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.
