Diners, Introductions and Debuts

Welcome! By way of introduction, I thought I’d share a little bit about myself, by sharing with you some background about the setting in my debut novella, A MIGHTY GOOD MAN—a  contemporary romance with a punch of suspense. 

A lot of the action takes place in a fictional, cool, retro Mom and Pop diner
joint, Mighty Ricky’s, named for its signature sandwich. Okay, I have a thing
for diners—I haunt the one located conveniently within walking distance from
where I live, I love Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, a.k.a. Triple D, on the Food
Network, and anytime I travel, they’re always at the top of my list.

I’ve come by that love honestly.

I grew up in my family’s restaurant business, an actual, cool, Mom and Pop
style diner. Only at the time, it wasn’t yet retro! In true 1970s fashion, it
sported lots of brown and Crayola orange, from the countertops to the paneled
walls, to the vinyl covered booths. Design crimes and all, it’s a place that’s
part of my soul, and though long gone, lives on graciously in my memory, and
now, I’m thrilled to say, in my novella.

What a privilege to grow up in such a place! From the time I was about ten,
my brother and I worked alongside my parents, aunt and uncle, cousins and the
help, making, on a large scale, tantalizing, from scratch fare, such as
spaghetti sauce, (you have to use pork bones), wedding soup, and bread stuffing.
Lots of Saturdays, starting at 7am, we did heavy prep, mixing up ingredients in
Rubbermaid tubs; pounds of butter, ground meat, celery, onions. We cooked in
cast iron and stainless steel cauldrons half my height, stirred with wooden
paddles that could’ve doubled as oars. I learned how to work the grill, make
salads, and turn last night’s chicken special into today’s soup du jour.

 And that was just the food.

The people who worked there were larger than life too, and also live on,
fondly, in my memory. Cooks, waitresses, busboys, dishwashers; men, women,
young, old, and in between—they ran the gamut from high school student to
retiree, from vagabond to workhorse. Some came and never left, some worked one
shift and never bothered to return—characters, all of them. 

I remember hanging out at the counter with my Dad for hours, while he drank
coffee and talked with customers. I would sit, fascinated, by the adult
conversation, and the things I heard, and shouldn’t have heard. A unique and
well-rounded education was mine for the taking on topics as varied as the
economy, the local steel mill, sports, hunting, the president, politics, family,
and religion. Regulars inhabited the space, claiming it as their own; they made
it a hub in the community, not just as a place to eat great food, but as a place
to connect, to complain, to celebrate, and to come together.

The food, the people, the work, the experience—it was delicious, joyous,
exhilarating, exhausting, crazy, colorful, strange, and maddening, but above
all, unique; so much so, we would often laugh and say we could write a book.

Well, I did.

A MIGHTY GOOD MAN, available now from Soul Mate Publishing