A group of interested writers brainstormed the premise for the 2013 community novel project: SpeakEasy features a young cultural anthropologist interviewing older Kansans about women, alcohol and Prohibition. It’s a chick-lit mystery with some history — we hope you enjoy it!

• Chapter 1 by Aimee L. Gross
• Chapter 2 by C R Kennedy
• Chapter 3 by Miranda Ericsson Kendall
• Chapter 4 by Elaine Greywalker 
• Chapter 5 by Nan Plum
• Chapter 6 by A. M. Coffee and BlackRose
• Chapter 7 by Janet Jenkins Stotts
• Chapter 8 – coming soon (5/28/2013)

SpeakEasy

Grad student Ronni Long wants the past to come alive, but her centenarian source Julia doubts all the adventures of her long life should be revisited. Aren’t some things better left buried?

Veronica “Ronni” Long is a cultural anthropologist. Almost. She’s all-but-dissertation for her doctorate at KU and she’s in Topeka to do fieldwork. In a colossal stroke of luck, she has discovered a primary source better than any she could imagine: a woman who lived through Kansas’ Prohibition era and remembers it vividly. Who better to interview regarding the cultural history of women and alcohol in the state? Ronni is on the path to academic immortality and nothing is going to stop her!

After 108 years of living life, what remains in your memory and your heart? Julia Stanford has achieved this rare longevity milestone, having survived the Depression and both World Wars before she turned forty. When Ronni mines the riches of Julia’s mind and heart, just what will she unearth? At first, Ronni can’t see many similarities between herself and the older woman, despite the fact that both worked in bars to pay the rent while balancing complicated romances and pursuing their dreams. Are Julia’s stories truly extraordinary, or will Ronni discover a past that mirrors the struggles of her own modern life? As Ronni digs deeper to reach her goal, Julia seems to be hiding something about the past…

Ronni’s journey creates a compelling present-day plotline while Julia’s stories paint an intriguing historical backdrop. A new chapter by a different author each week reveals a new layer to Speak-Easy.

We can’t tell you more yet, because we don’t know what is coming next. Each author will have a week to add their chapter to the developing story before passing the manuscript forward to the next author. Writers can include details as breadcrumbs, so that the authors who write later chapters can use features from earlier chapters to advance the story. Although many chapters will be episodic, or maybe even told in flashbacks through the interviews, each author will set things up for future authors to take the story in new directions, challenge the characters and strengthen the emerging plot. It’s going to be a wild and creative ride, and you can read each chapter as it is published!