AGGIE MUNDEEN GRUMBLES ABOUT NANCY WEST’S UPSTART CHARACTER IN RISKY PURSUIT
My author Nancy West is making noises about the novel she wrote, RISKY PURSUIT, featuring some 18-year-old kid instead of me! I was her favorite protagonist. She’d written only two books, a biography and a suspense novel, before I popped into her head and became the star. I stayed in her head for four books! She even started a spinoff series, Aggie Mundeen Lake Mystery #2, featuring me, with a lead-in novella, The Plunge. It shows how Sam and I survived a catastrophe that totally altered our lives. (https://nancygwest.com/books/the-plunge/ The second lake mystery is one-quarter written. Why didn’t she continue writing it?
Instead, she lost the plot, and starting musing about some upstart juvenile. Actually, Decker Savage is almost 19, a new adult. By age 18, I was dealing with serious problems, but that’s history. We need not go into it.
What can Decker possibly know? He’s just an ordinary American kid – there’s nothing special about him. He loves to play baseball, even made varsity as a junior, but that’s not so rare. He does have problems: his baby brother died at age three. Decker was seven, and still misses him. He has a secret about what happened that day he’s never told anybody.
His mom and dad have their own views of what happened to their baby boy. They keep secrets, too. Plus, they are about to divorce. Unfortunately, that’s not unusual. But for Decker, family is everything.
How can he hold the rest of his family together? It’s going to be doubly hard considering what he got himself into. I admit the kid has integrity, and he acted to protect his family. But he still broke the law. Some maniac took after him, writing anonymous notes threatening him, his family, and his friend if he didn’t do what the creep said. Decker has never been the confrontational type. His grades and relationships go south, and he’s clueless about what to do.
If he does what the mystery man says, he and his family will be ruined. His dream for a college baseball scholarship will be kaput. If he doesn’t do what the man says, the culprit promises to fracture what’s left of his family, bankrupt his parents, and attack the elderly man who survived his first attack. The creep already managed to endanger Decker without being seen, and Decker expects the attacks to get worse.
Can he dredge up enough courage to find this evil man and confront him? Can he save himself and the people he loves?
The book deals with loss, grief, divorce, resourcefulness, courage, and maturity unrelated to age. So I guess there’s something to it. I’ll have to ait and see. Then maybe Nancy can get back on track. She must miss me.
Disgruntled and impatient,
Aggie
ONE YEAR LATER . . .
Nancy survived the Covid pandemic, influenza Type A, two ill family members who are now (thank God!) in recovery, and a brutally hot summer – which seems hotter because although we’ve endured such blistering heat for years, weather men and women freak out about it at the beginning of every broadcast, thereby exacerbating everybody’s misery.
RISKY PURSUIT (which has been randomly titled Desperate Measures, The Stranger in the Booth, and Limbo Land), is currently under agent scrutiny. Nancy is thrilled with this novel. Hopefully, it will will soon find the perfect home.
Then, she will get back to work on…Tah Da!…Book Two of the Aggie Mundeen LAKE Mysteries. I’m back in her head once again.
Meanwhile, she has written another song parody based on a country/western favorite, which will debut first in BOOK NEWS (sign up to receive it) and later on her website.
Stay tuned.
Ever hopeful and still rambunctious,
Aggie
Aggie Mundeen’s Problems With Her Author
The relationship with my author, Nancy G. West, is unsettling. I was her star for four Aggie Mundeen Mysteries. Then she went AWOL and was cruising along as if she didn’t know me anymore.
Last month she finished a novel about an eighteen-year-old baseball player, Decker Savage, whose parents are divorcing. In January of his senior year, he sits depressed and alone in a dark diner when a scruffy stranger in the far booth draws his gaze. His mother walks into the murky place and sits across from this man. Decker cringes down to watch. They chit chat, and she smiles. The man abruptly jumps up and blasts out of the diner. She looks perplexed, then angry. What does this creep have to do with Decker’s family? He has to find out. He sneaks out the back of the building and follows the man into life-threatening danger.
Possible titles: Desperate Measures – The Stranger in the Booth – Limbo Land. Since this book is different from her others, Nancy seeks agency representation and a new publisher.
What does this baseball player have to do with me? The book is filled with suspense and probably isn’t even funny. Nancy has obviously lost the plot. I’m a goner.
I do, however, have encouraging news. Second Editions of the Aggie Mundeen Mysteries are out, plus the prequel, Nine Days to Evil, where Meredith, the protagonist, meets me and Sam.
The Plunge, bridge to the Aggie Mundeen Lake Mysteries, is also out. In The Plunge, after Sam and I almost drown in a raging flood, our outlook and relationship change, along with my location. Near death experiences have that effect. A new beginning? A temporary relocation? A permanent shift?
Nancy is working on the second lake mystery. She hasn’t told me what will happen, but at least I’m in her head again
Waiting,
Aggie Mundeen
Aggie’s Concern: Nancy Has Lost the Plot
I’m afraid Nancy has lost the plot. She finally finished her suspense novel about eighteen-year-old Decker Savage who has a supportive family and a bright future – until he follows a mystery man into danger that threatens to destroy his family and his life. I admit it sounds like a good story. But here’s the weird part. After she queries agents and researches a few publishers, she spends part of every day reading Decker’s story out loud. She makes a few changes to the manuscript, then goes on reading. For crying out load, doesn’t she know what’s in it? It’s painful to watch.
What’s more, I’ve heard her musing about taking a vacation. This is in spite of the fact that she has a mystery/suspense novel about me that’s one quarter written, and it’s sitting on a shelf. It’s the second book in the new spin-off series, Aggie Mundeen Lake Mysteries. After Sam and I almost perished in a flood, I had great empathy for the survivors. So I moved to Seguin, a town near the flood, to see how I could help flood victims. Sam wasn’t thrilled with the idea (he is still a San Antonio Detecive), but I did it anyway. As always, things weren’t turning out quite like I anticipated.
The thing is, Nancy needs to get her head back into the book so we can both find out what happens. At least she hasn’t completely turned her back on me. I’ve just got to figure out how to get her out of this querying, reading, vacationing mode.
I’ll keep you posted,
Aggie
Thawing Out
GREETINGS from the thawing Texas tundra. Slammed with a sample of the snow belt, we were woefully under-prepared. (Sort of like coming to Texas in August without air conditioning or water). Thousands lost power and water. People stood six feet apart in heavy snowfall only to find grocery shelves virtually empty. Those with frigid homes piled in with relatives, friends, or lugged coats and blankets to warming shelters. Homeless people overfilled shelters and churches. Those with medical issues requiring power were whisked to hospitals with backup generators. Everyone helped.
The snow has melted, the weather is warming, and most people have power, if not water. Carrying buckets of snow-melt inside to flush toilets is not fun. We look forward to a balmy weekend with a lot of finger pointing at officialdom. Booked-up plumbers are looking forward to early retirement.
In the spirit of rejuvenation, Nancy and I are offering a free book with purchase at BOOK NEWS. Sign up on the right or at www.nancygwest.com to review the offer.
Stay Warm and Hopeful,
Aggie
Aggie’s Hope
Covid summer has passed and here we are in November, wearing masks, washing hands and hoping the darn virus loosens its grip more and more and fades into memory. Loved ones we lost will never fade from our thoughts.
I’ll be first in line after the most vulnerable people get their vaccines.
Most of us are trying to work despite difficulties, but writers mostly stay at home to work, right? By now, there should be a book out on my new adventures as Activities Director for Seguin’s Pecan Paradise Activities Center.
Not exactly. Nancy’s brain was infiltrated by a baseball-playing high school senior who is depressed because his parents are divorcing. He sees his mother sitting in a dark diner with a scruffy-looking stranger and is compelled to follow the man into danger. This stand-a-lone novel, which Amazon will probably categorize as “Adult Coming-of-Age Fiction,” is currently under agent scrutiny.
What does this young man’s dilemma and his story have to do with me, Nancy’s original and ever-faithful protagonist? Nothing.
Meanwhile, second editions of Fit to Be Dead and Dang Near Dead are available as ebooks and print to your library and stores. Definitely a step in the right direction.
The Plunge, lead-in to the new Lake Mystery series, is the story of Sam and me trying to solve a mystery in the midst of being caught in the raging 500-year flood in Central Texas. The flood made me view life—and death—differently, so I moved to Seguin to help post-flood victims. Book #2 (untitled) is about my first suspenseful, dangerous week at Pecan Paradise Retirement Center. Pecan Paradise has a slew of interesting characters and menacing possibilities.
Nancy has begun writing Book #2! Stay well and stay tuned.
Aggie
Aggie Mundeen Mysteries Selected a Best Series in Light-Hearted Mysteries
St. Patrick’s Day on the San Antonio River Walk
Nancy and I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by the San Antonio River. We started at La Villita, the oldest riverside village. The Little Church of La Villita, built in the village in 1879, is now home to a non-denominational congregation holding regular services and hosting weddings. Hundred-year-old buildings around the church housed art and crafts. In a pathway behind the church, food booths offered Irish, German, and Mexican delicacies and green beer. Delightful.
A short walk through La Villita led to concrete seating on a grassy slope across from the Arneson River Theater. Seating was separated from the theater by the San Antonio River, which was green on St. Patrick’s Day. Music groups and dancers performed on stage as river barges cruised by. Floats carried The Irish Singers and The Harp and Shamrock Society, interspersed with barge loads of tourists. Nancy spotted a flat bottom boat of Scottish invaders playing bagpipes.
Thirty-four and a half million Americans list their heritage as primarily or partially Irish – seven times larger than the population of Ireland (4.68 million). Irish is the second-most common ancestry among Americans, falling just behind German.
Nancy is English, Scottish, and Irish. She’s thoroughly English when she’s reading or writing, Scottish when she’s thinking about business or bookkeeping, and Irish when she’s having fun. With surnames in her mother’s family of Scanlan and Duffy, Irish probably predominates. But her father William Phillips Glass’s ancestors were from Glasgow. Naturally, there was a wee bit of slipover.
I identified with the Irish contingent and insisted that Nancy tell my stories. Aggie (Agatha) was reminiscent of Agatha Christi, and the surname Mundeen (never mundane) was surely Irish. Of almost six million surnames in the US Census, however, only about five lines were Mundeens (originally Munden). The origin of the name was unknown, but the meaning was said to suggest “an inquisitive and inventive person who likes to get to the very bottom of things and to rummage in books.” No wonder.
An Irish proverb says, “There are only two kinds of people in the world, the Irish and those who wish they were.”
Photos of St. Patrick’s Day by the San Antonio River are at https://www.facebook.com/authorNancyG.West
Aggie Discusses The PLUNGE.
–Have you faced catastrophe? What happened?
–How did you survive?
–Did surviving catastrophe change you?
–How did it change your life?
–How were other survivors you knew affected?
–Is your outlook on life different now? How?
–Do Aggie and Sam react as you expect?
–Will they change more in the future?