Win a $25 GC: Coincidence by Jon Ketzner

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jon Ketzner will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The view inside my workspace:

I wrote much of my recent novel Coincidence as the kind of author-in-residence at a new independent book store in Cumberland, Md….Lily Books & Cafe.

It is a store that carries both new and used books and operates a craft coffee shop inside the premises. Much of the inventory and Knick-knacks were bought by the owners from The Book Center, a local independent book shop that operated for 60 years before closing after the retirement of the owner.

My perch is a table near an electric outlet on the main drag through the shop. The store is a repurposed restaurant so accommodating the coffee shop area was easily accomplished. The shop offers internet. It is all nice, cute and a bold statement about being optimistic. The shop is owned by a downtown entrepreneur who owns several other businesses. He named the store Lily after his college-age daughter who works at the shop while attending a local university. Other staff include some of her pals and a retired lady Episcopal pastor.

My workspace is a simple table and little table lamp. I do very little writing at home. My day is often interrupted by pals coming into the shop, generally for coffee, to needle me. The shop is good enough to carry my entire oeuvre and I am glad to inscribe and sign any of my books sold there. I have conducted a few formal signings there. I have become associated enough with the shop to be expected, and I generally am in residence three days a week.

In addition to Lily Books, I wrote much of my novel in various coffee shops and saloons in the Aspen valley in Colorado. My wife and I head to the Rockies each March. She skis while I avoid orthopedic trauma writing my little novels and anthologies.Folks there assume that I am some kind of big deal author as I clickety-clack away at my computer. I do little to disabuse them of their take on my presence.

As noted, I do little writing at home. I need an audience, what can I say? Book stores, especially independent book stores, are wonderful and so very threatened. I try to buy as many books as I can justify from these stores, intending to pay full retail. Those, like Lily, that add a cafe component are hopefully improving their chances of long-term survival. We have three locally and they are all brave literary warriors. Selling books is nice: people actually reading my books is wonderful. The great bulk of writers are never going to get rich from their writing…they need side gigs to live a decent life. But I’m happy to be modestly among their number.

The view outside my workspace:

Lily Books and Cafe is in a repurposed restaurant on the main downtown street of the small city of Cumberland, Md. The town is picturesque in that way of rural American cities…church steeple, big Federalist homes, and the re-purposed infrastructures from a prosperous, sooty past. The four block downtown area was recently converted back after several decades as a pedestrian mall into a one-way street with parking and a bike lane. Cumberland is a popular biking Mecca and much of the downtown traffic are bikes and bikers.

The downtown includes many nice restaurants/grills…most with outdoor seating. Even with the re-opening of the street to vehicular traffic, the outdoor dining is still very welcoming and well supported by locals and Cumberland’s many tourists. There are, as with most small town retail districts, still some vacant store fronts but the downtown has a robust retail presence with boutiques and a theater.

At the far end of the downtown, a tourist train powered by a massive steam engine operates ten months of the year to great success. Many of the folks who stop by the bookshop are in town from Pittsburgh, Washington or Baltimore and came to ride the tourist train. This area was just named by U.S. Today as the second best place to visit in the Fall in America. We have many fine attractions, including a retiree with too much unstructured playtime writing books in the charming downtown book shop.

On the eve of President John F. Kennedy's final trip to Dallas, an irreverent narrator from the Ether begins to reveal the hidden chain of events that history never recorded. Spanning decades and weaving together Hollywood legends, political dynasties, secret affairs, and forgotten tragedies, Coincidence imagines how seemingly unrelated lives become entangled in the most infamous assassination of the twentieth century. From Joseph P. Kennedy and Gloria Swanson to Jackie Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and the young Lee Harvey Oswald, every choice, passion, and betrayal sends ripples through time. Behind every headline lies another story, and every story hides a secret long buried. As the strands converge on November 22, 1963, the line between fate and accident begins to blur. Rich in historical detail and provocative speculation, Coincidence asks: was it really coincidence at all?

Enjoy an Excerpt

Jackie rarely consulted him about her clothing. Her sense of style, if not her sense of humor, was notorious.

“The pink.”

She seemed surprised. “Why the pink?”

“Texas. All those tired cowgirls raising their brat kids to be Miss America. They adore pink in Texas.”

The First Lady eyed the pink at arm’s length. She shrugged. “Okay. The pink.”

“But the hat,” POTUS said, “could you do without the hat. I hate those things.”

Jackie shook her head.

“I’ll need the hat. Without the bubble top on, my hair would be a mess.”

The president leaned back against the pillows on his rock-hard bed, supine in his boxers and the argyles Bobby had given him which bore the presidential seal. He grinned.

“Remember the times when we would drift down the Potomac, standing by the rail, the wind blowing wildly through your hair, and there on the river in the middle of the city you would sink sexily to your knees…”

“Drop dead, Mr. President.” Words Jackie would soon want back.

The door to Suite 850 opened and George Lapp entered to help The President dress. He nodded at Jackie. He had seen her naked many times and was indifferent to the marital scenario into which he had strolled. Jackie smiled curtly and sidled toward her own room to don the pink Chanel, including its matching hat.

Before she left, the President grinned and said to his valet. “I might need the back brace today, George, had a strenuous night.”

About the Author:

Jon Ketzner was born in Cumberland, Maryland in the lovely Appalachian foothills. He grew up in Baltimore then graduated from Towson University with a degree in mathematics and went on to a long career as a consulting actuary. For many years, Jon and his family lived in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania before moving back to Cumberland in 1990.

As a recovering actuary and inspired by the Maryland Writers Association’s “Notable Authors” monthly challenges, Jon decided to try his hand at writing and give his left-brain side a rest. He cites as influences: Henry Fielding, Joseph Heller, Gregory McDonald, and Tim Dorsey.

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