I’m excited to say that Roach Cobbler is finally published, released in late January. I previously posted a couple of chapters from it on this blog, but I want this post to celebrate its official release. I have to admit Roach Cobbler is a favorite of mine. I enjoyed writing it immensely and fell in love with the characters. I can’t easily let them go. I’ve become attached to them.
The idea for Roach Cobbler is old, so old that I can’t even tell you exactly when I was inspired to write it. It’s a true story that I heard about listening to family over the years. Many years ago, an aunt of mine was disgusted by eating over a friend’s apartment that obviously had a bad roach infestation. My aunt sat down to eat her friend’s peach cobbler and found a big dead roach in it. Later on, after the disgust wore off it became a family favorite, causing side-splitting laughter at family get togethers, especially where food was involved, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. “Roach Cobbler” it had become. “Yeah, remember Carol’s roach cobbler?” We hollered! As I was writing it, I did intend to highlight the humor of the situation, but I also wanted to take seriously the issues we continue to face in our society. I wanted to show a demographic that we tend to ignore; aging, single black women struggling in poverty. My protagonist Marla Stout is in her sixties, alone, no children and historically unlucky in love. Life passed her by waiting for men to treat her right, then she lost her older sister who was like a mother figure to her. Her sister passed away from lung cancer.
At present Marla is unemployed, living in a roach infested apartment run by a slumlord. The roaches are terrorizing her, taking over her small one bedroom apartment in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. Desperate for help she finds Jim, an exterminator that came with good Yelp reviews. Jim is white, also aging and somewhat jaded by a profession he didn’t choose, but inherited from his father. Jim is there to do a job, but when he witnesses Marla’s meltdown over the roaches, he empathizes with her and a connection develops between them; this is where I put in a hint of something more, but it’s vague. At the time I was writing it, I wasn’t sure where Marla and Jim’s relationship would go. I’m having a better idea now.
I had been yearning to write about the family dynamic and I got a chance to do it here. Marla loves her family. With no children of her own she became attached to her niece and nephew, Charisse and her younger brother Denny. Like some families, they are close, at times taking each other for granted. Charisse and Denny are also grieving the loss of their mother, but busy with their own lives. Charisse and her husband Woodrow, never had children together, except for the mother-like bond Charisse developed over the years with Buzzi, Woodrow’s twenty-something daughter from his past. Buzzi is a beautiful, free spirited flight attendant that has an obvious crush on her uncle-ish Denny. Denny, a man with a womanizing past respects Buzzi as a part of his family, but he avoids her, maybe a little more than he should. Denny’s latest conquest is the sassy, but sweet Sharkeeta, a country girl from Memphis, new to Chicago and new to the likes of Denny.
As with every story I write, I never intend to make a series out of them unless it feels a natural part of my storytelling. Roach Cobbler could stand alone as a short story, a novelty of sorts, but I do really like these characters. There’s a lot of stories here, waiting to be told. My creative wheels are turning. I’m curious to know what you think.
Roach Cobbler: Available now.