Stranger than Fiction by Joy Nash

Mark Twain once said, "It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense." So true! Life doesn’t always make sense, and real people often do quirky things we don't expect.

A long time ago, before I started writing for publication, I had a conversation with my cousin-once-removed about his grandmother--my aunt--who had died some years before when I was in college. I remember her fondly as a sweet old lady with a thick Italian accent -- the grandmother I never had, since my own grandmothers died before I was born. My aunt was well loved by everyone, went to church every Sunday, and to my knowledge never hurt so much as a fly in her entire life.

So I was a bit shocked (to say the least) when my cousin confided that my aunt (God bless her soul) had had a little problem with "picking things up." As in picking things up in the local five-and-dime...without paying. She was a closet shoplifter! No matter how often her family tried to talk her out this foible, she just couldn’t seem to stop. Luckily, my aunt didn't drive, and her life of secret crime was limited to one store close to her house. My cousin worked out a deal with the shop owner, stopping in every month to pay off whatever his grandmother had lifted the month before.

Fast forward about ten years. I'm writing a book, a humorous romance -- A Little Light Magic!-- in which the hero, Nick Santangelo, has trouble dealing with the various crazy women in his big Italian family. I haven't thought about my aunt's shoplifting habit for years, but for some reason I found myself relating her story to a neighbor. And it hits me -- what a perfect character for my book!

So Nick's "Nonna Maria" was born, and Nick became the frustrated grandson paying off the five-and-dime owner every month. But fiction is larger than real life, and fictional problems often escalate faster than you can turn the page. Things don't go as smoothly for Nick as they did for my cousin. A Little Light Magic takes place at the Jersey Shore near Atlantic City. It's not long before Nonna decides the local gift shop merchandise is too cheap for her taste. There are so many nicer things to be "picked up" in those fancy casino shops...

Well, you get the picture! Poor Nick. As if he didn't already have trouble enough with his rebellious teenage daughter and his menopausal mother...and with Tori Morgan, the crazy woman who's New Age shop he's renovating.

I hope you'll check out A Little Light Magic! Summer at the Jersey Shore has never been so hot...or so much fun!