Book Title: CUTIE PIES BY THE SLICE
Character Name: Lila Young (main character)
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
Let’s just say my family wasn’t exactly the sort you’d find gathered around the Sunday dinner table. My father disappeared when I was ten. Mama ran a boardinghouse and was busy as a bee. And my brother only shows up half the time he says he will. As Mama used to say, “Promises and pie crusts are easily broken.” After Mama died, I’ve come to believe that the family you’re born into isn’t necessarily the family you’ll end up with.
What was your greatest talent?
Pie-making, without a doubt. Give me some flour, shortening, and whatever fruit is in season, and I’ll make something worth sitting down for. But lately I’ve discovered another talent: bringing people together.
Significant other?
Now that’s a personal question! Well, there’s a gentleman named Vern who’s taken quite an interest in me. He’s older, dependable, and has been awfully generous with his help. But I’ve learned that choosing a man is a little like choosing a pie. A handsome crust doesn’t tell you much about what’s underneath. I’m taking it slow, I’ll say that.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Knowing whom to trust. I have to be careful being a young woman in a new town. I’ve been disappointed by people who appeared to love me and surprised by the generosity of the people who had no reason to care. Funny thing about friendship. Sometimes the people who show up when you need them most aren’t the ones you’d expect.
Where do you live?
I moved to Lima, Ohio after Mama died. I arrived with a suitcase, a few dollars, and no particular reason to believe anyone here would care whether I stayed or left. Now, I’ve got a pie shop on Main Street, friends who support my business, and more reasons to stay than I ever imagined.
Do you have any enemies?
Enemies? Mercy, I hope not! I’m just a woman trying to make an honest living selling pies. But Lima’s got its share of troublemakers, especially with all the speakeasies and mobsters running around since Prohibition. Some of those fellas seem to think they own the whole town.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
When I first came to Lima, I didn’t know a soul. Now I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I’ve got my little pie shop on Main Street, but the best thing about this town is the friends I’ve made, especially Agnes and Maggie. We spend plenty of evenings gathered around Agnes’s kitchen table, sharing good food, a little gossip, and more laughter than you can imagine. Sometimes we solve the world’s problems, and sometimes we just make a bigger mess of them! I’ve come to think of those gatherings as family suppers, even if none of us is related. Funny, isn’t it? I came to Lima looking for a fresh start, and ended up finding the place to call home.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I have nieces and nephews – some by blood and some just like blood. One is even named after me. And I have to say there are days I feel as though I’ve adopted half the town. Does that count?
What do you do for a living?
I’m the proud owner of Cutie Pies by the Slice on Main Street. We serve several types: fruit, cream, and even mincemeat. You can get a slice with coffee for just ten cents. Times are hard since the stock market crash, but I figure folks can still afford a little sweetness in their lives.
Greatest disappointment?
I won’t go into details, but someone I was close to betrayed me. And in the process threatened my financial situation so that I couldn’t buy the oven I needed for my store. There is no excuse for using me, especially when I was so sweet to them. No excuse, at all.
Greatest source of joy?
My girlfriends, Agnes and Maggie, and the laughter we share. Sometimes we disagree, sometimes we meddle in each other’s affairs, and sometimes we say things we shouldn’t. But when trouble comes calling, I know who’ll be standing beside me. I’ve become closer to my sister-in-law Earline lately as well, and I’m not sure how my rotten brother feels about that.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
Between working long hours and trying to make ends meet, I don’t have much time for fun. Maggie taught me how to dance, and Thelma goes to the picture show with me. In all honesty, just being with friends is entertaining enough. It doesn’t have to be a special activity.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I’m stubborn as a mule, and I don’t much like asking for help. I’ve spent so long proving I can take care of myself that I sometimes forget there’s no shame in letting someone else carry part of the load. Please don’t make me tell you about the time I was alone on Christmas Day and ate an entire pie…
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I’d like a family of my own someday. A husband, maybe a few children, and a house filled with laughter.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
Well, I’ve never exactly had men lining up at my door. Unless they’re looking for pie, that is! And finding a man who enjoys my baking is one thing. Finding one who understands that I intend to keep baking after we’re married is quite another. I’ve worked too hard to build a life of my own to give it all up for a wedding ring. Still, I can’t help wondering if there’s a man out there who might love me just the way I am, flour-dusted apron and all.
What keeps you awake at night?
Keeping the pie shop open during these economic times consumes my days and my nights. And between you and me, I fear for my brother’s involvement in the mob. Their encroachment on the Garino gang is going to bring certain trouble.
CUTIE PIES BY THE SLICE by Kimberly Nixon
A 1930s Historical Novel of Strength and Belonging
For readers of The Calamity Club and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, this Depression‑era historical novel follows a young woman who opens a pie shop in small‑town Ohio while building the family she never had.
Lila Young arrives in Lima, Ohio, determined to leave heartbreak behind and create a future of her own. More than a successful pie shop, she longs for something she’s never truly had‑a place to belong. As customers gather over coffee and homemade pie, friendships with Agnes and Maggie become the sisters she never had, and quiet, dependable Vern earns her trust one daily bank deposit at a time.
Then Lila discovers that hidden mob money begins flowing through her pie shop without her knowledge. As hidden loyalties surface and the people she loves are forced into impossible choices, she’ll have to decide whether protecting the life she’s built means walking away from those who’ve become her family‑or risking everything to fight for them.
A hopeful historical novel about found family, resilience, forgiveness, and second chances, Cutie Pies by the Slice blends small‑town charm, the dangers of Prohibition‑era crime, and the comfort of a neighborhood pie shop into a story that celebrates the families we build when life doesn’t go as planned.
Women’s Fiction Historical [ Roots and Wings Press, LLC, On Sale: October 6, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781957513287 / eISBN: 9781957513270 ]
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About Kimberly Nixon
I have been blessed with a plethora of unique family stories. My mother used to tell me all about her childhood years in Appalachia and these stories incited a fire in me to investigate and imagine the world that she came from.
My father only told stories that involved a joke of some sort. He used humor to divert the many untold, perhaps painful, stories about his thirteen siblings, his experience during the Depression, and his trek into Africa and Europe during World War II.
For me, there is no greater pleasure than reconnecting with my family memories. Except when it sparks an idea for a book to share with you.
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