Loving Chico

OOPS! First, my apology: I'm sorry, folks, but my automatic time scheduler failed me and this didn't come online when I expected it to. It's here now!

The little town where I live in northern California has much to commend it. I've loved this community for decades now and, when I chose to set a new WIP here, I decided I want my readers to love it as much as I do. I'm taking the opportunity to share some of the things I love most about our little community. Here's one quick bit of description from MAGGIE RISING:

Saturday was another Chamber of Commerce day, as nearly perfect as a day ever gets. I enjoyed our ride into town, past the cemetery and along the creek to the large parking lot where the market gathers. It was filled with vendors’ pavilions, produce and products for sale, and wall-to-wall, shoulder-to-shoulder shoppers. This market was always much smaller than the Thursday night affair. Though there were usually musicians on one side or the other, there were no belly dancers, no jugglers, no bounce houses or two-story inflatable slides. Saturday’s market was more business than pleasure.

It was also quintessentially Chico—the neo-hippies with their dreadlocks and fabric shopping bags mingling with gray-haired couples holding hands and well-dressed younger families with toddlers in tow; the Hmong farmers working their booths side-by-side with the lilywhite fifth-generation growers whose ancestors had been among the area’s first non-native settlers; the potters and jewelry artists hawking their wares beside the folks with the petition to legalize recreational marijuana, while conservative politicians smiled and shook hands and kissed babies in the next booth over. The whole place smells delicious—scents of fresh produce or yeasty bread mingling with the patchouli oil and sandalwood on the artisans. 

That's just a taste, of course. Before Maggie has finished, she is going to show readers all that's best about my hometown.

Susan Aylworth wrote her first "novel" on a yellow legal pad when she was nine years old. Her first eight published books are now available in digital form for Kindle, Nook and other e-readers. Her ninth novel, A SECRET FAMILY RECIPE, is due from Covenant Communications in June, 2013.