It is with great pleasure (and trepidation) that I welcome author Catherine Astolfo to these pages. Pleasure, because she is a great writer, one of the good gals, and I adore her. Trepidation, because of the title of her post, coming up below. The books she writes may not be comedies, but she herself is a delightful wit.
Melodie Campbell
and I first met in a downtown Toronto dungeon. You know what dungeons are like.
Dank, creaky, dusty, moldy; slanted stairs; iron-gated elevators that screech
past each floor with excruciating sluggishness.
Picture emaciated
people behind those bars. Dirty bearded faces with no teeth. Enormous spiders
crawl up the filthy walls and down my arm…
All right. Most
of that I made up. After all, I am a writer.
But it is true
that Mel and I met in an old building that housed a boatload of Crime Writers
of Canada paraphernalia. Budget cutbacks are everywhere and they even affected
our storage unit. So off I went with this stranger to work hip-to-hip
relocating all the stuff.
An old building
it certainly was. The aforementioned creakiness was real and the elevator truly
was antique. There were two elderly gentlemen in the office who might have been
the original owners of the place. They looked a little askance that we were
moving out, but gave us the key anyway and wished us luck.
Mel and I
traversed the dimly lit hallways and slanted floors as only crime writers can
do. We laughed all the way. I was overjoyed that this woman had a big laugh,
not a teeny ladylike titter but a full guffaw. Just like me. She too had an
inner skinny, muscular woman inside her covered up by clothes that were far too
big. We were the perfect match for this task.
Here it is
nearly four years later. We’ve not only cleaned up dungeons, but we’ve also
been through health wars, writing angst, setting ships on course (I suppose it
goes without saying that that’s a metaphor), awards, publishing, and traversing
the mazes of social media.
Recently Mel was
one of my beta readers for my latest novel, Sweet
Karoline, and I did the same for her current release, Rowena and the Dark Lord. It’s wonderful when you not only like the
person but you also enjoy their writing. Doesn’t happen that often, but it’s
magic when it does. I even included a “y” version of Melodie’s name in my
novel.
Our books are
very different; Mel’s are mostly laugh-out-loud hilarious and mine are mostly
serious. In some other life, when we have more time, maybe we’ll write a
television script together. I’ve got some great characters who need funny
lines. Naturally the series would be a smashing success.
I look forward
to more collaboration with the Funny Girl. We can yap about the serious side of
life, then make fun of everything around us. It makes for great girl talk.
Plus, if only someone would make us queens of the world, we could solve every
problem in the universe. I’m sure you and your friends could do the same.
Catherine
Astolfo’s newest novel, Sweet Karoline, arrives July 14, 2013. Come visit her
and find all the links you need at www.catherineastolfo.com.
