We all
do it, don’t we? We start thinking about “the old days” and wonder “what ever
happened to…?”
So we
start Googling our former significant others.
Somehow
it’s kind of embarrassing to let people know. Maybe because it feels a little
stalkerish. But it’s so fascinating to
find out how people’s lives are turning out.
- “OMG, here’s his wedding announcement—to a man! Well, that explains a few things.”
- “He became a stockbroker? That hippie?”
- “Three arrests for DUI? I always wondered why his breath always smelled of Listerine and Altoids…”
- “He’s still single? Hmmm…”
Then
there are the tragic ones. The searches that bring up obituaries. And arrests.
One of my high school friends had
died in Vietnam. Another had drowned in an ice fishing accident.
The
saddest was the arrest report of one of my elementary school crushes…for possession
of child pornography.
Light bulbs
went off in my head. He had that awful “uncle” he always had to spend time with
but hated. The older brother who used such filthy language he was regularly
thrown off the school bus.
They had
been strikingly beautiful boys, blond Italians. What horrors had my little
friend been going through while I was carving his name in my wooden desk top,
and chased after him at the skating rink when he’d stolen my hat? Who knows—the images he was arrested for may have been photos of himself.
When you
get older, the obituaries come up more and more.
Last
year, after I’d had my third search in a row come up with an obituary—the idea for a novel popped into my head:
What if
a recent divorcee started Googling her old boyfriends and…every one of them
turned up dead?
Then all
I had to do was introduce the divorcee to Camilla Randall, my oh-so-polite
sleuth who’s a magnet for murder, mayhem, and Mr. Wrong… and there was the
story.
GOOGLING OLD BOYFRIENDS
I didn’t
bring in the tragic real-life stuff when I wrote this one. That wouldn’t work
in a Camilla book. Maybe I’ll do a serious piece on the subject sometime in the
future.
Here’s
an excerpt from the opening chapter.
“Okay, ’fess up.”
Mickie McCormack’s eyes twinkled as she plunked a book on the counter. “If
you’re that distracted by the Internet you’re either looking at porn or you’re
Googling old boyfriends.”
I felt my cheeks
heat up.
“Um, I’m guilty of
the latter, I’m afraid. I’ve just run into an old boyfriend and he’s invited me
to dinner, but…”
The bell on the
door jingled.
There he was.
Captain Maverick Jesus Zukowski, six foot, three inches of tall, dark, and
the-one-who-got-away.
The Camilla Randall Mysteries:
A laugh-out-loud mashup of
crime fiction, romantic comedy, and satire. Morro Bay bookshop owner Camilla
Randall is a magnet for murder, mayhem, and Mr. Wrong. But she always defeats
the bad guys in her quirky, but oh-so-polite way.
In this
stand-alone 7th book in the series, Camilla befriends socialite
Mickie McCormack—a sexy, mysterious older woman who’s going through a painful
divorce. Mickie has been Googling her old boyfriends to reconnect and “remember
who she used to be.”
Unfortunately
every one of those boyfriends soon ends up dead.
Is the
serial killer Camilla’s old boyfriend Dr. Bob? Or one of Mickie’s old
boyfriends? And can Camilla’s old boyfriend Captain Rick protect her and her
cat Buckingham from being fed to the sharks before she solves the mystery?
***
What about you? Have you Googled former lovers and significant others? Were any of the results tragic? Funny?
A comment will enter you into a contest to win a copy of the ebook for Kindle or other ereading device. I'll announce the winner in two weeks, on January 11th.
Happy 2019, everybody!
A comment will enter you into a contest to win a copy of the ebook for Kindle or other ereading device. I'll announce the winner in two weeks, on January 11th.
Happy 2019, everybody!
Ta-DA!! The winner of the contest is Chick Lit Shop, aka Mary Smith! Thanks for entering, everybody!
