A new season, a new book...

This new book I've got percolating in my head (and that I've started getting down on paper) is about a Boston catering professional and the son of a New England farmer - a farm boy with a city edge...and a one-night stand that may end up as a happily-ever-after, if the two of them could just stop arguing long enough for nature to take its course!

The caterer, Julia Emerson, has these three best friends - Gina, a down-to-earth lingerie model (she's pretty awesome), Rachel, an ASPCA worker who can't help but rescue every animal she can, and Hayley, a schoolteacher at a local prep school who is calm and rational (until her friends get her liquored up). Don't they sound fun? Well, they are. They talk so fast to each other that I can barely keep up on the keyboard!

Here's one of their many conversations. This was one of their rapid-fire conversations - keeping up with them is a challenge, but I admit that it's the most fun I've had with characters in awhile. In this part-of-a-scene, they're leaving their after-dinner drink establishment and walking down Newbury St in Boston.

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"I am going to set you up," Gina announced.

"Oh God, no," the three of us chimed.

I took the lead. "No, G, really. That's a bad idea. I don't want to date a model. No offense. I've decided I want to marry Rach."

"Me?" Rachel looked inordinately pleased.

"Definitely. You clean, I cook. You take me to animal society events, and I make crème brûlée for you to eat late at night."

"Keep talking, Emerson," Rachel encouraged as we gathered up our belongings and headed out. "I'm halfway in love with you already."

"What about the sex?" Gina asked, completely ignoring the myriad amounts of drool she elicited from the various men we passed. I loved that about her.

"No sex," I said simply. "Too much drama when you add sex into it."

"My answer is yes," Rachel informed me. "Hey, we're engaged!" she yelled to a passer-by. He gave her the double thumbs-up, and we linked arms triumphantly.

"It's true that I'd totally choose you for my wife," I informed Rachel, considering, "but maybe I'd need Gina for sex on the side."

"What about me?" Hayley exclaimed. "And you just said no sex!"

"I reconsidered," I replied matter-of-factly.

"We'd be closet lovers, Hale," Rachel said, linking her other arm with Hayley. "You'd have a hard time coming out because of society's standards, but I still support you."

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