Breakfast at the Honey Creek Cafe Blog Tour and #Giveaway #LoneStarLit

People Are Rarely What They Seem

By Jodi Thomas

When I began to write Breakfast at the Honey Creek Café, I wanted to look deeper into people.

As many of you know, I don’t make up characters; I meet them in my mind. When I’m all alone in my office, it’s very much like a character walks in, sits down, and begins to tell me his story.

In this book, my office was full of characters within days. I had to write my story with all of them hanging over my shoulders.

They might have thought that they were all different, but they had something in common—they were each far more than the small thought that they were. In most cases, the outside that people in Honey Creek saw was only a fraction of who they truly were.

The first kid I met was Pecos Smith. We’ve all known him—that kid that everyone knows, but no one hangs around with. He fits into no gang or club. He’s tall and thin with pimply skin. Doesn’t know how to dress or talk to girls.

When his story opens, he’s just become the town’s only Uber driver—only he drives an old pickup. The night of the prom, he hopes to make some money since he doesn’t have a date. At midnight, he picks up one lift, the prettiest girl in school. Miss Perfect is shattered and crying . . . and she sees him. Trust me, you are going to love this kid as the whole town watches him grow into a man.

So come along with me to Breakfast at the Honey Creek Café, where you’ll meet Sam, who pretends to be a preacher, and Colby, who falls for the one woman in town he’s protecting.

As all the people told me their stories of love and loss, three little kids wandered through my office, pulling a wagon behind the town drunk. When I asked Sam, the pretend preacher, what they were doing, he said, “They’re waiting for Daily Watts to pass out so they can put him in the wagon and take him home.”

Then, he winked at me and said, “Daily was a good man until his wife died. The kids need a dad and they picked him.”

I didn’t say a word; I just kept writing.

Welcome to the town and characters of Honey Creek.