Comic Thrills

In Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day, debut author Toni McGee Causey says her protagonist, Bobbie Faye, "came to her whole."

Whole as in "kick-ass, pissed off Cajun beauty queen" desperately seeking to save her miscreant (good-for-nothing) younger brother from kidnappers.

Says Causey, "I wanted to write about an ordinary person from Louisiana who rises to extraordinary heights to solve a problem."

But it turns out that nothing in Bobbie Faye's life is ordinary, unless you consider a dead-broke Cajun, living in a dilapidated trailer, able to fend off bears, snakes, and organized crime as ordinary.

Bobbie Faye does have one standout accomplishment. She's reigning queen of the upcoming Contraband Days Festival, a pirate-themed fair celebrating the loot and legend of Jean Lefitte; and she's looking forward to wearing her tiara proudly. It's a crown her great, great, great, great grandfather made out of iron. More importantly, it's the only thing she inherited from her mama.

So when thieves steal her tiara, and her brother's kidnappers demand the crown as ransom, this Contraband queen launches into a crazed chase that turns Louisiana bayou country into an arena of mayhem and destruction.

Toni McGee Causey grew up in a Cajun-speaking household in Louisiana. She has placed in top tier screenwriting contests and is a member of Killer Year. In addition to writing, she and her husband own and run a civil construction company. Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day is the first in a series of three novels. Her debut has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal.

Read an excerpt from Bobbie Faye's Very (Very, Very, Very) Bad Day by Toni McGee Causey. Copyright (c) 2007 by Toni McGee Causey and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Griffin.