Karen is a fellow writer who had a wonderful story in the Corner Cafe Collection. I asked her to write more about the story in the context of the novel she’s now working on.
This is Karen:

The Who-What-Where-Why of Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories
by Karen Casey Fitzjerrell

The Blog Book Tour Cafe is an online group of writers who share experiences and brainstorm the ins and outs of promoting written works through social media.

The group “meets” online and through the collective and imaginative minds of its leaders and members, the e-book, Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories came about. Members were encouraged to submit a short story for the e-book that we hope will help promote our other work. Since BBT is a vastly diverse group, the collection covers just about every reading interest out there.

I had no doubt from the get-go what my submission to the Corner Cafe Collection would be. I’d started my third novel, was about fifty pages into the story, and I realized I needed to tighten those first pages and put my protagonist “out there” in a more clearly defined way. The Corner Cafe call for submissions was just the push I needed to get back on track. I re-wrote the first pages and titled my story, What’s Next.

In What’s Next, Wilson, whose mother never took the time to give her a girl’s name, grew up in her grandmother’s house and relied on her to fill in the gaps of important childhood moments. At twenty three, Wilson is adrift and aimless. But at the same time she believes she is intimately, maybe even spiritually, connected to her surroundings. Namely, the sea and sky. As occurs in each of our lives at one time or another, and more often for some than others, the tiniest happenstance occurs while Wilson sits in a booth sipping soda in her home town Corner Cafe. She grabs at the chance to step away from her routine of try-and-fail, and in doing so discovers direction and what she might do next order to clear a path for a positive future.

I’ve looked for the universality of Wilson’s story. I have some ideas what that might be but I’d like most to hear what readers have to say about her story, as I develop my novel.

I’m extremely grateful to BBT Cafe for pulling The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories together. By participating I feel as if I’ve tightened the best of my novel’s opening and at the same time ended up with a beginning, middle and end for a full circle short story. When I get back to Wilson’s story in the coming months, I’ll be as curious as anyone to find out what Wilson discovers in the following chapters.

In closing I send out a very special thanks to Susan Lerner for hosting me on her blog. She is a gifted word artist, one I plan to follow closely as her career unfolds. Indeed, one of the perks of joining BBT has been the special bond of respect and camaraderie in getting to know other writers across the country who seek to have their works read and appreciated.

Karen’s first novel, The Dividing Season

Visit Karen at:
(Website) http://www.karencaseyfitzjerrell.com/karencaseyfitzjerrell/Home.html
(Blog) http://karencaseyfitzjerrell.blogspot.com/