HITTING THE HIGH NOTES
A novel of women’s fiction
by Nan D. Arnold
FEBRUARY 2010 RELEASE
By Champagne Books
We all know Maggie Duncan. She’s the woman in the grocery isle who could be our next door neighbor; the one who made bad choices. Staring the big five oh in the face, she takes stock. Having married unwisely and eschewed children, she now finds herself widowed and unattached. She is gaining weight everywhere but where she could use some fat-in the heels of her feet.
Looking for a spark, she finds one in the form of a blue knit dress promising to remain wrinkle free no matter what. Maggie thinks that would make a good article for a travel magazine and gives the premise a real workout once she meets an AWOL opera star by chance in a convenience store.
Lorenzo Pazzazzi, an aging baritone nursing a bruised ego following bad reviews, poses as a tourist called “Stavros”. He sees instantly that Maggie is pedaling along life’s highway without amoré so he commences to romance her as only The Great Pazzazzi can. He invites her to his place for a glass of wine but his brother, in drag to foil paparazzi, shows up unexpectedly at the front door. Fearful Maggie may learn who he really is, Lorenzo shoos her out his back door. Trouble is, wine-befuddled Maggie forgets her purse-the one holding a favorite photo of her deceased mother. She rounds the building to collect her purse, and what’s left of her pride, but Stavros is no where to be found. Instead, Maggie is greeted by an inhospitable Amazon who gives her the bum’s rush. Miffed, Maggie decides to involve cops. Detective Bruce Herring enters the picture, and there’s an immediate attraction between him and Maggie.
Soon, Lorenzo’s shenanigans not only involve Bruce Herring; but also The Green Socks Gang, wacko pie-chucking environmentalists when the singer pretends to be a member of the group.
The Green Socks Gang is harmless unless you’re befouling the oceans, ripping out trees, or reneging on political promises germane to the environment. The worst punishment they administer is lemon meringue pie in the kisser. However, when the gang learns Lorenzo sometimes poses as a member, they’re displeased. They decide to kidnap this poseur to their cause and teach him a lesson about honesty.
Lorenzo, unaware he’s actually being stalked by the gang, pretends to Maggie he’s not really a member of the Green Socks Gang, but their potential kidnap victim targeted for ransom and he needs her help because he can’t involve the cops. He hopes this ploy will engender sympathy, thus speeding their way along to l’amour.
Maggie remembers Bruce Herring wore green socks when first they met, with black pants. The fashion faux pas was, he said, due to an affliction: color blindness. Perhaps, or is he, too, a Green Sockser? No, he’s really a cop, and only one of a disparate cast trying to lure bad boy baritone Lorenzo back to Italy before he garners any negative press.
Along the way, the attraction between Maggie and Bruce grows. Then she’s dragged into the fray between Lorenzo and The Green Socks Gang while trying to reclaim her purse and that precious photo.
Who teaches her to hit the high notes of life’s song, the sexy singer or the rock solid cop?
EXCERPTS AND MORE here or check out Champagne Books; when you see my photo, click where indicated and that will take readers straight to my website.
Tell us about your latest/upcoming release. What inspired it?
A widow relearns life is a song and you that gotta hit the high notes. What inspired it? Well, what inspired my writing at all was hubris. I was sitting in a doctor’s office and tiring of the ten year old copy of Field and Stream, when I noticed someone left an orphaned book, a romance. The nurse said I could take it. I did and read it. Then, dummy me, thought “I could write something like this.” Oh, yeah? Boy, did I have a LOT to learn. Back to HITTING THE HIGH NOTES; think Carl Hiaasen turns into a woman on the cusp of menopause. It’s zany and fun with some dark undertones.
Did you always want to become a writer?
Never gave it a thought until the chance encounter in the doctor’s office. Wait. That’s not entirely true. I did give short stories a whirl but despite a few kind encouraging rejections, that never went anywhere and I went on to other things.
What is the most – and the least – interesting fact about writing?
The most interesting fact is that somebody you feel writes stronger than you doesn’t get published; the least interesting is it is a hard job. Time consuming and draining.
How did you celebrate your first release?
I opened a Coke (after I got up off the floor from shock)
What was it like to see your book in a bookstore/internet? Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?
Well, ask me in February 2010 and I’ll let you know (grin).
Do you prefer stand alone books or series?
I like both, obviously since HITTING THE HIGH NOTES is followed by a sequel: PESTO PACKIN’ MAMA.
If you could change places with one character from your books, who would it be and why?
I’d be Lorenzo Pazzazzi, the opera star who usually gets everything he wants. Wouldn’t that be grand?
The holidays are here. What favorite traditions do you do during this time of year (tree hunting, cookie baking, etc)?
Well, I have a good ear for music but my voice certainly doesn’t warrant caroling; we hunt for a tree – in the attic- and trim that Christmas Eve. I’m a fair cook but miserable baker, so I buy store bought treats or even more fun, I buy from local bake sales.
If you could go back in time, which one would it be and why?
I would stay right where I am. I have indoor plumbing, running water; electric heat (or gas) and air conditioning–not for me are the days of old when people bathed once a week after lugging water from a nearby stream or even from the old kitchen pump. Oh, sure, if I were of noble or genteel birth and had someone do all that for me, okay. What are the chances my forbearers were in that class? And you still have the problem of air conditioning in the summer. I spent summers with my grandmother in east Texas. Read: broiling summers. She didn’t believe in A/C. We had fans. Try that a few times.
You got to meet any mythical creature/person who would you choose to meet and why?
I guess I’d want to meet Hermes (a.ka. Mercury to the Romans). What’s the first thing you think of when you here Hermes: expensive silk scarves and watches. But the real Hermes was busy; he could act as messenger of the gods, saw over thieves and travelers, too, and was very cunning).He also had a handy dandy wand with which he could confer sleep; kinda the model for our Sand Man myths I guess. I’d ask Herm (or Merc) Hey, fella, could you hit me with that wand a few times on those nights I’m fretting over revisions; copyedits; plots and character arcs?
Where can readers find you on the web?
My Website | Newsletter Group
What is coming in 2010 that you want to tease the reader on?
Pesto Packin’ Mama. As I mentioned, it’s a sequel to HITTING THE HIGH NOTES and ties up all lose ends with a happily-ever-ending. Oh, and there’s a showdown between Maggie and a sociopathic loan shark (hence the title) and kid-adverse Maggie has a change of heart (after lots and lots of ups and downs) when Bruce’s seventy-year-old father’s lovechild is forced on him. Lorenzo returns briefly, very briefly–per Bruce’s preference.
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One Response to “Guest Author Day with Nan D. Arnold”
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Hi Nan and thanks for dropping by today.
I love the premise of this story and can’t wait to read it.
Raine D.