"Don’t call me Lucille.” I adjust my generous bra and stoop to tie a trailing pink shoelace. “If my 38s hadn’t jammed on the window ledge, I’d have made it to the ground and be ten miles down the road by now, flaming red hair and all." I give him one of my frosty frowns and say, "Like Lucille Ball would have in one of her I love Lucy shows.” I make a show of rubbing my elbow. "It still throbs from when I tripped yesterday... trying to avoid having you throw me in the car like a runaway barn cat dragging a stolen sack of fresh salmon.”

Characters that enhance Gladys Tripalong in Gladys Tripalong's Private Journal

Daniel Tripalong: Daniel is the sixteen-year-old only child of single mom Gladys. His occasional sarcasm can’t mask his devotion to her. Life is good in the Tripalong house.

Carol Smithers: Carol, a sophisticated corporate lawyer, is ten years older than Ev and two years older than Gladys. Carol is outwardly haughty and stern. However, with her guard down, you will glimpse her status as the family matriarch with the heart of a marshmallow.

Ev Tripalong: Ev, a popular and respected real estate agent, is the self-proclaimed mediator between the bossy Carol and the precocious Gladys. She expends a lot of energy mollifying Carol, the controller, and cautiously re-directing her madcap middle sister.

Joe Little: Joe met Gladys mid-way between her thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth year. His upbeat demeanor and tough-guy persona compliment her wacky personality and diminutive feminism. Forty-year-old Michael Landon look-a-like is divorced, and the father of a college age son A newcomer to Alberta, the brilliant detective has a reputation for solving difficult cases.  All you single ladies may as well cross Joe off your wish list; Gladys has centre stage.

This novella will be available through Amazon the first week of December

Bits and Bites of

 Gladys Tripalong’s Private Journal

Several martinis later, Carol helps herself to one of Ann’s éclairs. As she takes a big bite, gooey pink and green icing slides onto her hand. She grimaces, wipes crumbs from her mouth and green goop off her hand, and turns to her younger sister. “Ev, are you ready to share your final thoughts?”

 Ev gulps her tenth, or eleventh, or twelfth martini almost drops the glass as she passes it to Carol, using three tissues to blow her nose, wipes her eyes…smearing her mascara, and then settles on a stool that Carol positioned for her. In a boozy voice, she begins:

ODE TO GLADYS TRIPALONG

Not long ago, on a snowy night so cold
We sat in silence as we’d been so told

While a lovely ballerina in a tutu new
Waits in the wings for her entrance cue

Arms above her head in a perfect arch

She prepares to make her history mark

Her audience on the edge of their seat
She points her toes and gets set to leap

A pretty pirouette is almost engaged
As she tumbles from the very high stage

Horrified, we watch as she slips out of sight
Some say she instantly died of the fright

Sweet dreams dearest Gladys Tripalong
Finally you performed a spectacular swan song.

Someone giggles.

Gladys is working on her Private Journal, but is it really private??

Gladys’ private Journals read like the life of any average thirty-four-year old single mother, who as she struggles with raising a son, also must juggle challenging careers.  

No! That’s not correct.

Gladys’ private Journals read like the life of any thirty-four year old hot momma, frantically searching for love and adventure.
No! That’s not correct.

Gladys’ private Journals read like the life of a loony tune broad with no common sense.
No! That’s not correct.

Through her private Journals, Gladys trips us through her bizarre life. We walk her walk, and we talk her talk. We stumble and pick ourselves up. We brush ourselves off and continue the journey. 
YES! That’s correct!

Journal Entries by Gladys Tripalong“I have decided to write a private Journal. I’ll record my dreams, my life, and my private thoughts. Anyone who reads my secret journal, without my express permission, will go straight to hell.”

Gladys Tripalong's son Daniel asks if anyone has seen her

 Daniel is looking for his mother.  She may have run off to join a circus or joined a Gypsy Band. If anyone has seen this woman, please call Daniel immediately. A small reward is being offered. 

Molly searches for Gladys

Missing my Gladys.

Please help me. My master Gladys Tripalong rescued me after I had birthed twelve babies (not all at once). The day we met, I was dragging my sorry ass across the shelter whimpering for someone, anyone, to take me home. And of course she did. Gladys has been missing for several weeks.  I think someone took her. I need to rescue her and bring her home. I can’t survive without her.

She'd never abandon me…she must have been kidnapped. She has been known to hang around with the wrong kind (if you know what I mean). I’ve checked with the dogs and cats in the neighborhood…but no luck.  You can reach me via Gladys Is Missing Poster. Or you could try:  www.haveyouseenGladys.blogspot.com.

And the Search Goes on!

In their continuing search to find their missing sister, Carol and Ev read Gladys’ Private Journal. “GYPSY TRAILS, by Gladys Tripalong.” She wriggles into a comfortable position, and adjusts her reading glasses. “The day I was kidnapped, I was working my routine paper route.”
“She never had a paper rou…,” Carol interrupts as she glances at a framed two-year-old photo of her and Gladys.   “Never mind…read on.”
“Life with the gypsies was paradise; I didn’t have to go to school.  My new family changed my name to Luludja, which means flower of life. Everyone loved me and spoiled me. “My adoptive Mom, Esmeralda, was a descendant of the Ancient Egyptians.  She told me that way back when…the gypsies were an enslaved race, living in Romania. They were highly respected.”