Here is a picture of me with the famous Agatha award teapot. I won Best
Novel 1999 for Mariner's Compass. I was so surprised and really didn't expect to win so I didn't even bring a camera to the awards banquet. Luckily, Sara Berger, a fan, took this picture and generously gave it and the negative to me. On the other side of the teapot is a picture of a skull holding a rose in its mouth with two crossbones underneath it. It sits in a place of honor in the room where I write next to a cow skull given to me by a rancher friend from Cambria.
This is a picture of the James Dean memorial outside of Cholame, California. Just like I describe in the book, it is in the middle of nowhere. There is a restaurant next to it where I had a great hamburger and came up with the idea to use it in the scavanger hunt. I made up the songs on the jukebox, of course. I didn't make up the young cattle playing in the fields next to it.
Parkfield and the Parkfield Inn really do exist. It is even more in the
middle of nowhere than Cholame. It's so quiet out there you can hear the sound of grass moving in the wind. I've heard the food at the cafe is good but I've never actually eaten there myself. The gift shop which was in an old train car has closed, but I really did buy a rope there used by Blaine Santos. It hangs in my living room around a clock.
This is the restaurant I based Cafe Palais on. It is on the Embarcadero in Morro Bay and has great food! (I guess you can tell eating is a favorite part of my research.) My husband and I had eaten there many times over the years before I decided to use it in a book. The outside color of the restaurant has changed and is now brown. I derived the name Cafe Palais from my editor, Judith Palais. Her name is French for "palace." The owners, Marty and Eve, are named for her and her husband (her middle name is Eve). I like using the names of my friends in my books (and I never make them villains).
This is a picture of me and the real owner of The Coffee Pot Restaurant (aka Cafe Palais). I met him through a mutual friend, Karen Grencik, after Mariner's Compass had been out a while. He is going to be a published author himself soon! His book, Double Luck, a young adult novel written by Becky White, is the true story of his amazing childhood and his determined escape from Communist China as a young boy. He is a wonderful person whom I am honored to know and his restaurant comes highly recommended by me!
There are so many interesting things in Morro Bay that my imagination didn't have to work very hard! Here's a picture of the giant chess set that is very popular among the residents there. In the background you can barely make out Morro Rock, which is covered with fog. If I could pick any place to live on the Central Coast, I have to admit it would be Morro Bay.
This carved horse's
head was part of my inspiration for the mysterious stranger
who leaves Benni his house and possessions in Mariner's Compass. I
found it in a wood carving museum (now closed, unfortunately) up near the
Hearst Castle in the small town of San Simeon. There are no markings
or signature on the carving so I don't know who made it. If someone
knows, I'll be happy to give him/her credit. I like it so much it
sits on my desk.
Here's a picture of
my beloved and much appreciated Agatha teapot and the book
that won it. I haven't had tea in it yet. It actually sits up
on a bookshelf in my writing room next to a cow skull given to me by my
rancher friend, Joy Fitzhugh.
Just a couple of ol' cowgirls outside Paso Robles' fantastic Cowgirl
Cafe.
Judi
Appell,
owner of The Cotton Ball, Morro Bay's charming quilt supply store,
poses with me at her front door.
