I had the pleasure of speaking at the Jackson City Library in Jackson, Ohio last week. The sweet little library nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains is not too far from where I grew up.
I was lucky enough to see many familiar faces from my childhood and to meet some new readers as well.
I spoke about my newest release, Camelot West Virginia, and also the inspirations behind my other series. A lot of that inspiration comes from my hometown area.
A reader surprised me with a gift. This intriguing-looking bottle.
It looks a bit like a magic potion, and it kind of is. This is a bottle of Fred’s Red Dressing – locally famous in the Portsmouth, Ohio area. You might think it looks a bit like French, but you would be mistaken. This is red dressing. How it differs from French dressing is hard to pin down. I discuss it in detail in the third book of my Goode-Grace Mystery Series — Something Red.
The book is not about salad dressing, and it didn’t really occur to me that I’d worked red salad dressing into a book called Something Red until I was presented with this delicious bottle of nostalgia.
It will be served atop a crisp wedge of iceberg lettuce with a few homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers tonight. Thank you, Dawn for bringing me a taste of home!