Friday, April 2, 2021

On the Road Again by Paige Shelton

Jenn McKinlay: There is nothing I love better than a good road trip and Mary Higgins Clark Award Nominee (you had to know I was going to work that in, Paige) and dear friend, Paige Shelton, is here to tell us about one of hers! Welcome Paige!



Paige Shelton: I don’t know how we managed to pull it off, but back
when I was nineteen (1984), my best friend and I took off and saw the world, by ourselves. Well, it wasn’t the entire world, it was . . . east of Iowa. That’s the direction we wanted to go, and that’s what we did. 

When we were sixteen, we told our parents we were going to do it. We’re pretty sure they thought we were kidding, but we weren’t. I still remember them looking at us as we drove away, their expressions a combination of disbelief, worry, and certainty that we’d turn around in a day or two. We were gone for thirty. 

We had a CB radio. We had cassette tapes with all the Springsteen anyone could want. We camped out on Lake Erie. We slept in the car – got cleaned up wherever we could. We also had friends and family we stayed with on some nights. We drove and walked all around New York City. We saw Waylon Jennings walking into a studio in Nashville. We drove right into the middle of a shift change on a dock in Newport News. My goodness, we were lucky. We had one car issue, but a sympathetic mechanic (probably had a daughter or two) just took care of it and sent us on our way. We made friends with truckers and had meals with them. We never felt uncomfortable around them, and they welcomed us and watched over us. I wish I remembered the CB names we gave ourselves, but I don’t. I can’t even imagine us getting away with such a trip nowadays. I wouldn’t have let my son take a road trip with a couple of buddies when he was nineteen. The times have certainly changed. 

However, I still love a good road trip and try to take a couple every year. My husband and I even took one during the summer of 2020. We spent most of the time in his truck (a pick-up, not like the big rigs from the earlier road trip) or doing outside things as we traveled up to Omaha to see our son and his fiancĂ©. We wore masks everywhere. Once we’re vaccinated to the max – Maxinated, I call it, we’ll still wear masks but we’re hitting the road again.  



I think my love for road trips started when I was a kid, as, it seems, our genuine loves typically do. We would drive to visit my grandparents in Missouri for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. My mom slept, but my dad and I sang. I know many old country western songs. Those were also the days when kids sat on their parent’s laps and held onto the steering wheel. I remember those curvy Missouri back roads well. It’s a wonder I’m still here. 

 Driving through Rolla Missouri was when I learned about Route 66. Though on June 27, 1985, it was declared to no longer be a U.S. Highway, there are still many parts that are preserved and can be seen if you veer off the nearby main roads, which are now mostly I-40 and I-44. I still take that back way every once in a while, and I’ve made some fabulous discoveries. My favorite is Arlington in Missouri. 

Arlington is an old train station and ghost town, near Jerome, Missouri, and it’s fascinating. Train tracks run next to the old station and then lead to a bridge over the Gasconade River. There are a few other houses around and I think it was also an RV resort at one time but not anymore. I highly recommend you take a look if you’re anywhere near there. I hear the bridge might be torn down soon. Oh, I hope not. 

Here’s a picture: 

Photo from: www.Hookedonroute66.com
 


Cool, huh? How about you? Do you have a favorite road trip, a favorite place to pull over and look at the scenery? I’d love to know about it. 

 The fabulous Jenn McKinlay invited to me to post today and talk about my upcoming Scottish Bookshop book, DEADLY EDITIONS.

Thanks to Jenn and all the Jungle Reds and readers. Forgive me for being so distracted by the idea that a road trip might be in my very near future, that that’s what I was compelled to write about. I would be thrilled and honored if you checked out the book though. It was a blast to write (Jekyll and Hyde and Scottish pubs abound). It’s book six in the series and it publishes April 6. See, that’s kind of like Route 66. Thank you!


A treasure hunt through Edinburgh gives way to a search for a villain terrorizing the city in the sixth Scottish Bookshop Mystery.

It’s a quiet, snowy morning at The Cracked Spine bookshop, when bookseller Delaney Nichols receives a mysterious visitor, a messenger. He presents her with a perplexing note: an invitation to a meeting with eccentric socialite Shelagh O'Conner, who requests Delaney’s participation in an exclusive treasure hunt. Delaney is intrigued, but also cautious: Shelagh, while charming in person, has a reputation for her hijinks as a wealthy young woman in the '70s. She was even once suspected for the murder of a former boyfriend, though ultimately cleared of all charges.

But Delaney is enticed by the grand prize at the end of the treasure hunt: a highly valuable first edition copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The winner is also to receive the contents of Shelagh's vast library, and all participants will earn a large sum of cash.

The night after the first meeting of the treasure hunters, however, several homes in Edinburgh are robbed in a manner reminiscent of Shelagh's old tricks. And when a man connected to Shelagh is killed, suspicion builds. Except Shelagh herself has disappeared from her home, seemingly kidnapped by the villain.

Terror mounts throughout the city as Delaney attempts to solve the mystery, while trying to evade the killer's clutches. But it’s hard to know who to trust when around every corner, a new monster could be lurking.


 

Paige Shelton is the New York Times Bestselling author of the Farmers' Market, Country Cooking School, Dangerous Type, and Scottish Bookshop mysteries. She's lived lots of places but currently resides in Arizona. Find out more at www.paigeshelton.com

50 comments:

  1. Paige, “Deadly Editions” sounds quite intriguing . . . I’m looking forward to seeing how Delaney solves this mystery . . . .

    Your road trip sounds absolutely delightful . . . . I don’t like to drive, so the best road trips are the ones when I am the passenger. We both “Maxinated,” so we’re planning a road trip to Norfolk, Virginia to collect lots and lots of grandbaby hugs . . . .

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    1. Yay! Grandbaby hugs are on the way. Safe travels, Joan, and thank you!

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  2. PAIGE: Wow, that 30-day trip with your BFF at the age of 19 was a trip of a lifetime! Those were innocent times. Your other road trips with your family also sounds like fun.

    Me, I never learned how to drive, I also often got motion sick on long car trips with my parents (and even one of my bosses) so I don't have many happy memories to share.

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    1. OK, thinking about it, there is one nice road trip I can share.
      After going to Crime Bake 2005, a friend who lived in Natick came to pick me up. We then went on a nice afternoon road trip to coastal Maine. Too bad the summer lobster shacks were closed but we still ate some really good seafood.

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    2. Oh, coastal Maine - I've never been but would LOVE to go. I had an Arizona lobster roll the other day, and now with your post, I think it's a sign. LOL. Thanks, Grace.

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  3. Deadly Editions sounds wonderful. I'm looking forward to visiting with Delaney!

    Road trips, YES! We recently relocated to Maine and rented an RV for the trip because, you know, COVID. When I was in college there were student fares in effect. I developed the reputation of never being able to drive past the airport. Road tripped all over Europe that way. I think you are on to something about a love of the road being instilled in childhood. Every Sunday after lunch my dad would load us in the car and off we would go...someplace.

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    1. How wonderful, Kait! Very jealous about you road tripping all over Europe - that had to be amazing. Thank you!

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  4. That was an epic road trip! I love long drives, and saw part of Rte 66 in Albuquerque when I was there a couple of years ago. Congratulations on your nomination and the new book!

    I have lots of road trip stories. The time I hitchhiked home to California from Michigan with a woman I met through a college ride board. Solo road trips crisscrossing the country in an old Volvo sedan when in grad school in Indiana, one of which included literally coasting on my last fume of gas into the only gas station in Wyoming open at night. A solo research trip from Massachusetts to Indiana six years ago listening to a long audio book all the way there and back. And I'm sure there will be more!

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    1. Those all sound so perfect, Edith. I could so do MA to IN with an audio book or two. In fact, it was on a road trip that I listened to The Martian. I can bare remember the trip I was so into the book. Safe travels, and thanks, Edith!

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  5. Paige, quite the road trip you had. Me, I despise being in a car that long. I'm not one for roadside scenery or anything else you might find/do on a road trip. I like to get where I'm going with as little effort as possible. Even when I would go to a concert 90 minutes from my house, I'd go with a friend who would drive and I'd pay for gas.

    As for your new Scottish Bookshop book, I can't wait to get my hands on it! I love the series and your Alaska Wild series as well. (Reviewed the first one for Mystery Scene!).

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    1. My son likes to just "get there" too. I get it. So, may safe and quick travels be in your future. Thanks for everything, Jay!

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  6. Congrats on your latest book, Paige. I'm off to check it out.

    I love a good road trip -- the company, the conversation, the scenery, the food...in my early 20s, a girlfriend and I drove from Edmonton, Alberta all the way across to New York City and home again; we took a month. It was grand. Driving cross-country truly gives one a sense of the vastness of the land and the changing features of that land (starting in prairie, crossing the Canadian shield and landing in the density of NYC). It was like a three-dimensional geography lesson.

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    1. Thanks, Amanda! Exactly - road trips are wonderful learning experiences. Yours sounds perfect. Here's to more safe travels!

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  7. Congratulations on the new book Paige, and the nomination! I am so far behind on your books...I do have road trips in my past, but I better use my words for my WIP!

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    1. Thank you, Lucy! I hear you - hope all is well!

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  8. Congratulations on the new book — I can’t wait to read it. Every time I read one of the books in the series, I want to visit Scotland! My family took road trips every summer for vacation, and we would occasionally do short week-end road trips that included my grandparents. Those are some of my happiest memories of growing up. In a couple of weeks, some friends and I are taking a road trip. We have all been maxinated (I love that word), but will still be wearing masks and taking precautions.

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    1. Thanks, Chris. Yep, you grew up in a "road" family too. I bet you cherish those memories. And, oh yes, I'll still have a mask and a look in my eyes that hopefully tells people to keep a good distance - a friendly look, but still . . .

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  9. My most memorable roadtrip was when 3 friends and I decided to drive from Olean, NY to Marquette University in Wisconsin to see a basketball game. Four college students crammed into a Chevy Cavalier and 28 hours of driving (separated by a 3-hour game and 4 hours of sleep). Fun times. LOL

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    1. I love that, Liz! And all in a Chevy Cavalier - perfect.

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  10. Congratulations on your new book and your nomination. That was so you got to go on a nice road trip when you were younger. I've been on a few road trips and my favorite was from New York to Vermont. Never saw so many trees, farms, and animals. I loved when we stopped at the local eateries.

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    1. Thank you, Dru Ann! Yes - I could eat my way across country, I'm sure I could. I love finding all the local favorites. Safe travels, Dru.

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  11. Congratulations on the book and the nomination.
    My first road trip as an “adult” was in 1970. 3 of us decided to drive from Columbia, MO to Oxnard, CA. in February, through Colorado. We were stopped at the base of a mountain, first I’d ever seen, and told we had to get chains put on the tires. Made it to our friend’s place and spent a glorious 2 weeks at the beach. We drove back on Route 66. No mobile phones, no google maps. It was wonderful.

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    1. This is perfect, Ann! I would have loved every minute of that, even the scary Colorado part. Thank you!

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  12. Yay! Congratulations! It is such an honor Dash – and I know Jenn was crowing to the heavens about it!
    Road trip… I was just thinking about that! When I was in college my boyfriend and I were driving me back from his all-men school in Indiana to my sll-women school in Ohio . My families home was about halfway between, so we stopped off so I could stock up on provisions and say hello.
    At some point on the way to my house, we cooked up a scheme to drive to New York.
    We would find a hotel when we got there, and do something fun, and then drive back to school.
    Of course we were not going to tell. But as we were leaving, my mom said have fun on the way back to school! And I said — all spritely and full of fun – – who knows! We may just change our minds and drive to New York.
    My mom laughed, and said Right—have fun you two.
    And we acted like it was all a big joke.
    Then on the way to New York, I felt a lot less guilty about skipping school, because I figured – we had permission, right? My mom had told me it was OK..

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    1. Love it! And, really how (and why) could you resist?

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    2. That's wonderful - and totally makes sense to me. Congratulations to you too, Hank! So fun and such a cool honor. Safe travels!

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  13. Congratulations on your nomination and recent publication!

    Lots of road trips in my life, but we never did the big CA to the east coast drive.

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    1. Thanks, Margaret! I've never done that one either. In fact, maybe that's the one I should be planning. It sounds wonderful. Take care.

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  14. What delightful news to wake up to! Paige Shelton has a new book out, and somebody else loves road-tripping on Route 66! I have been reading and enjoying your books for a while, Paige, thanks to Jungle Red. I like both the Scottish bookshop stories and the Alaskan ones.

    But your Missouri connections had slipped my mind. I was born in Rolla, Missouri, and we used to take Route 66 (aka, the old road that made me carsick) down to visit my grandparents in Springfield, Missouri. Sometimes we'd just meet in the middle, in Lebanon, for breakfast at the Munger Moss Motel. Years later my family moved to Springfield, and I used to commute to college along old sections of Route 66. I have even eaten at Red's Giant Hamburg. (Apologies to folks who don't know Route 66. These are landmarks.)

    My interest in Route 66 reawakened during a wonderful road trip my husband and I took after my grandmother died. We went from Weatherford, Texas, up to Springfield, MO, to pick up furniture from my grandmother's estate, and haul it all the way out to San Francisco, where my aunt lived. We took I-80 west, then went south and came back to Texas on I-40. A Route 66 tourist shop in Williams, AZ, was where I realized that the old road that made me carsick was much, much more. I've been a fan ever since, and have driven over most of the old road through Missouri, and from Oklahoma City west. It's a great way to recapture a bit of American history. I don't really remember Arlington, though.

    Clearly I have to head back out, when it's safe. This time I have a great road-tripping car to do it in: a candy apple red Mustang GT. Gotta make that drive before they stop making cars like that!

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    1. Thank you, Gigi. You were born in Rolla? I would guess there's about a forty percent chance we are somehow related - LOL. And, you most definitely have the perfect car. Carsick isn't fun, but in that car . . . well, it might be worth it. Safe travels, and I'm very excited for your upcoming new series!

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    2. Gigi, might I remind you that you should get back to that Route 66 novel one of these days...

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    3. Gigi you have reminded me of our annual family trip from the Bay Area to near Columbia Missouri, where my Mom’s parents lived. Maybe because it was every year, I’m not a big fan of long road trips. My cousin is now a college professor in Lebonon. Are you taking about Missouri route 44, which I think is part of what was the old Route 66. Stopped in Williams many times on the way back to California. We went 80 east and returned by the southern route to stop in LA on the way back. I have a red Porsche Boxster that is fun for short road trips along the California coast. Finally managed to get my first Pfizer shot yesterday. I’m in the same age range as you and no health problems, so I was just eligible starting yesterday. My previous car was a black Mustang convertible. Paige congratulations on your nomination, I enjoy your Scotland based mysteries.

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    4. Gigi you have reminded me of our annual family trip from the Bay Area to near Columbia Missouri, where my Mom’s parents lived. Maybe because it was every year, I’m not a big fan of long road trips. My cousin is now a college professor in Lebonon. Are you taking about Missouri route 44, which I think is part of what was the old Route 66. Stopped in Williams many times on the way back to California. We went 80 east and returned by the southern route to stop in LA on the way back. I have a red Porsche Boxster that is fun for short road trips along the California coast. Finally managed to get my first Pfizer shot yesterday. I’m in the same age range as you and no health problems, so I was just eligible starting yesterday. My previous car was a black Mustang convertible. Paige congratulations on your nomination, I enjoy your Scotland based mysteries.

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    5. Gigi you have reminded me of our annual family trip from the Bay Area to near Columbia Missouri, where my Mom’s parents lived. Maybe because it was every year, I’m not a big fan of long road trips. My cousin is now a college professor in Lebonon. Are you taking about Missouri route 44, which I think is part of what was the old Route 66. Stopped in Williams many times on the way back to California. We went 80 east and returned by the southern route to stop in LA on the way back. I have a red Porsche Boxster that is fun for short road trips along the California coast. Finally managed to get my first Pfizer shot yesterday. I’m in the same age range as you and no health problems, so I was just eligible starting yesterday. My previous car was a black Mustang convertible. Paige congratulations on your nomination, I enjoy your Scotland based mysteries.

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    6. Paige, my paternal grandparents were both born in Douglas County, MO, so when I met a woman in Texas who went up to that part of Missouri on a genealogical quest for ancestral graves, I started calling her "Cousin Betty" just because we knew we had to be related somehow. I'll take a leap of faith and start calling you Cousin Paige. (The Mustang doesn't make me carsick at all. I blame it on my dad's driving!)

      Susan: it sounds like you took my trip in reverse. There's a whole lot of country to see in that loop. I think we logged about 4,000 miles over three weeks--in a bright purple pickup truck that time. Gotta love your Porsche Boxter!

      And Deb: Yeah. I know. Soon, maybe.

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  15. I can’t even imagine the Hooligans being on a road trip for 30 days! They’ve driven to California for long weekends but that’s about it. I am so impressed with 19 yr old you!!! Can’t wait for Deadly Editions - a nice trip to Scotland sounds just right!

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    1. Thank you, Jenn! I bet a road trip with the Hooligans would make for a grand adventure, and probably give you something good for a book. Thanks for inviting me to post. See you soon - hopefully.

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  16. Hi Paige! Deadly Editions is going on my list asap. I desperately need an Edinburgh fix!

    And I loved you road trip stories. I grew up with them. My parents loved road trips. One year we drove from Dallas though the southwest and up the coastal highway all the way to Vancouver, then back across Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado, and Oklahoma. There were lots of trips through the south, although we never made it as far as Florida, and many trips through Mexico to Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Puerta Vallarta. The only one that ever terrified me was the time my seventeen-year-old brother drove us on the old Mexico City highway, which was very narrow and mountainous. Talk about car sick!

    Now you've made me want to get in the car and go somewhere!

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    1. Those all sound wonderful, Deborah! I know those winding Mexico roads too - they can get your attention. Here's to safe travels ahead . . .

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  17. I'm jealous of that road trip when you were 19.

    I still want to get on the 10 and drive east to the other side of the country. Since I live near where it starts in LA, I could do the entire thing in one trip.

    Congrats on the new book.

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    1. Thanks, Mark! L.A. to NYC road trip is on my bucket list. Safe travels.

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    2. Mark, if you take I-10 to Louisiana, you'll wind up in Cajun country, with great food and excellent dance bands. Worth the trip!

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  18. All our family vacations when I was a kid were road trips. I probably got bored in route but I survived and love road trips to this day. I love being on the non-interstate roads. You see the coolest stuff. And local signs! I still remember seeing one on our way to South Padre Island a few years ago touting lawn mowing service by Jimmy Nine Toes.

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    1. Yes! Backroads are the way to go. And, of course, now I wonder about Jimmy and how many toes he really has. Thanks, Pat!

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    2. Mine, too! Lots of time spent pondering my existence in the backs of cars. LOL.

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  19. The road trip from Ohio to Colorado in the summer. I love driving across the Great Plains. The trip got even better when we listened to our oldest son's advice and added an hour to the trip by heading north into Cheyenne, WY and then coming into Colorado from the north. That added hour means no Denver traffic, a lot less stress, and great scenery.

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    1. I've always wanted to see Cheyenne! Jealous.

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    2. Brilliant! I've been to Cheyenne, but never to veer around Denver. Must try. Thanks, Cheryl!

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