The Phantom of Oz, Installment #22
Plus Book News and Peeps!
Hello! As most of you know, I’m serializing The Phantom of Oz here in a bit of an experiment. Once a month, you’ll still receive the “regular” Slightly Silly News. If you missed earlier chapters of Phantom, you can find links to all of the earlier installments here.
As you know, my serious (but not dark) mystery, Echoes of the Lost, comes out May 12th, and things are starting to heat up (in a good way):
My launch party is scheduled for May 12th at 7 p.m. at Annie Bloom’s Books, and there will be cake! All my proceeds from this event will go to Operation Nightwatch. If you are in Portland, I’d love to see you there!
Canvas Rebel Magazine just published an interview with me. You can read it here.
And yes, you can preorder Echoes of the Lost at:
While you’re waiting for Echoes of the Lost, you can cozy up with my friend Verity Bright’s newest book, A Very Irish Mystery, which is out today!
Shifting the tone toward slight silliness: The Smithsonian recently published this photo of a Peeps factory from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s exhibit, “Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne:”
David Williams, a student volunteer at the Historic Costume and Textile Museum, commented:
“Peeps are something you stick in the microwave, facing each other with toothpicks stuck in them. When you run the microwave, they look like they are swordfighting before they explode.”
Let me know if you try it.
Chapter 16 (Part Two)
Surely There Should Be Some Limit to Hypocrisy and Lying!
In Chapter 16, Part One, Ivy picked up her friend Candy from the hospital. Ivy’s relieved when Candy asks to go through a drive-through (she’s eating!)—until she sees her friend pop a pill.
“What did you just do?” I looked at Candy, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“What?” She shrugged in the seat beside me. “I had to take a pill.”
“What type of pill?”
“Oh, lord, I don’t know. Something the hospital sent me home with.
Anger flared up, sharp as a knife in my ribs. “I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean?”
I gritted my teeth so I wouldn’t yell. “Hospitals don’t usually send you home with drugs. And I’ve been with you so I know you didn’tget a prescription filled.”
“Oh, that’s right. I forgot you were a detective now.” Candy’s voice dripped sarcasm. I recognized it as a defense, but it still pissed me off.
“I may be, but I haven’t been able to figure out what the hell is going on with you. Or us.”
“Us?”
“Yeah. Like how Arrestadt says I’m your best friend and yet you didn’t even tell me you were dating him.”
She looked at me then. “Did he tell you?”
“No, I had to hear it from, oh, everyone else. When were you going to tell me?”
“If you looked at my Facebook page, you’d have known.”
I stopped for a light. I may have tapped the brakes a little hard. “Oh, I’m just one of your Facebook friends now?”
“You know that’s not true.”
“And besides, I have looked on Facebook.” Okay, I didn’t go on it all that often, but I did check out Candy’s page after she told me she was in town. “There’s nothing there except some cat videos.”
“You’re probably looking at my old page. Did you look under Candace Moon?”
I hit my forehead in mock stupidity. “Oh right, I should have looked under the new name you just told me four days ago. And I’m sure the news about your screen test with Andre must be posted there, otherwise you would have told me about the most important thing that ever happened in your career.”
“Okay, I know Arrestadt told you that, because no one else except my agent knows.”
“He probably told me because he assumed you’d told your best friend.”
“It’s a secret, Ivy. Besides, I may not even get the test. I still have to lose fifteen more pounds, and maybe get some cheek implants.” She turned to me so I could see her face. “What do you think?”
“Fifteen pounds? Are you trying to kill yourself? And even the news that you might get some totally unnecessary plastic surgery cannot distract me from the fact that you don’t tell me jack shit. Like how you’re Babette’s new It Girl.”
“I had to keep that secret. You would too. I mean, this is it, the break I’ve dreamt of all my life. Can you believe it?”
“No, I can’t. I can’t believe any of this. What the hell is going on?”
Candy sank back into the seat. “Ivy, give me a break.” It was the first thing she’d said that sounded real since the drive-through. “For God’s sake, I just got out of the hospital. Can’t this wait?”
“No, it can’t, especially since your recent hospitalization wasn’t caused by the Lady in White, no matter what Babette tells the press.”
“I told you. I had a reaction to antihistamines—”
“Or to little blue pills,” I said. “Maybe one too many of them?”
“How—? What—? You!”
I was looking at the street like a good driver, so I didn’t see Candy’s hand in time to duck. She backhanded me on the side of the head, hard. “You looked through my purse.”
“Only for your own good.” Maybe the slap had knocked some sense into me, because my anger was subsiding, shifting into worry. I slowed for another red light. “Candy, did you just take another one? Another blue pill?”
“How dare you look through my purse? I don’t care who you are, you know better than—wait a minute, you said you heard about Arrestadt from everyone. Everyone who?”
“Everyone at the theater,” I mumbled.
“You’ve been asking around about me? Great. Everyone knows you’re a PI.”
“You told people about me?” I cringed at the neediness in my voice.
“And now they’re going to concoct some wild-ass story about why you’re investigating me. Maybe take it to Babette or Arrestadt or even the press. Nice timing, Ivy, sabotaging my career right as it’s taking off. Jealous, are we?”
“No. I’m not. I’m worried. You don’t call me for ages, and then—”
“The phone works both ways, missy.”
That lifted the lid off the anger I’d thought was gone. “I have been calling. Seems somebody forgot to tell me she had a new phone number. Hmm, who could that be? My supposed best friend?”
Candy took a breath as if to reply, but I couldn’t stop. “Godammit, Candy, I don’t even know you anymore. LA has changed you beyond all recognition. And I do mean beyond. Have you looked in a mirror lately? For God’s sake, you look like death warmed over—”
“That’s it.” Candy unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. “I have worked like a demon to look like this, just so I could get the breaks I’m finally getting. Too bad you can’t be happy for me. Too bad you’re not really my friend.”
And she got out of the car and walked away.
Watch next week for Chapter 17, On the Famous Night of the Gala
And if you haven’t read the first four books in the Agatha-nominated series:
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