By Ane Mulligan
The second book in my Chapel Lake series, Chapel Springs Survival,came from a real life event-and became a mother’s retribution. Insert creepy music and evil laughter.
The day started out normal, boring even. Then I got a phone call from our eldest son.
“Hey, Mom. I emailed you some pictures. Take a look and call me back.”
Click. He hung up. Without asking how I was. I hurried to my computer.
I opened his email, and the first photo was of a nice looking, very Latin appearing young woman. Something told me she wasn’t from here. I clicked on the second photo-a photo with her in a wedding dress.
I hit speed dial.
It seems our son, a widower with two children, had gotten himself a 21st Century mail order bride. He met her in a chat room for women in Columbia, South America, to meet and marry American men. They communicated for a year, then he flew to Columbia and married her.
Without me knowing anything.
He came back and spent the next year trying to get her into the U.S. legally.
Without me or his dad knowing anything.
He didn’t let us know until she got here. Our two grandchildren knew. His brother knew. But we didn’t. So you remember that old margarine commercial, where the woman said, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature” and zapped someone?
That’s what I said. I told him for not telling me, it was going in a book. And it did.
Now, I have to tell you that any similarity between our son’s story and my book stops there. Our daughter-in-law turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to our Michael. We adore her and our two “step” grandsons and the newest Mulligan grandson.
But that wouldn’t have made a good story. There was no conflict. But add Claire Bennett into that mix, and there’s plenty. To find out how it turns out, be sure to pre-order Chapel Springs Survival, coming in December.
Ane Mulligan writes Southern-fried fiction served with a tall, sweet iced tea. She’s a novelist, a humor columnist, and a multi-published playwright. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband, and two dogs of Biblical proportion. She is the author of Chapel Springs Revival and her new release Chapel Springs Survival. You can find Ane at www.anemulligan.com