You really don't want to miss Dollar Daze: The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love by Karin Gillespie. This is an absolutely delightful series! Even Booklist says so: “Each character is lovingly crafted in Gillespie's hilarious, heartwarming, and often irreverent look at senior living in small-town America.”— Starred Review Booklist



Karin Gillespie’s Bottom Dollar Girls are back with a sugar-spun vengeance in Dollar Daze: The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love . Broaching the age-old question – Is it ever too late to find one’s heart’s desire? – the feisty ladies of Cayboo Creek are suddenly blindsided by schoolgirl flights of fancy when unexpected romance enters their lives.

Mavis Loomis, Birdie Purdy, and Gracie Tobias, widows in their mid-sixties are certain their dating days are over until they observe their friend eighty-something Attalee Gaines in tempestuous relationship with Dooley Prichard, a trifocal-wearing charmer. If it’s not too late for Attalee, how can it be too late for them?

Unfortunately the eligible men in Cayboo Creek are as picked over as a garage sale at noontime. Things look discouraging until an old high school heartthrob comes to town and Birdie and Mavis compete for his attentions. In the meantime socialite Gracie Tobias finds unlikely love in the arms of a rugged duct doctor. Can she overlook the vast differences in their backgrounds?

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All of the books in series have been selected as featured alternatives for Doubleday and Literary Guild book clubs. Bet Your Bottom Dollar has been optioned for film by the actor James Woods. Gillespie www.karingillespie.com is also co-author of The Sweet Potato Queen’s First Big-Ass Novel. (Simon and Schuster, January 2007) and has a story called TRASH TALK in This is Chick Lit This is Chick Lit


***Here are Karin's answers to my GCC questions:

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL “WRITING DAY”?

I journal in a notebook first thing in the morning. It’s like a warm up for the real writing , and I get out all of the kvetching and set my goals for the day. Then I run because physical activity helps me work out any thorny plot issues I might be having.

Then I get burn incense, chant and perform a top-secret writing ritual that I simply cannot disclose ( hint: It involves diet coke, whiskey and peanut M&Ms.)

All right. I’m lying. I procrastinate by reading other writers’ blogs and then I face the laptop. Every time I manage to eek out a page I get to check my email. After thoroughly perusing all the ads for Ciali in my inbox, I go back to writing. I’m constantly doing a word count check because as soon as I hit 1,000 I’m done for the day. This is usually happens between three and five p.m., hopefully in time for happy hour.


DO YOU RECALL THE KERNEL OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS BOOK?
I was in what I call “the hospice” stage of being single. I was in my mid-40s and after years of being divorced I honestly never thought I’d ever get married again.

There was this fellow named David I’d run into now and again but he could never remember my name and seemed utterly indifferent toward me.

Then I checked out this fabulous book from the library called The Crimson Petal and the White. I devoured the 800-word novel post haste and when I got to the end, I discovered a receipt with the name of the last person who checked it out. It was Mr. Indifference himself!

I ran into him again and mentioned that we’d checked out the same book. For the first time, ever, he finally took notice of me. We chatted enthusiastically, started dating, and yes, dear reader, I married him.

While our courtship was going on I was writing Dollar Daze: Bottom Dollar Girls in Love. My personal life kept bleeding into the manuscript. Everyone in the book was falling in love. It was like Cupid spiked the water of Cayboo Creek S.C. the setting for Dollar Daze. One of my characters, a proper Southern widow named Gracie Tobias, hooks up with the love-of-her-life via a library book.




PICK A CHARACTER IN THE BOOK AND TELL US WHAT TRAIT YOU SHARE (OR COME CLOSEST TO SHARING) WITH THAT CHARACTER.

I most identify with Elizabeth, who is struggling with being a stay-at-home-mom in Dollar Daze. When I stayed home with my son during the summers (I was a school teacher for many) I would get Blues Clues cabin fever and couldn’t wait to get back to work. I admire moms who like staying home with the kids but I wasn’t one of them.

IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND, WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A MAGICAL TRUNK THAT GAVE YOU LIMITLESS BOOKS TO READ, OR A LIMITLESS SUPPLY OF PAPER ON WHICH TO WRITE?
It would have to be the trunk with all the books. In order to stay sane I’d need to hear someone’s voice in my head besides mine. Besides I could probably make paper out of seaweed and use bug juice for ink or scratch my book out on a big rock if I really wanted to.


BEER OR WINE?

Pino Noir over Pabst’s any day of the week.

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?

Does anyone ever say vanilla? Let me have their names so I can report them to the chocolate authority.

WHAT’S YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK?
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant