Sunday, November 24, 2019

What We're Writing: One for the Books by Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay: Welp, having just skidded into my Paris book deadline sideways, wearing my pajamas, eating a donut, and crying, I am now back at my desk, writing ONE FOR THE BOOKS, the 11th Library Lover's Mystery, coming out in Fall of 2020. I have no cover art, and the title is still being debated, but the first few pages are a done deal, so here's a peek.


The Library Lover's Mysteries: Have you read them all?



Chapter One
     “Why is everyone staring at us?” Lindsey Norris asked her fiancĂ©, Mike Sullivan, known to everyone in their small Connecticut shoreline town as Sully.
     “Are they staring at us?” He looked up from his phone where he was scanning the news, which for him meant the current sports scores, and glanced around the shop.    
     “Yes,” she confirmed. “And it’s kind of creepy.”
     Having slept late that morning, they were in line at the bakery which was tucked into the back corner of the town’s lone grocery store. Their dog, Heathcliff, was sitting between their feet and behaving like a perfect gentleman, so Lindsey was certain he wasn’t the one drawing the attention of every other customer in the bakery their way.
     “You’re right,” he said. “They are staring.”
     “But why?” she asked. She gave each of their persons a quick visual scan. They were both dressed with buttons aligned and zippers up and clothes right side out. There was no spectacular bedhead or egregious stains to be seen. Having been the focus of unwanted attention a few months before, being stared at still gave Lindsey the odd twinge of anxiety.
     Sully put his arm around her in a comforting gesture and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head. “Wild guess here, but I imagine it’s because we’re getting married in a couple of weeks.”
     “Yes, but it’s a tiny ceremony on Bell Island,” she pointed out. “Just family and close friends, hardly an event worth noting.”
     “People like weddings.” He shrugged.
     “Sully, Lindsey, yoo hoo!” A voice called and Lindsey glanced past Sully to see Mrs. Housel, coming at them as fast as her short legs could carry her. Heathcliff hopped to his feet and began wagging his bushy black tail, looking for love from anyone willing to give it.
     “Morning, Mrs. H,” Sully said. “What can we do for you?”
     “I just need to know where you’re registered,” she said. She was breathless but still bent over to pat Heathcliff on the head before rising back up to smile at them.
     “Registered?” Lindsey asked. 
     “Yes, you know, for a wedding gift,” she explained. “I can’t possibly show up at your wedding without a gift. It would be bad form.”
     “Uh.” Lindsey glanced at Sully in a mild state of panic. 
     Mrs. Housel was one of Lindsey’s favorite patrons. They had bonded over a deep and abiding love of all things Agatha Christie. A tiny little bird of a thing, Mrs. Housel was the sweetest of the sweet. She lived on a fixed income in a modest cottage in the old part of town. Telling her the wedding was private and that she wasn’t invited would be like punting a puppy into oncoming traffic. Everything inside of Lindsey rebelled at the mere idea. Judging by the flicker of alarm in Sully’s eyes, he was thinking the same thing.
      “Mrs. H, Lindsey and I really appreciate the thought,” he began and then he stalled out. Sully’s heart was as big as one of the tour boats he captained around the Thumb Islands in the bay, and Lindsey knew he was struggling to find the right words. She immediately decided having one more guest wasn’t going to be a problem, especially one as tiny as Mrs. Housel.
     “We haven’t registered anywhere,” Lindsey said. “In fact, we’re asking anyone who attends our wedding to donate a book to the library instead of giving us gifts.” This much was true, at least.
     Mrs. Housel clasped her hands over her heart. “How wonderful. I just love you two. You’re like family to me.”
     “And we love you, Mrs. H,” Sully said. He looked oh-so relieved.
     Mrs. Housel reached forward and squeezed their hands with hers. Then with a wave, she fluttered out of the bakery as quickly as she’d arrived.
     “That was nice of you, darlin’,” Sully said.
     Lindsey shrugged. “What’s one more guest when it clearly means a lot to her. Besides she’s so tiny. How much could she possibly eat?”
     “Yeah, it’s like inviting a hummingbird to the wedding,” he agreed.

So, how about you, Reds and Readers, ever have anyone invite themselves to an event you were hosting and how did you handle it?

43 comments:

  1. This is so sweet, Jenn . . . now I can’t wait to read the rest of the story.

    I can’t think of anything I’ve ever hosted that couldn’t handle another guest or two . . . I’ve had people invite themselves, but it never felt like a big deal; it’s all always worked out just fine. . . .

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  2. That is so funny, Jenn. And I bet I'm not alone in suspecting this wedding is going to snowball!

    I did have that once years ago when one friend wanted to come to Thanksiving and I knew another friend (my bestie) couldn't stand her. I think I told her the table was full or some such stupid excuse. It hurt her feelings and I felt terrible from then on. I hope that never happens again!

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    1. Ooh, that’s the worst, Edith. Rock and a hard place.

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  3. I'm hooked, Jenn! Oh, the possibilities!

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  4. Love this Jenn--it's perfect! I accidentally invited myself to a wedding because the bride had described the process so thoroughly that I assumed I would be a guest. She was very quick and gracious about explaining it would be very small!

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  5. I hope I get invited to Lindsey and Sully's wedding! Most of the time, when unwanted guests show up, it's a family event where you have to be civil if you can't manage gracious.

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    1. Always a challenge to maintain the cool with the fam, sometimes. Ugh.

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  6. This snippet is so enticing !
    My husband was 1 of 10 brothers and sisters so we often had unexpected visitors but they were always welcomed.

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  7. When we lived in Atlanta, I ran a B&B/student open house year 'round. The college kids would call from I-285 and I'd dive into the freezer and find something to feed them. No sweat.

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  8. I know you are quite a bit younger than I am, Jenn, but I still don't know how you do it! Amazing! I can't think of any interesting time I had uninvited guests but I do get annoyed when I hear people can't invite A because B will be there. I say, invite them all and hope that some will have the decency not to come!

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    1. Oh, I like that or if they do come, you’ll have dinner and a show!

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  9. I love the opening scene, and I hope the library is buried in new books. I don't entertain very often, but I hope if people did show up I would welcome them in. It has certainly worked for a lot of stray cats and dogs over the years.

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  10. Jenn,

    I only had to deal with that once. When I started coaching girls in the town basketball league, I wanted to give them something to look to as an example. I found out that the Boston College women's basketball team gave away free tickets to groups of 20 for one game per year.

    I made all the necessary arrangements for the tickets and parental permission, plus a couple of parents to drive and serve as chaperones while on the trip. After the last game before the holiday break, I sprung the surprise on the team and they were all excited.

    Everything that first year went off without a hitch and as exciting as the girls found the game (BC won 60-59 over NC State), they were even more excited that they got to meet the team after the game. (There are pictures on my Facebook page of that.) They are even briefly seen on the TV broadcast of that game (I have the game tape.)

    It went off so well that the girls were inspired by the trip and went on to put on one of the most dominating performances in the history of the league and completed an undefeated season. The girls loved the trip so much that they told there friends and everyone wanted to play for my team because they wanted to go to the game which became a yearly trip.

    The 3rd year we did it, the father of one of my players showed up to drop his daughter off at the gathering spot to leave for the trip and ended up saying "You don't mind if I come along do you?" I mean what are you supposed to say? Even back then, the last thing a male coach of girls wants to say to a parent is that you can't come with us on a trip more than a hour away...despite having four other adults as chaperones on the trip already.

    I had extra tickets anyway so I said yeah, but I wasn't really happy about it because I didn't really like the guy and didn't want him around on a personal level.

    I ended up doing the trip 5 times including taking some of my favorite players to see the team play in the WNIT Elite Eight tournament game one year. Each year save one, the players on the team got to meet the team as well.

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    1. Paragraph 4 - That should be "told their friends"

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    2. That is brilliant! You were clearly an amazing coach and gave those girls memories and motivation to last a lifetime!
      I remember having to chaperone some of the hooligans field trips with parents I wasn’t fond of - ugh, made for some very long days at the zoo!

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    3. Jenn, having to be around and be nice to people I don't like is one reason why I've taken pains to avoid hanging out with as few people as possible.

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  11. Hooboy, that tricky social situation when assumptions get you, and others, into hot water. Talk about built-in tension! Perfect for a story, Jenn.

    I'd say that has happened more than once, but I can't recall a particular incidence. However, we recently had guests show up for a family celebration nearly three hours early. I was not showered, had no makeup on, and was in a whirl of prep, trying to get everything together for the first big party in the new house. I was having trouble remembering where everything was, so even though I had lots of help (husband, three daughters, two sons-in-law, and a grandson), even delegating was taking its toll.

    We just parked them at the kitchen counter and the whirl continued around them. Someone handed them drinks, and I tried my darnedest to be gracious. We soldiered on, and the party was a huge success. I was ready to flop into the nearest recliner pretty early, though.

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    1. Three hours early??? Good grief! I might have slammed the door on them.

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  12. Yes, how DOES she do it? Clearly she's got a great sense of humor because if it were me, I'd be ready to shoot myself. But the results are astonishing. LOVE that opening. And I can't wait to read the Paris book. Jenn, you've earned some Thanksgiving down time!

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  13. I remember when my aunt showed up for Christmas dinner with her former husband and mother-in-law. We all loved Uncle Ed and Grandma Bogart so the people were fine but we did have to do some squeezing to add a couple more place settings, the only issue was chairs, that home had a limited number of chairs. Food? Never an issue, Mom was one of seven kids growing up so making a meal go further was easy plus she always had more than enough. We all lived for her leftovers.

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    1. Oh, that is giving me a great idea for a mystery - when exes come to dinner. It’s like the joke: When the past, present, and future walked into a bar, it was tense.

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  14. You have the voice of all voices, Jenn. Seriously, I know you work incredibly hard, and it is beyond impressive, but your writing is so effortless sounding, and so seamlessly adorable, and so instantly endearing and engaging!
    I am in awe, and so eager to read the Paris book and this one! Yaaaay!

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    1. Aw, Hank, you really are the most supportive person I’ve ever met. Thank you so very much.

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  15. I can see the town showing up to the wedding and they panic when they the town coming. Excitement all around and never a dull moment. Looking forward to all your book in 2020.

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  16. I see the guest list mushrooming! Maybe they should elope and throw a party afterwards to get back in everyone's good graces. Years back my husband used to put on a pig roast annually. We'd invite a lot of people with RSVP prominently on the invitation. We had to know how many were coming so he would know how many pigs to buy to cook. It was also a bring a dish to share affair. Every year there were people who hadn't responded but showed up anyway and didn't bring anything but their appetites. Frank was always gracious and I always fumed on the inside. It made me want to issue "tickets" to the kind people who RSVPed who would be welcomed enthusiastically while those who couldn't be bothered would be denied entry. Hmmmm. Hire off-duty policemen maybe? Oh well. I'm a Scorpio. We hold grudges.

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    1. LOL! I would hold a grudge over that, too. Manners matter!

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  17. We had a college classmate show up at our (backyard causal) wedding. She explained that although she wasn't invited she thought she should come.

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  18. Why do I get the feeling that Mrs. H is just the tip of the iceberg of additional wedding guests? I think they're going to need a bigger island. Hahaha! And, why is everyone staring at them? Jenn, you've presented a lot of intrigue and mystery in just that short excerpt.

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  19. I've never had anyone invite themselves to an event I was hosting, but on a few occasions guests who behaved horribly, including my MIL at one event. There was major drinking and a white pants suit with a thong clearly visible at a fancy party.... at least the whole story usually makes people laugh or cringe in horror. ;)

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    1. Oh, dear, I really need to hear the whole story on this one!

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  20. I've been the one inviting myself to events in the past. I almost did it today in fact, but the person invited me before I got around to inviting myself.

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  21. Hey, hummingbirds eat a lot. Sully might want to watch it.

    Usually the people who invite themselves to things are family, so...no big deal.

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  22. Some show!
    I am really looking forward to the wedding!

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