William. This year heâs bringing Bridget. I kind of feel like the third wheel.
Whatâs your favorite and least favorite part about writing? To me your job sounds romantic. Clacking away at the keyboard in some cabin in the woods, the fire crackling in the fireplace, inspiration flowing from your fingertips, espresso at the ready. Lunches with publishers. Book signings and book tours. Impromptu trips to New York City. Am I close? Travel writing sounds even more romantic. Hereâs my confession. And you have to promise not to laugh. Iâve never traveled anywhere. Unless you count Iowa. Or the Upper Peninsula. Most people donât.;)
What about your family? You havenât told me anything about them, except that your sister is married. Iâd love to know more.
24 . . . your age when you set up your e-mail account? The number of your favorite sports player? The most postscripts youâve written in one e-mail?
Affectionately,
Amelia
PS: Itâs not that I donât like to dance. Itâs more that I simply donât do it. I do like watching people dance though.
From:
[email protected]To:
[email protected]Date: Thu, Oct 8, 2015 12:33 a.m.
Subject: Re: The Shop around the Corner
Dear Amelia,
Points for making me laugh. Out loud actually. Iâm not a fan of LOL , but it would be true if I wrote it here. The most postscripts Iâve written in one e-mail happens to be four, and they were all to you. The other two guesses were wrong. Better keep trying.
In other news, it makes me sad to read that you donât dance. Just think of all Cinderella would have missed out on had she watched the prince dance at the ball instead of joining him on the floor. Maybe Drizella would have ended up as the princess. That would have changed the entire feel of the story.
Your father sounds like a great man and you sound like a great florist. Your understanding of a writerâs life, however, is not so great. Trips to New York City arenât nearly as exciting as they sound. Book tours are mostly a thing of the past, and book signings are mortifying affairs wherein most authors sit at a table by themselves, often mistaken as store employees. I havenât had the pleasure of experiencing this, thankfully, since Iâm a ghostwriter. But Iâve heard horror stories from my author friends. Mostly my job involves me banging my head against the keyboard and seeing what comes out. No crackling fire or cabin in the woods. My favorite part is being finished, and my least favorite is sitting down and typing. (I jest. Itâs not that bad.)
My familyâs pretty run-of-the-mill. My parents are still married and live out east in Pennsylvania. Thatâs where I grew up. The only reason Iâm up north is because of my grant-writing job. After I quit, I never bothered moving. My mother bemoans the fact that Iâm not yet married. Every year sheâs more and more desperate to be a grandmother. Thankfully, with my sister newly hitched, sheâs transferred her pleading elsewhere. Theyâre good peopleâmy mom and dad. Weâre a close family. My sister is four years younger than me. Fun fact? The day we met was the day of her wedding. Thatâs why I was dressed up so fancy. I was one of the groomsmen. She and her husband just got back from their honeymoon in California. Sheâs always had this obsession with touring a vineyard. They live fairly close to you. I think you and my sister would hit it off. Maybe we can all meet up someday. Grab a bite. Or tour that corn maze. You have me wanting to visit your town.
What do you say?
Best,
Nate
âThere are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.â
âC. S. Lewis
I sat at the small table near the front window of my shop with a lump in my throat. Fern Halloway and Phil Nixon, my oldest bride and groom to date, sat across from me. Fern was a seventy-four-year-old woman whose first husband died