Title: Plumb Crazy
Author: Molly
Blaisdell
Small town country
girl Elva Presley Hicks is about to attend her five-year class reunion with her
best friends, Shay and Margarett.
The discovery of an old fanfic manuscript stirs up memories of her summer job as a plumber’s helper in Houston the summer before senior year. She earned a lot of money that year, but was lonely as heck.
It's not like there weren't any suitors back then. Elva could have chosen between Chase, the obese pig farmer, and Wyatt, the plumber with wandering hands. But Elva yearned for something more, and found it that fateful summer, with electrician, Mitch McCall.
It was magical. Mitch wasn't turned off by Elva's name or fan fiction writing, and Elva didn't lose interest in Mitch after he cut off his nose at work.
Trials and triumphs followed including a friendship implosion, world-wide fanfic humiliation, and goat salvation. It would go down as the most memorable summer of high school.
But as these things sometimes do, the summer romance fizzled and Elva moved on to life after high school. And while she's ready to reminisce, she is unnerved when she runs into Mitch at the reunion. Can they give it another go after so much time has passed, or are they too different now to even try?
The discovery of an old fanfic manuscript stirs up memories of her summer job as a plumber’s helper in Houston the summer before senior year. She earned a lot of money that year, but was lonely as heck.
It's not like there weren't any suitors back then. Elva could have chosen between Chase, the obese pig farmer, and Wyatt, the plumber with wandering hands. But Elva yearned for something more, and found it that fateful summer, with electrician, Mitch McCall.
It was magical. Mitch wasn't turned off by Elva's name or fan fiction writing, and Elva didn't lose interest in Mitch after he cut off his nose at work.
Trials and triumphs followed including a friendship implosion, world-wide fanfic humiliation, and goat salvation. It would go down as the most memorable summer of high school.
But as these things sometimes do, the summer romance fizzled and Elva moved on to life after high school. And while she's ready to reminisce, she is unnerved when she runs into Mitch at the reunion. Can they give it another go after so much time has passed, or are they too different now to even try?
Come
out for the Belling High School reunion. Setups for BYOB.
The invitation arrived by mail. Her five year class
reunion.
Elva could hardly believe it had been five years. It
was amazing how fast time burned up in a puff of college classes, summer jobs,
and road trips to sci-fi conventions (her guilty pleasure). She’d decided not
go to the reunion. A return to high school seemed like a waste of time, but
then Shay had called and after that, Margarett. Her best friends, the Loser
Girls, a name born of junior high foolishness—they wanted to reunite, and of
junior high foolishness—they wanted to reunite, and she couldn’t say no.
She put out the fifty dollars for the reunion boat
ride on Lake Conroe, along with barbeque and country western dancing. Next,
she’d shopped for a new dress since the planning committee insisted that
everyone wear formals.
“Elva Presley, are you ready?” Her grandmother,
Nonny, was watching TV.
Elva headed into the living room.
“Do you like my outfit?” she asked, spinning in a
fuchsia mini with sparkly shoulder straps, her four-inch high pumps dangling
from a finger.
“Oh, Elva Presley, you look so much like your mama
did,” Nonny said.
Elva laughed. She was all generous curves, and her
mama had been model thin.
Papaw came out of the bathroom. “Elva, do you have
enough gas money for tonight?”
“I’m fine. I’ve got my internship pay. I just need
my purse, and then I’ll pick up Margarett in Jersey Village. Shay’s meeting us
at the boat.”
Elva glanced around the living room for her clutch
purse. She checked in the bedroom. Her sequined clutch jutted out from under
the bed. When she reached down to pick it up, her fingers grazed a
rubber-banded stack of paper. Elva hooked the purse over her wrist and picked
up the stack. The edges of the sheets were curled and faded coffee stains
blossomed across the cover page.
Her breath caught in her throat when she read the
title. “The Death Incident.”
She hadn’t seen this manuscript since she started
college. Her lips curved into her widest smile. It suddenly all seemed like
yesterday.
Elva went to her car, a yellow Yaris that she’d paid
off herself last summer. She put it in gear and headed to Margarett’s. Vivid
memories flooded back of Belling High School, a low cinder block building
hunkered down in hardscrabble grassland choked by bull nettle and scourged by
fire ants. The cafeteria doors were painted mud-coffee to hide the dirt.
It all started after her junior year.
Molly Blaisdell's first crossover YA/NA romantic comedy, Plumb Crazy, is
forthcoming from Swoon Romance. She is also the author of 30 books for
children, including Rembrandt and the Boy Who Drew Dogs (Barron’s), The Truth
About Unicorns (Capstone Press) and The Big Fuzzy Coat (MeeGenius!). She's
written hundreds of articles for many internationally known publishers,
including MSN, Scholastic, eHow, Hasbro, and Penguin's Author Learning
Center.Molly is a Texan and a graduate of Texas A&M in Chemistry. She is a
long-time member of SCBWI, and is a former Regional Advisor of the Western
Washington region, a Blueboard Moderator Emeritus and a recipient of the Martha
Weston Grant.She formed her first fan fiction group in junior high school and
is still a huge fan gal of all things space, Star Trek, anime and blockbuster
movies. She's the mom of four, and currently lives under the wide open skies of
College Station, TX with her husband Tim. Her interestsinclude fine art, folk
art, and Texas music.
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