Rather than telling y’all what happened last week, I thought it only fitting to introduce myself properly first. My name is Elizabeth Banks—no, sorry, it’s Elizabeth Trout. I recently married Jonas Trout and am still trying to get used to the whole new-last-name thing.
People have always used different names for me. Elizabeth is a perfectly good name, but somehow everyone called me Ella Mae when I was growing up here in Jenkins, Arkansas. By the time I was old enough to realize I didn’t like it, the whole town was already in the habit of calling me Ella Mae.
Except my high school boyfriend. He came up with a pet name for me—Lizzie. I thought that was cute at the time, but it’s been ten years since we dated and he still can’t seem to break his annoying habit. On the other hand, I don’t get upset when my best friend from high school, Kelsey, calls me Eliza sometimes. She tricked me into reading Pride and Prejudiceduring English Honors class in junior year just so she’d have a study partner for the test and then started calling me by the protagonist’s nickname. There are a few other nicknames for me out there but I’ll just save those for another time.
I sure hope those different names for li’l ole me haven’t made your head hurt. I can barely keep track, but at least it’s not like looking at spreadsheets. Boy, I get an immediate headache from looking at one of those. Don’t you?
Spreadsheets aren’t my thing. That’s fine with me because I’m an artist. Working as an independent graphics artist allows to me work when I want, never have to attend staff meetings, and not have a boss. A short disastrous stint working at an ad agency convinced me that working for someone else wasn’t for me. After all, having wild swings of emotion and overexaggerating things were all part of why we artsy types were given our very own license: artistic license.
I credit my artistic abilities to my Pawpaw. In addition to any genetic advantages he passed on, he taught me to draw and paint, plus plenty of other useful skills. Like who would ever have guessed that Pawpaw’s sleight-of-hand tricks would come in handy last week? Well, they did.
Last week was pretty crazy with poor Courtney Stanton getting murdered and one of my besties getting arrested. I just knew she’d never do something terrible like that, but the sheriff didn’t listen to me—AGAIN. At least I didn’t get arrested too. Jonas and I managed to figure everything out before things got too out of control. I’m mighty pleased with myself for solving the case and handling lots of things quite maturely last week. So unlike me.
I’d explain further but I think Marc Jedel did a great job telling the whole story in Swimming with the Fishes. Y’all really should go read it today. It’s a fun clean read with lots of twists and surprises. I’m just happy it’s all over now.
Swimming with the Fishes is the second book in Marc Jedel’s new Ozarks Lake Mystery series. It’s available at getbook.at/Swimming. Don’t you agree it’s pretty cool of him to tell stories about me and Jonas? Although I hope we don’t keeping having danger, dead bodies, or disasters in our future. Sure, it may make for a great story, but this is my life after all!
He’s writing more books in his Silicon Valley Mystery series. I haven’t read those but I hear they’re very funny. That doesn’t surprise me any as them Californians are strange folk, and none stranger than his main character, Marty. The first three of those books are also out on audio book, available everywhere audiobooks are sold. All Marc’s books are free for Kindle Unlimited members.