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Friday, May 1, 2015

Welcome To The Small Town I Call Quiet Anchorage

As far as I know, no small town exists that is named Quiet Anchorage. I googled it, too. There is just plain Anchorage up in Alaska, but I can find no Quiet Anchorage. But it's my literary small town. I don't remember how I derived the small town's name. Maybe I spotted the nautical term—quiet anchorage—used somewhere in my reading and adopted it. I know the small town’s creation came from my recollections of having grown up in a similar rural town found in northern Virginia.

Main Street is where much of the action takes place in the Quiet Anchorage of my Isabel & Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series. The sun is always shining there. Really. It never rains. A wooden bench is situated in front of the flower shop where the three well-liked codgers--Willie, Blue, and Ossie--like to sit and watch everything going on. Nothing much gets by them.

A softball pitch down the street is the town pharmacy where prescription medicine is sold at the pharmacy counter and banana splits at the soda fountain counter. Naturally, a railroad track runs through one end of Quiet Anchorage. Following the scheduled trains's whistles plays a large part in the townies's (i.e., the residents) daily routines.

There is a men's barbershop and a lady's hair salon, though you won't find many scenes taking place there. I think the settings have been overused. Instead, the laundromat is where the always busy but friendly pair of lady gossips--Lotus and Rosie--hang out, catching up on the latest news. If you need groceries, the IGA should suit your shopping needs. The proprietor--Jumpy--is a burly man with a quick smile and a sales pitch for his lamb chop specials.

Several blocks over from Main Street is Church Street with a brick rambler and a powder blue sedan parked in the driveway. My sister sleuths Isabel and Alma Trumbo reside there with their lovable beagle named Petey Samson (yes, he uses two names as I tell why in my book). Isabel is older and wiser while Alma sometimes goes off half-cocked.

They spend a lot of their time doing stuff on Main Street. You can read about their start as a pair of sleuths in the first book Quiet Anchorage, which is named after their small town. Now you know all about Quiet Anchorage. I hope you'll stop by for a read.

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