"About Priscilla again?"

"No. I've gone as far as I can with Priscilla. I need a new heroine. And I need to make it a mystery from the first, not after I've already written and have to rewrite like I did this time. So, when do these rehearsals start?"

"Not until a week from now. And the building is air-conditioned, in case you were going to ask."

"That's good to know. That saves me from a nasty surprise."

Jane had broken down and bought herself and her younger son Todd new computers the year before. When she was researching background

material for the book about Priscilla, she had joined several Internet listservs that had to do with the time period she was using. That had led her to realize that she might get terribly backlogged if she went out of town, to visit Mike at college or just for the fun of getting away. So she bought a laptop computer as well. She told herself that it would also create a backup if her real computer went haywire or she lost the backup disk. This, she knew deep in her heart, was a silly indulgence. The truth was she thought laptops were cute and handy. Now it would finally be genuinely useful.

She brought it downstairs early the next morning and transferred the notes she'd made about the main character, who was growing in her mind.

She started the first two pots of pasta, and set a timer so she wouldn't forget and cook them to paste or let them burn to the bottom. She started pecking away at the tiny keyboard. Her character had decided on her own name.

Letitia.

The moment it had come to mind, Jane knew it was right. She was setting the next book in the Edwardian era, fifty years or later than the one about Priscilla. Lots of new research to do.

Two

By the next week, Jane was used to the tiny keyboard and had figured out a rough idea of a plot. She didn't want to spend years on this book, as she had on the first one. Finishing the first in anticipation of attending a mystery conference a few months earlier had taught her a lot.