Fiction

MEET ELAINE L. ORR

Fiction

Watch for the Jolie Gentil series in 2012.

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.

SECRETS OF THE GAP

Carolyn Williams had not seen Greg Porter since they finished graduate work at the Archeology Institute of New York several years earlier. She did not expect to see him at the site of the excavated Roman Baths, and did not welcome the mix of attraction and fury he once again aroused in her. Greg's style of study and life were impatient ones that did not include the collegial sharing that was a part of a professional meeting at the ancient site. But he was there as was their beloved former professor, Dr. James Cochran (Scotty).

Carolyn has been drawn to this ancient site since seeing a travel guide as a child and has visited previously. Unknown to her, Greg is there because of the eerie feelings evoked when he saw the meeting brochure, with its pictures of the baths. Unable to shake the feelings, he has traveled from his dig in Egypt to view the site for himself.
Over the next few days, Carolyn’s theories about where the long-buried Roman Temple is come up against others who are looking for it, and for the long-missing torso of the statue of Sulis Minerva, whose head is in the museum. The rough looking Robert Hill does maintenance work in the Baths so that the can look for the statue, and museum guide Gladys Rigsby thinks he will turn the reunited statue over to her. She believes it will give her eternal life. More sinister than both of them is the meeting’s host, Winston Reed, who will pay top dollar for the complete statue. And he needs it before his illness overcomes him.

Carolyn believes the Celtic monks, a tolerant breed of early Christians, are the ones who sealed the temple. One of the clues in her research was a symbol she found on a photograph in a British library archive. The 'Symbol of the Gap of the Gods' combines a Christian cross and a drawing of the steamy arch in the baths.

Will the symbol be the clue to finding a way into the long-buried portions of the Roman Baths of England? Will the statue be there? And if Carolyn, Greg and Scotty manage to find the statue, will they live to reunite it with its head?

To read the first chapter, click on the tab at left for Secrets of the Gap..

SEARCHING FOR SECRETS

Searching for Secrets combines mystery with romance and is set in Iowa City, Iowa. The genesis of the book was a 1996 article 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.

What is Searching for Secrets about?

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.

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 paperback Searching for Secrets is 1-4033-0938-8.

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

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 is available through Amazon 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.