So, one of tonight’s projects is to settle on a new book. Hoping to find one that will totally absorb me in its world.

Speaking of worlds, have you met Kate Chambers of the Blue Plate Café series? If not, hurry to get your free digital copy of the first book in the series, Murder at the Blue Plate Café. It will, I hope, draw readers into that world of Wheeler, Texas and the café until it becomes as familiar as your own neighborhood. Here’s the blurb:

“Small towns are supposed to be idyllic and peaceful, but when Kate Chambers returns to her hometown of Wheeler, Texas, she soon learns it is not the comfortable place it was when she grew up. First there’s Gram’s sudden death, which leaves her suspicious, and then the death of her married sister’s lover. Kate runs Gram’s restaurant, the Blue Plate Café, but she must defend her sister against a murder charge, solve the murders to keep her business open, and figure out where the café’s profits are going. Even Kate begins to wonder about the twin sister she has a love-hate relationship with. Gram guides Kate through it all, though Kate’s never quite sure she’s hearing Gram—and sometimes Gram’s guidance is really off the wall.

            “No, life in a small town is anything but idyllic and peaceful. But Kate loves the café, and she shares some of her favorite recipes—and some of her good friends.”

Kate’s adventures continue in three more books as she deals with a nosy journalist, an eccentric recluse, a thirty-year-old unsolved murder, and, of course, too many fresh murders. And she continues to share recipes from the café—some hers, some Gram’s.

The thing I know about series, from my own reading, is that you do get drawn into the world they create. At least I always want to read the next book to find out what happens to people I’ve really come to like. And I finish the last book with a sigh of both pleasure and regret at saying goodbye. So welcome to Wheeler, Texas.

Murder at the Blue Plate Café is free on several digital platforms.