You can't tickle yourself

Folk wisdom says you can't tickle yourself. That said, my wife walked while I was staring at the computer and laughing. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"Sparky and Wendy's wedding," I replied.

Cocking her head inquisitively, she asked, "Have you added to it since the last rewrite?"

"No. I'm just doing a final pre-publishing read through."

My bride looked troubled. "But you're rereading it for like the one-hundredth time. It still makes you laugh?"

A bit embarrassed, I replied, "Yep."

Shaking her head as if she thought I've lost my mind, she walked away. This is a daily occurrence at our house. It may have something to do with me spending too much time with fictional friends and not getting out of the house much.

The reality of creating fictional characters is that you become connected with them. They become imaginary friends to me, as well as my readers. As friends, they have the ability to make me laugh and cry. Yes, really. The Hulda Packer character in Whistling Pines is a composite of many relatives. You have them, the ones who don't have a filter between their brain and mouth. They say (and do) things that make you cringe. The next week you're laughing while telling your friends about them and the things they've said or done.

My real-life Aunt Hulda had a warning phrase, "I probably shouldn't say this..." Hearing those words, everyone within earshot braced themselves for some politically incorrect, and usually embarrassing proclamation. After Hulda left, we'd look among ourselves, shaking out heads. "I can't believe she said that." Then, we'd laugh.

I've tried to capture the essence of Aunt Hulda's political incorrectness in a variety of the Whistling Pines characters. In "Whistling Wedding", there's a whole plethora of potential verbal landmines stemming from Wendy's out-of-wedlock pregnancy and her impending shotgun wedding to Sparky, the Two Harbors fire chief. 

Having Wendy (an outgoing fireball) and Sparky (a clueless bachelor who's been living with his mother) moving in together next door to my protagonist has provided endless opportunities for more unfiltered utterances as they walk through the minefield of adults living together. Those opportunities range from Wendy's surprise pregnancy, consummated in an unlikely location, to Sparky's mother's insistence that Wendy is a harlot who tricked her son into getting her pregnant. There is a grand array of cringeworthy verbal exchanges.

Add to that, two librarians eager to help solve the mystery that arrives in the form of a puzzle box found inside of a donated piano and we have real Minnesota North Shore history, culture, and Scandinavian humor. 

And yes, I literally laughed out loud as I reread some of the scenes. It's not quite like tickling myself.

I hope my readers find the vignettes funny and entertaining along with an engaging historical mystery revealed by the puzzle box contents.

Check out "Whistling Wedding" at BWL Publishing's home page, B2R, or Amazon. The eBook is available for pre-order with a September 1, release.

Hovey, Dean Whistling Pines series - BWL Publishing Inc. (bookswelove.net)

https://www.amazon.com/Whistling-Wedding-Dean-L-Hovey/dp/0228631572

https://books2read.com/Whistling-Wedding

Dean Hovey