Teaser Tuesday: PURPLE PLUMERIA Reader Guide
First of all, huge thanks to everyone who helped me out with questions for Parts I and II of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
Part II of the Readers’ Guide is a relatively straightforward Q&A. (I say “relatively” because it’s Miss Gwen asking the questions.) But Part I….
I got a little slap-happy with Part I.
The premise behind Part I of the Purple Plumeria Readers’ Guide is that someone has discovered the lost transcript of a Barbara Walters-type interview of Miss Gwen. Naturally, this interview doesn’t go at all the way the interviewer might desire.
You’re going to have to wait until August for the “transcript” (assuming that my publisher decides to go ahead and publish it, rather than searching my garbage for empty gin bottles or other mind-altering substances), but, for your amusement, here is the Introduction to the Lost Transcript:
An Interview with the Author of The Convent of Orsino
or How Not to Interview Miss Gwen
The Convent of Orsino— by a Lady —took London society by storm. After a full fortnight of suitable maidenly modesty, the author came forward, identifying herself as one Mrs. Reid, nee Miss Gwendolyn Meadows. Crowds of eager admirers clamored for her to address their learned and not so learned societies. Emboldened, Mrs. Reid’s publishers put together an ambitious tour of speaking engagements.
However, after an unfortunate episode involving Mrs. Reid’s jumping on the settee at Madame Oprah’s salon (in an attempt, apparently, to stamp out very small French spies), Mrs. Reid’s publishers hastily canceled the rest of her appearances.
One artifact, however, survives from that short-lived Convent of Orsino publicity tour. It appears to be a hand-written transcript of an interview between Mrs. Reid (here referred to, familiarly, as “Miss Gwen”) and an LW. Scholars believe this to be the lady’s author, Lauren Willig, making a rare, inter-textual appearance.
Based on the handwriting, the best guess of Pink Carnation scholars is that the scribe in question was Lady Henrietta Dorrington, who has clearly amused herself by indulging in her own observations as to Mrs. Reid’s moods and facial expressions.
Without further ado, the transcript….
The winner of the Purple Plumeria tote bag will be announced here on the website tomorrow!
Did you — did you —
Settee-jumping at Madame Oprah’s?
Miss Gwen and Tom Cruise??? Never in a million years… Does that make Colonel Reid Katie Holmes? Lizzy Reid’s Burn Book? (Oh the possibilities with this metaphor…)
What kind of gin you got up there in New York?
Don’t say I didn’t warn you about the slap-happy….
Mrs. Reid! Confirmation Miss Gwen gets married, and a Tom Cruise/Oprah reference all in one. This book can’t get here fast enough!
Sorry! I realized the Mrs. Reid was a bit of a spoiler, but I figured it was a fairly predictable spoiler….
Although, of all my characters, Miss Gwen IS the most likely to refuse the altar and carry on an extended extra-marital alliance. Just because.
Colonel Reid, however, is definitely the marrying kind.
O.M.Gosh! Love it, Lauren! Can’t wait!
Oh, Lauren, if your publisher doesn’t put it in the book I shall perish of frustration–unless, of course, you include it on your website. But I hope the publisher includes it.