This is my Dinner Party

Marilyn Flower has tagged me and I have decided to play. Who would I want to have at my New Year’s Dinner party if I could have anyone a

Well, first I would have my husband. He has never written any fiction other than faking his mother’s signature when he had not such good report cards! It is in his technical writing that he gets a seat at the table. I write from my heart and due to a little dyslexia, I can’t see obvious mistakes, especially if they are mine. His job is to see these mistakes.

You need to understand what a huge concession this is. He is an accomplished Toastmaster but never has understood reading fiction. When he has been assigned a book to read in a class, he simply checks how many pages are in the book, divides it by the amount of days before it must be read, and reads that amount each day. He stops on the assigned page even if he only has a paragraph left on the next page! Can you say left brain?

A husband this devoted deserves a place at the table. He is also a fabulous chef and you can’t go wrong with an extra chef!

The next chair is saved for Lucy Maud Montgomery. While I never read the “Anne” books, I read one of the books she wrote 18 years after the first “Anne” book was published. It was called The Blue Castle and talked about a young woman daring to oppose her family. Probably the only book I have read more than once. I read it as a teen and every decade thereafter. It taught me to stand up for myself when I was a very shy young teen. The story was published in 1926 at a time when the heroine was considered quite brazen.

Next up is James Lee Burke. He was raised and lives in and around the New Orleans area. His writing is so personal that I feel I am in his novel. He writes great murder mysteries. His writing incorporates how true events affect the everyday person. I feel his alcoholism, depression, and anger that came from his being in the Vietnam war. I feel the great love and loyalty for his friend that is failing at life. He speaks of the betrayal of the government during Hurricaine Katrina and he weaves in how the gambling casinos have changed the lives of people in the area for the worse. He doesn’t sugar coat the past and is honest with the present.

My table is large and round. We all can appreciate the conversation, the laughter and the lazysusan in the middle filled with food and drinks.

Lastly, I want a husband and wife team that writes. I started reading Jonathon Kellerman’s mysteries. They say to write what you know and he has been successful with that. He is a pediatric clinical pyschologist and wrote a text book on his area of expertise. Then went on to write about a pediatric clinical pyschologist who helps solve cold and current cases based on his clinical knowledge and brings in the Jewish religion.

His wife Faye Kellerman writes the “Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus” series. The husband is a LA detective who has converted to Judaism. His wife is an Orthodox Jew. Something I knew nothing about. She brings the religion into the series but mostly it is detective story with family themes.

Funny thing with these two is that both of their fictional detectives occasionally speak of the other detective.

Those are my tablemates. Now the food and wine. That is another blog post.

Those are my top five. Who are yours?

If you want to play, like me list the five people you’d invite and tell us why. Then tag me in the response, so I can see your answers. Then tag five more writers to tell us who they’d invite.

Debbie Walker, Anne Chisom, Sandra Gordon, Elizabeth Rossman and Meg Stewart

Thanks to Marilyn Flowers for tagging me in her story:

My Epiphany Writer’s Dinner Party This is my party, but you get to have one, too. Marilyn Flower