SpeakEasy

Enjoy the unique narrative voice and writing style of each chapter in the second Community Novel Project from the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library as twenty-two different local authors write chapters of SpeakEasy. It’s a chick-lit mystery with some history. Grad student Ronni Long wants the past to come alive, but her centenarian source Julia Stanford doubts all the adventures of her long life should be revisited. Aren’t some things better left buried? Ronni is a cultural anthropologist. Almost. She’s in Topeka to do fieldwork, and in a colossal stroke of luck, she has discovered a primary source better than any she could imagine: a woman who lived through Kansas’ Prohibition era and remembers it vividly. After 108 years of living, what remains in your memory and your heart? Julia has achieved this rare longevity milestone and now spends her days in a Topeka nursing home. When Ronni mines the riches of Julia’s past, just what will she unearth? Ronni’s journey creates a compelling present-day plotline while Julia’s stories paint an intriguing historical backdrop. As the mystery unfolds, Julia’s secrets and Ronni’s lies put both women in danger.

SpeakEasy was collaboratively written and serialized by Aimee L. Gross, C R Kennedy, Miranda Ericsson Kendall,Elaine Greywalker, Nan Plum, A. M. Coffee, BlackRose,Janet Jenkins Stotts, Stacy Spilker, Marian Rakestraw,Diana Marsh, Dennis E. Smirl, Crystal K. Green, D. L. Rose,Rae Kary Staab, Elizabeth Staab Van Deusen, B. R. Knight,Romualdo R. Chavez, Sarah Langley, Holly Mace,Paul Swearingen, and Lissa Staley between April and August 2013.