Our highlight of the week was dinner and a show, uh, a signing, yes, that’s it, a signing in Plano. You know the center of the universe (only if you live in Plano, I’m afraid). Our members from Ft. Worth and beyond do argue with me but it is always amusing to stir them up. But I digress… Wednesday, June 29th we had a lovely dinner at the Macaroni Grill with Mary Alice Monroe and her escort, Joanne Crandall. It was wonderful especially when Alex our waiter gave us the jug of zinfandel “on the house.” And it’s always fun to “make your own pasta” because you get to see the REAL tastes of your table mates! Mary Alice likes hers “spicy.” Of course, we had to earn our dinner — by listing and explaining two goals we’ve set to do before we die. When we combined all the things the guests wanted to do it became a truly exciting set of experiences. If you’re curious and I let you guess who had what goal you’d find the goals ranged from visiting La Scala (opera house in Italy for the heathens), visiting London to see the setting of favorite books,…

Last week I read (in one sitting) Evanovich’s 11th Stephanie Plum adventure and while I whined about her bumbling, I secretly enjoyed every word of it. Good news. I’ve found another polish sleuth with another ensemble cast to make my enjoyment carry over into July. The latest, and second, in Lori Avocato‘s Pauline Sokol series, is The Stiff and the Dead. And it’s a hoot. Pauline, like Stephanie has stumbled into an investigating career. Only she’s not tracking bail jumpers but insurance fraud. This latest case has her falling back on her previous experience as a nurse to track prescription viagra abuse at her uncle’s senior citizen center. She even has a mysterious, elusive and single-named, Jagger, mentor in this investigation business. He appears at the most opportune times and the sexual tingles get her so distracted, she forgets whatever she might be doing. Hhhmmmm….. seem familiar?? Check her out. I think you’ll like her if you’re a fan of Evanovich. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.