Southern Festival Time Again!
Book lovers, mark your calendar for October 26-27 for The Southern Festival of Books at the Bicentennial Mall! Go to sofestofbooks.org for the complete schedule. I’ll be talking about my latest mystery, Notorious in Nashville, Sunday, 12:30 p.m., at the Tennessee State Museum, Duck Room. Please join me!
Silver Falchion Award 2024
Exciting Announcement!
Killer Nashville gives a Silver Falchion Award in several categories. Notorious in Nashville is on the “Top Picks” list for the Best Cozy Award. There will be a list of “Finalists” before a winner is chosen. I’m keeping my fingers crossed! Treachery in Tuscany won this award previously.
Review of Notorious in Nashville
Thanks to Lily Shadowlyn for this review and her interview with me. Please visit her website at The Faerie Review.
Compulsive Reader Prints Review of Notorious in Nashville
Excited to see a reprint of Will Maguire’s review of Notorious in Nashville, first published in Well Read Magazine! Thank you, Maggie Ball and Mandy Haynes, editors of these literary magazines, and thank you, Will Maguire. https://compulsivereader.com/2024/02/03/a-review-of-notorious-in-nashville-by-phyllis-gobbel/
Fun at First Saturday Art Crawl!
Thanks to the staff at Chauvet for such a warm welcome at the Art Crawl Saturday night! Around 400 visitors came to the gallery to enjoy the art exhibition. I met some readers and got some great exposure for Notorious in Nashville. It was a big night, lots of fun!
First Scene of Notorious in Nashville
Everybody who knows Nashville and country music knows the Bluebird Cafe, so that’s where I wanted to start. Here is the opening scene:
Chapter 1
A hush hovered over the room.
Her voice. What was it about that voice? The way it came from something deep inside. Longing. Regret. Old pain for what was lost. Etched in a fresh face. How could a twenty-five-year-old possibly know all of it? But you believed she did when you heard her sing.
I’ve never been a fan of country music. Never followed country music, except for summer visits with my grandparents in south Georgia, when the radio was always tuned to the big clear channel, WSM, out of Nashville. Hearing a classic like Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You can still take me back to that simpler, sweeter time.
After those long ago summers, I didn’t pay much attention to country music.
But Willow Goodheart’s voice grabbed me, pulled me into what she was feeling, made me hold my breath.
The first chill of fall in the air
The smell of wood smoke in your hair . . .
The lyrics, unpretentious but elegant, and the hymn-like melody with a hint of blues. Her quiet rhythmic picking on the acoustic guitar. All of it. And the voice.
Not like any country song I’d ever heard.
Your heart’s first small crack
The part that you never get back . . .
The haunting verse climbed into the chorus that rang with raw honesty, with the resonance of an old soul.
There are things that will vanish,
But they don’t fade away.
Then, as Willow held the audience under her spell, another voice boomed from behind us. “That’s my song, Missy!”
A disheveled man, weathered face, wiry beard, staggered from the bar at the opposite end of the room from the stage. “Mine! You stole my song!” He lurched forward, heading toward the stage, stumbling into a table of four women. Their drinks spilled. The women shrieked.
“It’s mine!” he kept yelling.
Willow went silent in the middle of a line. The stillness in the room turned into a roar of disgruntled chatter. Several men, including Kyle, my daughter’s significant other, jumped up, but before they could rush to rescue the women, a linebacker-type from the bar swung a huge arm around the man’s skinny neck. And then, grasping his scrawny arm and gray scraggly ponytail, swept him out the door.
“Stupid drunk,” Kyle said, under his breath. He sat down and reached for his beer.
“Who is that?” Holly whispered.
“He’s Notorious.” Kyle took a long pull from the bottle.
Book Event in my Hometown
Many thanks to everyone at The Wayne County Museum for such a delightful book event on Saturday, December 2. It was an opportunity to talk about my new mystery, Notorious in Nashville, as well as my other books, and I was able to visit with many friends and meet some new ones. All of it took place in the building that was once a feed store, owned by my great uncles, now a museum. Later, I watched the Christmas parade that brought back many memories. A day I will not forget!
Summer Reading!
Books for the beach, pool, or plane that will take you to Provence, Ireland, and Italy.
Look for the next book in the Jordan Mayfair Mystery series, coming this fall!