Ja Ba La Ba Loo!

Don't you just love a sparkly day - a day where good news and important events fall at your feet no matter which way you turn? I thought I might have to stay up last night just so I wouldn't miss anything.

Tea in Texas arrived yesterday and features my Texas Tea-Step article - all four and half pages! Ja Ba La Ba Loo!

Anyway, one of my readers, not knowing I had written any plays at all, has asked me how they came about. So below is the answer to this question - as regards to the first play anyway, A Teatime Travesty. Although I fondly refer to my fledgling effort as simply Travesty.

And the picture here is a promotional piece for Travesty featuring my Torie Montana in the middle, my friend Suzn on the left (with whom I'm writing a third play), and her mom, Barbara.

Here you go...

I daresay playwrights and novelists expect to occasionally awake in the morning with a fresh plot eager to spill from their pens. But for a history lover whose writing aspirations have never stepped far beyond the well researched piece on the early 19th century Gothic heroine or the evolution of the Victorian Valentine, etc., it is indeed a rare occurrence.

Yet, this is how the play, A Teatime Travesty, came to be. I opened my eyes one Saturday morning and there it was - complete with the necessary twists and turns. You can imagine my surprise. I arose, made myself a cup of tea and began writing.

I don't want to imply it was easy and all was complete before the day was out. There was, thankfully, research to be done.

I knew the action had to take place at teatime but how does one blend the graciousness inherent in afternoon tea with comedy and murder? How does one dispose of a body during tea? Anything messy seemed grossly inappropriate and anything verging on the calisthenic was clearly fraught with problems. It simply wouldn't do for even one tea hat to fall askew.

It was quite a conundrum, but I quickly saw poison as the answer. Yet which one? I set about my research with the fervent hope that my husband stayed well. I imagined being interrogated by the police should something dire occur. "Ma'am, we understand you were researching poisons in the weeks prior to your husband's demise..."

Aside from the fact that my husband did maintain his good health, I can tell you that, yes, even during the most elegant afternoon tea, it is possible for events to take a most unexpected turn.

xxx

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