#TRAVEL WITH SERENA--GUEST AUTHOR LYNN CHANDLER WILLIS ON WINK, TEXAS

Rig Theater, Wink, Texas
(photo by Whole is One)

Lynn Chandler Willis is the first woman in ten years to win the St. Martin's Press/PWA Best 1st PI Novel competition. She lives in North Carolina with Sam the cocker spaniel. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

 There Really is a Town Called Wink

When I was researching settings for Wink of an Eye, I knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted heat, desert, dirt, and rugged mountains. Throw a couple cacti in for good measure. I probably could have settled for any small town in New Mexico, Utah, or Arizona, but I was drawn to Texas.

Each state in these great United States of America has its own personality, its own quirks and charms. Most states are known for one thing or another that is unique to that particular state. And often, a state's residents, especially the native-born, share certain characteristics. In Texas, one of those characteristics is Texas pride. Every Texan I've ever met or talked to loved their state. “Texas” isn't just a physical place—it's a way of life. Whether it's the ultra urban cities like Dallas and Houston, or the smaller towns, like Wink, Texans are proud to call the Lone Star state home.

I started my search looking at the smaller towns. Google became my friend. I wanted a town with a population under 2,000, a few mom-and-pop businesses, and at least one somewhat odd-ball fact. And then I found Wink, Texas. Home of the Roy Orbison museum (call for an appointment to visit), sidewalks, and two giant sinkholes. My main character, Private Investigator Michael “Gypsy” Moran, was coming home.

To learn more about the town Gypsy was running home to, I continued my research and discovered the little town of Wink, Texas has a weekly newspaper—and it was online! I immediately subscribed and with each new edition of the small town paper, I fell more in love with the tiny town. The people of Wink, Texas weren't the oil barons of Dallas or the country club golf pros of Houston; they were down to earth, working class people. They were the people I wanted Gypsy Moran to call family.

Although fiction takes the reader to a make-believe world, the characters need to be real enough for the reader to be able to relate to them in some manner. In Wink of an Eye, the main characters are everyday people. They get up and go to work or school, they eat dinner together at a cramped kitchen table, and they're more likely to drink a cold beer on their back deck than a dry martini in a penthouse.

They're the people of Wink, Texas. A place Gypsy Moran is proud to call home.

Wink of an Eye

When twelve-year-old Tatum McCallen finds his father, a deputy sheriff, hanging from a tree in their west Texas backyard, he sets out to restore his dad's honor and prove he didn't kill himself. He and his disabled grandfather hire reluctant Private Investigator Gypsy Moran, who has his own set of problems. Like a double-cross that sent him fleeing Vegas in the middle of the night.

Gypsy agrees to help the kid and his grandfather Burke because he feels sorry for them. Burke, a former deputy sheriff now confined to a wheelchair, is all Tatum has left. When Tatum shows Gypsy a private file his dad had been keeping, Gypsy knows the kid's father was on to something when he died. Eight missing girls, a cowardly sheriff, and undocumented workers are all connected to the K-Bar Ranch.

Gypsy is quite familiar with the K-Bar Ranch. Before running off to Vegas, he spent his summers as a teenager working for ranch owner Carroll Kinley while romancing Kinley's beautiful daughter Claire. But Claire, now married to a state senator, is managing the ranch now and is more involved with the case Tatum's father was secretly investigating than Gypsy wants to admit.

Aided by adolescent Tatum and reporter Sophia Ortez, Gypsy begins pulling the pieces of the puzzle together, but it could end up costing him his life. Or worse—Tatum's life.

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