6-30-20 – Hey, Loopster, come here! Get a load of this!
What is it, SPHP?
Now that we’re temporarily back from your first Summer of 2020 Dingo Vacation, I’m checking on some of the cool comments that came in for you on T(M)TAOL while we were gone. You’re never going to believe this one!
Really? Don’t keep me in suspenders, SPHP! What does it say?
Suspense, not suspenders, Loop. Anyway, here goes:
“I hope you don’t mind that I dedicated my book to you, Lupe. If you contact me, I’ll send you a free copy. Even though I’ve been in Tombstone, your adventures helped inspire it, as well as you being who you are.”
A book dedicated to me! Mind? Why would I mind? That’s a great honor, isn’t it? Who wrote that comment?
A great honor? You better believe it is, Loop! Not every day that someone dedicates a book to you. In fact, until now, not any day was. Considering that most people never ever write a book in the first place, and then that the author doesn’t even know you except through T(M)TAOL, this is like getting struck by lightning!
Actually, this is a lot better than getting struck by lightning, SPHP!
Well, of course. I didn’t mean it literally, just that this is an extraordinarily rare event.
So, you still haven’t told me who wrote that comment. And what’s the book called?
The comment is from Chinle, Chinle Miller.
Oh, Chinle! I like Chinle. Chinle has written quite a few nice comments on T(M)TAOL. You never told me she was an author, though.
There’s a reason for that. I didn’t know it, either, until now. Chinle must really like you, too, Looper. One of your biggest fans! Dedicating a book she spent who knows how long writing to you is absolute proof, as if any was needed. Why, Chinle must have been planning this for ages!
Lupe beamed from big soft Dingo ear to big soft Dingo ear.
OK! So back to the name of this book, SPHP. What’s it called? What’s it about? Can you send for my free copy right now?
Sure, we’ll send Chinle a reply. I don’t know what the book is called, but there’s a link that Chinle sent along with the comment. Let’s check it out.
The link went to an Amazon page.
Hey, hey! Here it is, Loop! Wow, totally legit! The Klondike Cafe (Bud Shumway Mystery Series Book 11) by Chinle Miller. Rated 4.7 out of 5.0 stars on Amazon! That’s mighty good. People must really like it!
The Klondike Cafe? Must be about Canada! We’ve been to the Klondike Highway and the Klondike River, right? Don’t remember ever being at the cafe, though. What else does it say, SPHP?
The cafe might be fictional, Loop. Not sure. The Klondike Cafe is a novel. There’s a synopsis. Listen to this:
“When a Mountie shows up in Sheriff Bud Shumway’s Utah office and accuses him of aiding and abetting a possible murderer in Canada’s Yukon Territory, Bud is mystified, especially since he doesn’t even know the guy. And when he receives a gold-mining claim transferred to his name and a cryptic message telling him to come to the Klondike Cafe, Bud is soon on his way, even though he has no idea where the cafe is or why his help is needed.
Join Bud on the adventure of a lifetime, as he discovers the beauty and sometimes deadly lure of the North Country, the land once charted on maps as the “Great Northern Mystery.”
A murder mystery! I didn’t expect that, SPHP, but I was right about Canada, wasn’t I? The sheriff goes to the Yukon to solve the case, and get rich mining gold! Sounds like The Klondike Cafe must have a lot more of a plot than our adventures do. We’re always like, “Here’s a cool mountain, let’s see if we can get to the top?” Usually different mountains, but sort of the same thing every time. No one gets killed on our adventures.
No, they don’t. Planning on keeping it that way, too! If people want more drama than we provide, they’d be better off reading The Klondike Cafe. Anyway, there’s more here, another link. Apparently to a bio about Chinle.
So, read it to me!
Intend to, Looper:
About Chinle Miller
Chinle Miller wanders the outback of Colorado and Utah, eyeing civilization from a safe distance. She’s accompanied by her dogs and occasional ravens.
She has a B.A. in Anthropology and an M.A. in Linguistics and an A.S. in Geology.
Short and sweet, but does sort of explain why Chinle likes you, Loop. She has dogs, and enjoys spending time with them out in remote places, just like you and me. In fact, sounds like she’s more of a real nomad than we are. Most of the time, we’re at home. Civilization does have its perks!
Oh, and she’s a geologist, too, SPHP. Which means she must like rocks. Mountains have a lot of rocks, so maybe she likes that I climb mountains? She might not be such a complete nomad like you’re saying, though. Most nomads don’t spend that much time in school. An M.A. in Linguistics! Wonder if Chinle and her dogs talk like we do?
Of course, they do. I’m sure of it! Here, let’s send Chinle a response right now. Thank her for the grand honor she’s bestowed upon you, and get that free copy of The Klondike Cafe on the way.
Chinle responded the very next day. It was going to take a little while, but she would get The Klondike Cafe sent to Lupe as soon as she could, personally autographed, no less! Amazingly, it got even better than that, as Chinle went on to say “Thanks, but you’re the real star, Lupe, and beautiful to boot! But I think you’ll like Lindie, the dingo in the book, as she’s based on you, though I make her look a little more coyote like.”
A murder mystery in the Yukon with a Dingo named Lindie playing a role! Lupe and SPHP were both excited. The Klondike Cafe was really something to look forward to!
July. Adventure season! The Klondike Cafe arrived while Lupe was out climbing mountains in Wyoming and Utah during her second Summer of 2020 Dingo Vacation. There it was, though, brand spanking new when she returned home on July 26th.
200 pages long, quick-paced, and mostly light-hearted (despite being a murder mystery!) And, oh boy, was The Klondike Cafe ever good! As the synopsis and title of the series indicated, Sheriff Bud Shumway is the star. Early on he is astonished to find himself inexplicably entangled in a murder he doesn’t know anything about, yet suspected by the Canadian Mounties of somehow having a hand in it.
Sheriff Shumway is soon reluctantly leaving his semi-capable deputy, Howie, in charge of things back in his hometown of Green River, Utah, and is on his way to the far north to figure out not only who done it, but exactly what, how, and why they’d done it. Bud’s very capable wife, Wilma Jean, a pilot and business owner, is also left behind trying to stay in touch with her husband while taking care of the watermelon farm they own, plus their two dogs Hoppie and Pierre.
Realizing this trip will be a rare chance for adventure in places he’s only dreamed of before regardless of how the murder mystery he’s wrapped up in turns out, Bud brings along his harmonica, which he is learning to play, and a camera to take photos of the Northern Lights.
In addition to all the fixes Bud finds himself in as the plot unfolds, The Klondike Cafe is sprinkled not only with brief geology lessons, but bits of information on Canadian First Nations, too. Everywhere he goes, Sheriff Shumway meets an interesting cast of characters all with problems, likes and dislikes, motivations, and dreams of their own. Meanwhile, Chinle is busy slipping in snippets of her sneaky sense of humor, as well. “Palatial Estates Trailer Park”! SPHP had to laugh, yet you just know such a contradiction in terms might actually exist.
Bud makes it to Skagway, Alaska, a major cruise ship port and start of the White Pass Railroad that goes through Fraser up to Carcross in the Yukon, passing Lindeman and Bennett Lakes along the way. The action takes him to Whitehorse, capitol city of the Yukon, where paddle wheel steamships once provided transportation and brought in supplies in the days before roads; Dawson City, heart of the Klondike Gold Rush, with its free ferry across the Yukon River to the Top of the World Highway; and up the Dempster Highway to the spectacular trail to Grizzly Lake in Tombstone Territorial Park.
Since Lupe and SPHP have been to so many of the incredible places Bud visits in The Klondike Cafe, that really helped to make it all come alive. Despite Chinle’s considerable descriptive powers, readers who’ve never been to these parts of Canada or Alaska might have a harder time fully appreciating the amazing wilderness stage upon which Sheriff Shumway’s sleuthing plays out.
For Lupe, The Klondike Cafe was more than just an exciting tale of Bud’s adventures and travails while trying to solve the mystery at paw, it was a constant reminder of all the great adventures she’d been on with SPHP in the same areas Bud was getting to know.
“They all walked inside and on to better things.” So that’s it, Looper. The end. Wha’dya think?
The Klondike Cafe was a great story, SPHP! You ought to learn to write like that. One bad thing about it, though!
Really? I thought it was terrific! What didn’t you like?
Makes me wish we were up in the Yukon having more adventures of our own right this very minute!
Yeah, me too! Sort of a fabulous trip down memory lane for us, wasn’t it? Got any favorite parts?
Oh, I liked Sheriff Shumway’s adventures and harmonica playing, but I loved Lindie best of all. So courageous! She not only helped Bud find the Klondike Cafe, she even helped solve the murder mystery, too, you know! Good press for all of us American Dingoes! For some strange reason, Carolina Dogs don’t get much of that.
So you loved Lindie best of all, Lupe? Well, knock me over with a feather. Who’da thunk it? Guess we’ve got partners now in Lindie and Sheriff Bud Shumway helping to spread the word on Carolina Dogs and their love of adventure!
Thank you, Chinle!
We’ll always treasure The Klondike Cafe! – Lupe & SPHP
Links:
In addition to the Bud Shumway Mystery Series, Chinle is the author of Desert Rats: Adventures in the American Outback, Uranium Daughter, The Impossibility of Loneliness, In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, plus several U.S. National Park guides.
Want more Lupe adventures? Choose from Lupe’s Dingo Tales Index, Black Hills of South Dakota & Wyoming Expeditions Index, or Dingo Vacations Adventure Index. Or subscribe free to new Lupe adventures.