CARP CAFÉ

I love James White’s Carp Café. With seeming ease and lots of insight, White captures the uniqueness, charm, fragility, and resilience of Carpinteria, a small southern California beach town. Reading it, you will taste the salt on your lips, feel the sand between your toes, hear the waves crashing onto the beach. As to his protagonist, Shelly Friedman, is she on a hero’s journey or is she on a downward slide into alcohol-induced chaos? I highly recommend you read Carp Café and find out. —Toni Morgan, author of the widely acclaimed Queenie’s Place and other novels.

Master storyteller James W. White is back with a guaranteed good time story set in the surf-side town of Carpinteria, California in the aftermath of the horrific Thomas wildfire. Everyone’s got a bit of PTSD, what with the burning mountains and rising sea levels squeezing the town from all directions. Enter Shelly Friedman, a single, 45-year old personnel counselor with a drinking problem, blowing into town for a day trip in her classic sixty-four-and-a-half Mustang. She uncovers the hidden past of a slickster named Tom, a guy she has just screened for a job back in LA.  Another guy named Tom, a bartender, sparks a passing fancy. They gin up a commemorative cocktail to honor the fire-fighters who saved the town.

        But the man of the hour is surfer Dave, an aging beach bum who comes to Shelly’s rescue when she runs over the town’s favorite yellow lab. Dave’s in Carpinteria because he’s hiding out from Hell’s Angels. His girlfriend just dumped him, leaving a note in his post office box, and ran off with a gang of unsavory characters. 

        Spend a little time at the Carp Café. It’s a friendly little place, populated by White’s sharply drawn, good-hearted but slightly-off characters. Doris, the proprietress, will ply you with home-baked wonders. Have a fire-fighter martini or two at The End Zone. Get a forty-dollar parking ticket. Stay over at Nancy’s Place, if you’re too tipsy to drive home. There’s an ocean view from every room where you can enjoy a six-pack sunset, almost as beautiful as a tequila sunrise. You’ll be glad you came. You might even decide to stay.  White’s novella is as good as it gets. —Marty Malin, author of Grand- mother’s Devil & Other Tempting Tales

Publishing date: February 12, 2022

Language: ‎ English

Paperback: ‎78 pages

ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1-956635-92-8

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.21 x 9 inches

James W. White is a California-based writer of historical and science fiction. He earned an MA in U.S. History. His professional career has included military service, teaching, research librarian and technical writing. He is the author of the novel BORDERS IN PARADISE and novellas RANSOMS ARE FOR AMATEURS and CARP CAFÉ.  Jim's stories have appeared in Datura Literary Journal, Chronoscope Magazine, The Wapshott Press and Scarlet Leaf Review.