TATTLE AND WRYE

FROM THE DESK OF

DONA PENZA TATTLE, ESQ.

AND

ASSOCIATE WRYE BALDERDASH

Greetings,

Tattle meets Wrye outside the office. “You gotta be kiddin’ me,” she
exclaims as she takes in Wrye’s cowboy getup and the two horses.

“I kid you not, my favorite kid.”

“Am not a goat and do not ride horses…except in me imagination.”

“Imagination is part of our Love of Literature Leap and today we are
riding right into the jump.”

“I don’t know, Wrye, them horses there are awful big.”

“To quote my favorite cowpoke, JW, ‘Courage is being scared to death
and saddling up anyway’.”

“In that case….” Tattle used a bit of book magic and with a snap of
her fingers, her office clothes instantly turned into riding breeches, a
snug fitting vest and an Annie Oakley hat. “Let’s leap!


“Oooh, who’s the hunka hunka?” Tattle asks, as she strokes the
horse’s mane, whispering, “Nice horsey, nice horsey.”

Wrye tips back his Stetson. “Evan Jones, remember him from JUDE
JOHNSON’s DRAGON AND HAWK?”

“Ah yes, he married the gorgeous and tenacious Mexican healer,
Reyna, which means we’re in JUDE JOHNSON’s romantic western
historical OUT OF FORGOTTEN ASHES.”

“Pretty horse ranch they got here outside of Tombstone, but they
don’t look too happy, now do they?” Wrye dismounts and begins to
crouch.

Slipping off her own steed, Tattle says, “Hey cowboy, don’t squat with
your spurs on,” and then, “Looks like Evan’s past is about to jump up
and bite them both real hard.”

“Is that before or after Reyna has a vision of him drowning?”

Tattle squints as if she too can have a vision. “Ut oh, this story might
be over before it gets started. Will she be in time to save him?”

After pretending to spit tobacco juice, which in actuality is only a
stream of air, Wrye lowers his hat to shade his eyes and offers,
“Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.”

“We aren’t talking ‘bout no rain dance, Balderdash, but a man’s life.”
Tattle dissolves through a few pages. “Ah, here we go. Our little
tenacious minx braved the elements and went after him.”

“He lives….” Wrye sighs but Tattle can’t tell if is because he
appreciates how Reyna sits a horse, or if he is relieved about Evan.

“Yup, she got him. Has him trussed up on the horse, but it’s a long
way home and Evan is unconscious.”

“This might not be such a bad thing, considerin’ that hot-to-trot filly
has herself a temper. In her mind, he had no right going after that
lost red colt during a thunderstorm.”

“It sure does seem like there’s trouble a-brewin’ in the Arizona
Territory, and this is just the start of it. Question is, will their
marriage survive the dark phoenix rising out of his past?”

“Even more, m’fine equestrian, will either of them survive at all?”
Tattle questions.

“That is a horse’s tale to be re-visited during reading time.”

“Yippee-i-o-ki-ay, yippee-i-o-ki-ay, let’s leap!”

"Wrye, just where have you taken me?" She dusts vowels from her

shoulders as horses and cowboy getups disappear.

"Think turn of the century. England. Independent woman. Murder!"

"Goodness, can it be? Are we here, truly?" she says, saucer-eyed and

ebullient.

"Indeed. I know you well. You've been cooing about this book and

wanting to leap into it for months."

Tattle placed a hand to her heart, sighs. "Then this is SUSPICION

OF LOVE by CANDACE MOREHOUSE?"

He preens and grins. "Come on, say it. Wrye is a leaper

extraordinaire."

She does and bats those infamously long lashes of hers, not

flirtatiously, for Penza never flirts, well, almost never. "Do tell. I will

expire from curiosity if you do not go on with the tale."

He motions her to one side so as not to interrupt readers wishing to

move beyond page one. "Creighton Jacqueline Brooks is not the

typical lady of the era. She is what they used to not-so-affectionately

call, a spinster so tight she squeaks, and not adverse to being so.

After inheriting a share in a London detective agency, she dives into a

very non-traditional, for her time, but exceptionally exciting career."

"A Renaissance women."

"Exactly! Remember this is 1901 and she travels from cheesy

Wisconsin to foggy London with a certainty that she can do anything."

"Ah, what a divine attitude," Tattle enthuses, squinting as an

attractive yet obviously proper and bespectacled lady with a decisive

air rushes down the London street. "Is that her?"

"None other, and that..." Wrye indicates a somewhat hassled looking

solicitor motoring behind her, "is her reluctant partner, Stephen

Haversham."

"Reluctant?" Tattles probes for more luscious and hopefully lurid

details as the gossipmonger in her emerges.

"At first, but after being forced, right, to share an apartment while

solving a high profile murder case, he begins to grow interest for her."

"Grow? Do you mean admire?"

"Steam up yours and my glasses admire. They're hot to the square of

oh... oh... my! She is crafty and intelligent and he is attracted, lured,

teased, taunted, not intentionally by her, but the tug and pull is

there."

"Why do I hear a but poised and ready? Does she not find him

equally desirable?"

"Ah, she does... she does... but..." He does a tap-dance move flinging

out his hand as if passing that word but to her.

"And there it is. I knew it!"

"There is a snag."

"Oooh," she rubs her white-gloved hands together. "I like snags."

"The snag's name is Lord Derby, handsome and acquitted of murder.

Jacqueline ends up being attracted to both this aristocrat and her

partner. However, nothing is as it seems and a murder solved is not

so solved." He bounces his eyebrows in a devilish manner.

"This sounds absolutely delicious."

"And there is a bit of humor to be enjoyed as well."

"Humor is my crumpet and tea. I am hooked."

"Speaking of tea, there is a lovely little tea shop right around the

corner. Would you care for a cuppa?" He presents his crooked arm

and she takes it.

Back in the office, they smile at the readers. We do hope you enjoyed

our sojourn from the Arizona Territory to the streets of London in two

fantastic stories. Next month we will be spying on THE P-TOWN

QUEEN by UTE CARBONE, HEATED DREAMS by JULIE GRISSOM

and DANGEROUS DESIRE by ROMONA HILLIGER.

Until then, read on, m’friends.

Dona Penza Rutabaga Tattle, Esq.

and Associate Wrye Balderdash

of Blather City, Wannachat



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