Clothes began appearing in Alice Hightower’s closet at sunset. She might find bell bottoms from the seventies or a beaded flapper’s dress from the twenties, but they fit perfectly. She slips on the outfits and opens her balcony door to another place and time where extraordinary men fill her nights.
CEO of a medical device company about to unveil a revolutionary heart bypass product, Alice escapes her challenging days to the adventures beyond her balcony door. How could her smoldering VP of sales, or her fascinating assistant compare to Tweedle Don and Tweedle Dan, twin doctors from the seventies, or the sixties rock group who scolds Alice for being late for their very important date.
At forty-nine, after two divorces, relating to her male coworkers has been entirely too complicated. After industrial espionage threatens her company, Alice has to save the position that defines her, discover the truth of her fantastic travels and decide if the real men in her life might be more satisfying than those she enjoys by night.
I used to imagine a story about a woman who found clothes in her closet that took her to fantastic places as I walked to high school and I always loved Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “Imagination is the only weapon in the war with reality,” says Mr. Carrol in his most famous work. I grew up and so did my imaginings. I chose to tell my sex positive fantasy tale of a very grown up Alice who must deal with work pressures and mental issues as well as the mysterious wonderland of romantic relationships. I envisioned a modern woman who had lived life instead of Lewis Carroll’s nine year old.
Women struggle each day with work, self-worth and relationships like my Alice. Just for fun, I sprinkled this story with the whimsy of erotic adventures in time. I think any woman who works, doubts herself, questions her sanity, has a sex positive attitude and likes a little magic, would enjoy Rabbithole. My heroine is forty-nine but any adult from 20 to 100 who enjoys a fun story about the struggles and fantasies of a modern woman, might love my Alice. Surprising to me, though I wrote it from a woman’s point of view, some of my best reviews have come from men so I can’t count them out as readers. Anyone open to a good story of a complicated woman and some fun and historical fantasies. I have described it at having Diana Gabaldon’s time-slip, with E. L. James’s sensuality in the tone of Jennifer Weiner’s In Her Shoes. Quite a fan base to pull from, I can hope.
My writing career began at fifty-five after traveling to the Hemingway House in Key West. As I sat resting from my tour and melting in the south Florida humidity, a lovely white six-toed cat came to share my bench. He sat near me for a while and disappeared into the lush foliage of the Estate. The tour guide had shared with us the names of all the cats we encountered that now lived in Hemingway’s house. All were descendants of Hemingway’s original cats. On my way out, I stopped and asked the name of the white six-toed kitty. The guide gave me a puzzled look and told me none of the present kitties were white. ”There was reportedly a white one among the original cats, but that was over fifty years ago,” said the man.
I had been struggling with stories in my head for years. They would haunt my empty moments with no earthly place to go. This mysterious visit from one of the great Earnest Hemingway’s cats was the inspiration I needed to start my writer’s journey. I published Conjuring Casanova with She Writes Press in June of 2016, Rabbithole with Melange Press in June 2021, Maestro with Melange in October of 2021 and the sequel to Rabbithole, Pool of Tears in August 2022. I am hard at work on a love story about a Neanderthal girl and a Homo Sapiens boy. That was one inspirationally demanding little white kitty.
