Chapter 27
Bellini and Maisie
To: Bellini O’Donnell
From: Maisie Brown
Subject: Roxy Belle, oh please, send in the darn book
Bellini,
I don’t mean to interrupt any family Christmas celebrations. I know that you all have a snowwoman contest and a Christmas monster cookie party, but I wanted to gently inquire about where you are in your next Roxy Belle book before I drink my way into a stupor.
Please tell me you’re well on your way to those chapters I need. It is important that your publishing house keeps right on schedule, so I am getting pressure from Portia. She yelled at me the other day. She swore, too. They need to get covers made, start marketing, etc.
I am thinking of becoming a dump-truck driver. It sounds less stressful.
Maisie
To: Maisie Brown
From: Bellini O’Donnell
Subject: Ya better not shout, ya better not pout
Maisie,
All is well. The drummer boy is drumming ideas into me.
“Silent Night” is silent so I can write.
The jingle bells are jingling.
All I want for Christmas is for Roxy Belle to have adventures on her farm.
The Twelve Days of Christmas are counting on down.
I’ll get the next Roxy Belle book to you not long after Santa’s sleigh has sailed through the sky. Please note the alliteration.
You would make a fine dump-truck driver.
Bellini
To: Bellini O’Donnell
From: Maisie Brown
Subject: Ya better not shout, ya better get that book in
Bellini,
Give me a summary of the book so I can tell Portia.
Please.
I’m begging you.
You are making me drink.
Well. It’s the holidays. And I do love martinis. And strawberry daiquiris. And an old Scotch. So, it’s not exactly YOU, to be precise.
But still. Give me a Roxy Belle, and I’ll feel better, and no, we don’t have time to wait until AFTER Santa’s sleigh has sailed through the sky. Alliteration noted.
Maisie
To: Bellini O’Donnell
From: Maisie Brown
Subject: Did you see my last email?
Bellini,
If you give me a summary of your book, I’ll send you a box of candy canes.
Maisie
To: Bellini O’Donnell
From: Maisie Brown
Subject: You’re on Santa’s bad list
Bellini? Are you there?
Oh yes. I was there. Or here. But Logan was filling my head and my heart, and my soul, and I could barely think.
I knew I had to start writing again. I did not want to run the bar for the rest of my life, but if I didn’t get it together, I might have to if I lost my book contract.
That would be—very bad.
I thought of the Roxy Belle ideas Logan and I came up with together.
They would work! I simply needed time to write.
I smiled as I pictured the storylines. It would be Roxy Belle and me again.
She still had kid-friendly, engaging stories about her life on a farm with an eccentric family that needed to be told.