Remember pet rocks? Well I have a pet shoe.
In some ways she’s like an abandoned kitten that I rescued from the animal shelter. With her stately red heel, satiny pleats and tiny black bow, you know she has an exotic past. I imagine she was originally purchased for a wedding or prom or to complete a very special outfit.
But I didn’t get the shoe as an addition to my wardrobe. I was looking for a red shoe with pizazz to use as a model for the cover of my second mystery, One Shoe Off. I found this beauty at a used clothing store in Hudsonville. In the meantime, however, my graphic designer, Ryan Wallace, had already created a hauntingly iconic open-toed shoe for the cover design.
But my classy shoe didn’t get her bow in a snit. She’s a team player. She holds bookmarks at book signings and always steals the show. Everyone asks where she came from.
There’s something intriguing about a solo shoe. In One Shoe Off, newspaper editor Zelda Machinko disappears leaving only a shoe behind. The abandoned shoe pops up thirty years later and reopens the investigation into the Zelda’s disappearance.
Zelda’s spirit has been extra restless this summer. My pet shoe has been popping up all over, from beaches to mountains, graduations to barnyards. And now I hear she’s headed to Russia to track down who’s responsible for all those reports of election tampering.
You never know where #1shoeoff will lead.