Fiction

MEET ELAINE L. ORR

Fiction

Why write fiction? After all, as Walter Smith said, "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open up a vein." Just a vein. You have lots of them, so what's one lost in writing a story or novel?

That's one way of looking at it. The other is that you just have to write. Some people have to avoid cracks in the sidewalks, others have to chew gum, and still others can't face the world with out a cup of coffee. If I don't have a pen in my hand I go looking for one.

Here are some of the less serious examples of my fiction. The serious ones? Those involve arteries, and it's a lot tougher to open those and live to tell about it.

SEARCHING FOR SECRETS

Searching for Secrets combines mystery with romance and is set in Iowa City, Iowa. The genesis of the book was a February 6, 1996 article in the Ottumwa Courier that described how schools in New Hampshire received expensive hydroponic growing equipment that had been seized in three drug busts. That made Elaine wonder about whether using items seized in a drug bust could have unexpected complications…Searching for Secrets was born.

Synopsis of Searching for Secrets

Christa Heckertt did not expect to interrupt an intruder trying to steal parts from the computers her Iowa City fourth-grade class had won in the mayor's competition. And the last thing Kirk Reynolds wanted was to be called from a drug surveillance to investigate an attempted burglary at Buckingham Elementary School.

But the burglary throws them together – Kirk who wants enough evidence to convict the man who sold the drugs that killed his nephew and Christa who wants to get control of her life again after being unceremoniously dumped by a two-timing boyfriend.

But thieves still want the newly won computers. They kidnap Kirk's niece and demand the computer hard drives in exchange for the 5-year old – and they want only Christa to make the exchange. Later, they chase Christa from her apartment to an abandoned cellar and run Kirk's truck off the road. An encoded file on one computer’s hard drive – which Christa has secretly traded for her own in an attempt to outwit the kidnapers – lets Christa and Kirk know that whomever wants them is expecting to trade a "delivery" for $400,000 that has been deposited in a local bank.

Their attraction to each other is growing, but Christa and Kirk are too stubborn to admit it. Can they fend off the effects of their pasts as well as the threats from whomever now wants them out of the way so the "delivery" can be complete. Who are their enemies? Is it local drug dealer Freddy Chambers or his unknown accomplice? What would they do without the avuncular local computer store owner Mr. Watkins or Kirk's fellow police officer, Mark Hadley? The one thing they can agree on is that he is a good friend.

On Halloween eve, Christa eludes Freddy's attempt to silence her for good and she and Kirk follow Freddy to a wealthy suburb. Can Kirk and Christa keep him from making that delivery and find out who his partners are? And will they survive the ordeal that has tested their love?

Ordering Searching for Secrets

It is easiest to order from an online bookseller such as amazon.com, BN.com, Walmart.com, etc.

Best price would be to order a Kindle version from Amazon.com -- there is an option to download the book to your computer if you don't have a Kindle. The Kindle/computer version is only $2.99.

The ISBN number for the hardcover Searching for Secrets is 1-4033-0938-8.

The ISBN number for the Kindle edition is 0-9645997-6-7.

THE JOLIE GENTIL SERIES

In Appraisal for Murder, Jolie Gentil has returned to the beach town of Ocean Alley, NJ to stay at Great Aunt Madge’s bed-and-breakfast house following Jolie’s husband’s trial for embezzling money from his bank. He also looted their mutual savings accounts – all to support his casino habit. Jolie is fuming about the loss of money, trust, and dignity.

In Ocean Alley, where she went one year to high school while her parents were “working things out in their marriage,” Jolie runs into old friends and some of the old “in crowd” that snubbed her back in high school. She also makes a new enemy, in the form of the shyster who wants her to repay some of her husband’s gambling debts.

Jolie changes her profession from big-time commercial real estate agent to part-time appraiser, work that she did in college. Too bad that during her first appraisal she finds Aunt Madge’s friend, Mrs. Riordan, dead and the woman’s son, Michael (one of the high school in-crowd) accused of the murder. Rude though he is, Jolie can’t believe Michael to be guilty and begins to poke around to prove his innocence.

Read the first chapter of Appraisal for Murder.

Rekindling Motives opens with Jolie at the 10^th year high school reunion that she swore not to attend. A high school acquaintance asks her to appraise her late grandmother’s house, and within days Jolie has fallen out of grandma’s attic – surprised at the discovery of a skeleton in an old wardrobe.

Read the first chapter of Rekindling Motives.

BIDING TIME

Each fall, the National Press Club's holds a fiction contest. There were 99 entries in 1993, and Biding Time was one of the five finalists.

Biding Time is set in Washington, D.C., and is the story of young Frank Myers, namesake and nephew of Franklin Myers, who is still listed as missing in action in Vietnam.

Growing up in an inner city neighborhood has its challenges, but none as great as losing your best friend to drug-related violence. But Frank is one of the lucky ones; instead of being drawn into the morass himself, he gets support from a teacher and his offbeat brother, both Vietnam vets. The story takes Frank from his neighborhood to the Marine Corps, which stations him in Hawaii. Momentarily forgetting the "never volunteer" rule, he makes a special discovery.

Read the opening paragraphs of Biding Time. It will soon be available as a Kindle book.

IT TAKES ALL KINDS

Seven-year old Tess is intrigued by the varied customers who frequent the storage units that Grandma Wilma runs. There are the “have-it-all” people, the “someday” people, and the homeless folks. Sometimes, the homeless people talked to themselves more than to other people. Tess called them the "regulars." They almost never close out their storage lockers, and every now and then Grandma gives one of them a free month. Usually in the winter, when somebody gets pneumonia.

Tess learns a lot through her people-watching. Read Tess’ story.