Romance author Fran Thomas shares her book and one of her favorite vacation locations!
In my novella The Lady Is a
Mayor, a young woman unexpectedly becomes the acting mayor of a small,
quirky Florida town when the elected mayor disappears after emptying the town’s
bank account. When a handsome northerner arrives with plans to build a hotel,
the business owners are for the idea, but the nature lovers are opposed. My Lady Mayor has to find a way to bring both
sides together, save the town, and follow her heart.
A
Romantic Place to Visit:
In my novella The Lady Is a
Mayor, a young woman unexpectedly becomes the acting mayor of a small,
quirky Florida town when the elected mayor disappears after emptying the town’s
bank account. When a handsome northerner arrives with plans to build a hotel,
the business owners are for the idea, but the nature lovers are opposed. My Lady Mayor has to find a way to bring both
sides together, save the town, and follow her heart.
Excerpt:
“I’d
like to thank the Nobel Committee for this award.”
Geneva
Price’s acceptance speech for the Peace Prize was interrupted by the shrill of
the telephone. Her dreams of Scandinavians bearing gifts were shattered.
With
one hand, she reached for the switch on the lamp at her bedside. With the
other, she gathered a tangle of brunette curls away from her face. Squinting,
she located the face of her alarm clock. Two seventeen.
“Hello,”
she croaked into the receiver.
“Sorry
to wake you, Geneva, but we…no, make that you’ve got a problem.”
The
voice on the other end belonged to Sheriff Clyde Biggs.
Geneva
sat up abruptly, her heartbeat going into overdrive.
“What
is it, Clyde? Did something happen to Mom and Dad?”
“Shoot,
no. Nothing like that. Didn’t mean to get you all riled up.”
Geneva’s
heartbeat slowed but not by much.
“It’s
Mayor Cramer,” Clyde explained. “He’s gone.”
“Gone?
Good heavens, did he have a heart attack?”
“Not
gone, dead. Gone, missing. Mary Sue Jeffers saw him loading up his car and
called me. You know what a snoop she is.”
Geneva
knew.
”I
didn’t think nothing of it. Not until I saw him hightailing it onto the
interstate just now with no headlights on.”
“Maybe
he just forgot to turn them on.”
“That’s
what I thought at first. I followed him and tried to signal him. He caught
sight of me behind him and took off like a bat out of H, E, double toothpicks.”
“There’s
got to be a perfectly logical explanation.”
“If
there’s an explanation, it’s a doozy. I rode by his house, and the back door
was open. That’s how anxious he was to make tracks. I locked up to keep Mary
Sue out.”
A
sharp pain shot through Geneva’s right eye.
“It’ll
be all over town before noon tomorrow.”
“You
know it. As president of the town council, I’m afraid it’s up to you to figure
it out.”
Geneva
sighed and ran her hand through her hair.
“Right.
I guess I’ll start calling the others as soon as I get a cup of coffee in me.
Thanks for the heads up, Clyde.”
“You
bet. If I find out anything else, I’ll let you know.”
Bio: I am a native of Pittsburgh now living in a town in Florida not unlike
the one I write about. A couple years as the editor of the local newspaper gave
me plenty of material to work with. My favorite pastime is singing with a
symphonic choral group. I also enjoy watching Dancing with the Stars and
Project Runway.
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| Photo of Napa Valley, California, by Stan Shebs via wikimedia Creative Commons License |
The most romantic trip my husband and I ever took was up the coast of
California. We rented a turquoise convertible in San Francisco and headed
across the Golden Gate Bridge and through the redwoods toward wine country.
With the Beach Boys furnishing a soundtrack on the radio, we sampled our way
through Napa and Sonoma. We made it as far north as Fort Bragg, a small town
with a thriving artist community where I instantly felt right at home. Snuggling
into a candlelit booth with a bowl of the best ever cream of mushroom soup
topped off a beautiful vacation.
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