Autumn is Here

This is my favorite season of the year.  It's a time when I long for fall leaves in Lake Placid, white, steepled churches in Vermont, and covered bridges in New England. So many images come to mind: pumpkin people on the porches of old-fashioned general stores, maple syrup, caramel apples on a stick, cinnamon scented candles from Bath and Body Works, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and cozying up to the fire with a good book.

When it comes to autumn, this California girl lives on the wrong coast.  The temperatures here are still in the 80s and some days, even the 90s.  It's our season of fires and Santa Ana winds.  I'll never forget the time my husband and I planned a Halloween party that was supposed to take place in our back yard, but had to be moved indoors because ashes from a nearby fire were raining down on us and our decorations.  Forget about small paper lanterns lining the patio; we didn't want to burn our house down.

Autumn also reminds me of the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" which my husband and I have religiously listened to for over thirty years. The Fall is the time when the sun is getting low enough for us to light our candles and turn on our space heater that looks like an old-fashioned coal fireplace.  We lose ourselves in the stories that Garrison Keillor's low, mesmerizing voice weaves.  I love his world of bachelor farmers, Pastor Liz, Dorothy's caramel rolls, The Sidetrack Tap, and the Chatterbox Cafe.  Maybe there really are some places like the Chatterbox Café? Wouldn’t it be fun to go find out?

So after all the years of talking about this town where "the women and strong, the men are good looking, and the children are always above-average," my husband and I finally went to Minnesota on a pilgrimage to find the real Lake Wobegon.  This book is the result. I hope you will enjoy this story about a precocious teenager who talks her father into taking her to Minnesota on just such a quest. Her father  wants to go on a Bob Dylan pilgrimage while there, but she has other plans when a "bachelor farmer" (who was last seen at the "Chatterbox Cafe") goes missing and they join the search party. Part travelogue, this book also contains pictures.  It's only $1.99 and available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Google Play, Kobo, Smashwords, and Scribd.  Also available in paperback at Amazon.

The Missing Bachelor Farmer:

A Nancy Keene Mystery

by Louise Hathaway

A Prairie Home Companion

Have you heard that Garrison Keillor is retiring this year from his popular radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion?"  My husband and I have been faithful listeners every Saturday night for over 30 years.  The first time I ever heard it was on a Saturday night when my husband and I were bathing in the afterglow and he turned on the radio before we got up and out of bed.  Garrison's monologue came on and we've been groupies ever since.  We've seen live broadcasts of the show in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.  For years, we'd talked about making a pilgrimage to Minnesota in search of the towns and locales that inspired Garrison's fictional world of Lake Wobegon.  We wanted to see the restaurants that spawned The Chatterbox Cafe and The Sidetrack Tap, and the Catholic Church that Garrison dubbed "Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility."  We finally made the trip a few years ago and I wrote this novel/travelogue about our pilgrimage.

The Missing Bachelor Farmer: A Nancy Keene Mystery

by Louise Hathaway

only $1.99

My book is about a precocious teenager who talks her father into taking her to Minnesota on a quest to see the towns that Garrison had in mind when he created Lake Wobegon. Her father wants to go on a Bob Dylan pilgrimage while there, but she has other plans after a "bachelor farmer" (who was last seen at the "Chatterbox Cafe") goes missing and they join the search party. 

My book only costs $1.99 and contains pictures from the my trip to "Lake Wobegon".  It's available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Smashwords and Scribd.

Garrison Keillor and News From Lake Wobegon

I wonder when Garrison Keillor will retire from the show he created, A Prairie Home Companion? When I discovered that he wasn't on last night's broadcast, and that a Minneapolis storyteller would be a guest instead, I started to think about what it would be like without this great American humorist.  He is my generation's equivalent to Mark Twain.  My husband and I have listened to the A Prairie Home Companion almost every Saturday night since 1986. There were so many times that we would say to each other, "One of these days, we have to go to Minnesota and look up all the places where he's based his fictional town of Lake Wobegon upon."

Two years ago, my husband and I left sunny Southern California for the frozen tundra of the North and went in search of Lake Wobegon.  When we went to the bookstore Garrison Keillor owns in St. Paul, we were amazed when we saw him walking across the parking lot by himself with a couple of books tucked underneath his arm.  We had a little chat with him outside our car window and my husband shook hands with him.  There was a car in back of us, so we had to move along; but my husband and I were amazed that we were lucky enough to have this chance meeting with one of our heros.

On the plane home, I wrote this story about a precocious teenage sleuth named Nancy Keene who travels to Minnesota with her father in search of the real life places mentioned in Keillor's stories. I've included some pictures we took on our pilgrimage.

The Missing Bachelor Farmer: A Nancy Keene Mystery

By Louise Hathaway 
It's only $1.99 and is available at most online bookstores.

Also available in paperback at Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com and Createspace.

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