Tonya Kappes

I’m happy to welcome Tonya Kappes to the blog. She’s here today to share about introducing the producers of her Camper and Criminals series to Kentucky. Please help me welcome Tonya!

Guest Post

When the folks who optioned my Camper and Criminals series called, they said, We want Kentucky. So, I did what any self-respecting Southern woman would do. I put them in my house.

We started in Bardstown, which they thought was beautiful, but viewed it through a filmmaker’s lens. Bardstown is gorgeous. It’s a very charming small town you’d see in a movie. But, it wasn’t my fictious town of Normal.

The next day we went to visit my mama! They wanted to visit people who really knew me and where I grew up.

My mama was fretting over whether her meringue would set in time, but of course, the pies were perfect and sitting in her pie safe. Her lifelong friend Sharon dropped by and told about how she has 7 grandchildren from her only child. The producers asked if it was some sort of religion and she simply said, “Nope, they just like the sex.”

Now…that gave them a great big belly laugh and all I could say was, “Welcome to Kentucky.”

After we left mama’s we went to visit another set of friends. We were standing in my friends’ living room, and the producers were quietly taking in all the little details of a true Kentucky home. Then Lex, a little boy, burst through the room, barefoot, bouncing up and down, begging me to go shoot hoops.

Before I could answer, his mom shouted from the kitchen. “Lex, get in here and put your shoes on. You’re gonna get Kroger feet.” And it was like the air just stopped moving.

One of the producers blinked and said, wait, hold on. What is Kroger feet? His mom didn’t miss a beat. “You know, when you run around barefoot and your feet get all black like the floor at Kroger.” The producers just stared for a second, then this slow grin spread across both their faces.

You could almost see them mentally scribbling it down. Nobody had to explain that it was funny because it was real. It was just something that would get said on any given afternoon. That’s the moment they started to realize that in my world, people don’t deliver punchlines. They just talk.

After that visit, mama suggested we go to our little small town diner. The producers were thrilled, you know, they’d never done the whole small-town Kentucky diner thing before. We’re talking beans and cornbread, fried bologna, the works.

And we’re barely settled when this older fella wanders over. He’s got on overalls, a plaid shirt, and a John Deere cap. And he squints at me and goes, how do I know you? I tell him my daddy’s name. And his face just lights up. “Oh sure. Good man. Sorry to hear he passed.” Then he leans in, “You ain’t gonna believe what I did today.”

And the producers are instantly hooked.

He says, “I went down to bail hay and I forgot my phone. Then I filled my gas tractor with diesel.” He pauses like he’s letting us absorb the tragedy, right? Says tractor’s dead, it’s a long piece back to the house, but I did have this right here, and he holds up his life alert necklace. The producers’ eyes are like saucers. He goes, “So I pushed the button. Lady comes on asking what’s the emergency? I said, well, I forgot my phone, put diesel in my tractor, and need my wife to come get me. And he beams. “And you know what? They called her. Here she came.”

We were laughing so hard we could hardly breathe.

Then he caps it with, “I still farm 200 head of cattle, and I’m 89.” Wandered off like he’d just given us the weather.

The producers smiled at me saying, “That was so sweet. He was proud of his cows.” I laughed. “Honey, he wasn’t bragging about cows. He was telling you his net worth without telling ya.” Their jaws dropped. That was the moment it clicked for them.

My dialogue isn’t exaggerated. Folks here just talk like that. Stories inside stories. And I remember thinking, they finally get it.

So the next morning, we loaded up the class C and headed out to camp. First timers, they were buckled at first, then fully roaming, and completely converted. We hit Buc-ee’s, brisket chants and Beaver shirts, plus a lesson in pronouncing “Ale-8-One”, then rolled into Daniel Boone National Forest and Natural Bridge, s’mores included.

One afternoon, we drove into Beattyville, tucked up against the forest on the edge of Appalachia. I never told them, but that’s one of the places that inspired Normal, and they stepped out and said, “Oh my gosh, this is it. This is where we film.” That was the moment. They found it without me saying a word. That’s my favorite part.

By the time they flew home, they weren’t just looking for filming locations, or meet me, they were collecting Kentucky. And at Thanksgiving, a photo arrived: their family table and in the background, a pie safe.

Turns out, you don’t explain Kentucky. You just let it introduce itself.

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Thank you, Tonya… Now let’s learn more about the book which started the series:

Beaches, Bungalows, & Burglaries by Tonya Kappes

Welcome to Normal, Kentucky~ where nothing is normal.

Mae West, a far cry from the Hollywood actress, has been thrown for a loop. Her plush lifestyle in the big city of New York comes to a screeching halt after the FBI raids her mansion and arrests her husband, Paul West, for a Ponzi scheme that rips people out of millions of dollars.

Mae finds herself homeless, friendless, and penniless. All hope isn’t lost. . .the only thing Mae got to keep that the government didn’t seize is a tourist camp ground, Happy Trails, in Normal, Kentucky and an RV to live in. One problem, Mae’s idea of camping has room service.

By the look of the brochure, Happy Trails has plush Kentucky Bluegrass, a crystal clear lake, a beach chair with her name on it and thoughts of how much money it could bring her after she sells it. Mae figures she’ll take a couple weeks vacation with her toes dipped in the lake. Things aren’t always as they appear. The Kentucky Bluegrass is nothing but dirt and the crystal clue lake is murky with green slime on top.

Mae quickly find out that Happy Trails and the citizens of Normal were also victims of Paul’s schemes, making her lower than tha lake scum in the residents’ eyes. Mae doesn’t think things could get much worse, but as luck would have it, Paul West has escaped from prison and is found dead, murdered, floating in the Happy Trails mucky green lake.

Mae is the number one suspect on Detective Hank Sharp’s short list. After all, Mae has the perfect motive as a kept wife who has been scorned to ashes, embarrassed to death, and seeking revenge.

Time is running out for Mae to prove that she’s innocent and nothing like her husband. If only she could get someone to believe her and talk Detective Sharp into looking at other residents who’ve lost all their savings to Paul’s Ponzie scheme before the curtain is closed on this Hollywood namesake.

Release Date: May 25, 2018
Publisher: Tonya Kappes
Series: Camper and Criminals series #1
Genre: Cozy Mystery

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Coastal Magic Convention Featured Author Spotlight post. Tonya Kappes will be one of the amazing authors we’ll be hanging out with during the 15th annual reader weekend in Daytona Beach, FL, February 25-28, 2027.

For a full list of Featured Authors, info about the weekend, and link to register to attend, visit the Coastal Magic Website HERE. And be sure to watch for more Featured Author spotlights coming up here each month!