“Surprise parties are awesome!” says Alexandra Atwood. Or course, Alex is eleven and everything is awesome to her. At the other end of the spectrum is McKenna. When I asked him what he thought of surprise parties, he told me they were great when someone else was the one being surprised. In McKenna’s defense, I have to say he’s just basically a grump.

Marla, my hairstylist sleuth, would probably pick up on clues that something was afoot. She would pretend to be surprised and be secretly pleased by everyone’s efforts.

My protagonist, Sarah Blair, would be excited and go with the flow. She’d be touched that others thought enough of her to throw the party and relieved that she didn’t have to cook/prepare anything that was served.

Miranda Trent would be delighted and painfully embarrassed. She’s partly an introvert who has a business teaching painting skills to students visiting the Daniel Boone National Forest in eastern Kentucky. Her extrovert part would celebrate with her friends by supplying some of her freshly brewed moonshine.

My character, Nina Fleet, is similar to me in that she really doesn’t like surprises. I think it’s a control thing for both of us. But we’d always be gracious should anyone throw us a surprise party (though woe be to the thrower if they chose a day when we hadn’t put on something clean and didn’t have on at least a smidge of makeup!). 

Sadly, oh so sadly, I saddled my newest protagonist with my character flaw of hating surprises. Therefore, I can say with authority that Tabby Winslow would not like surprises and she wouldn’t be too crazy about parties either. After spending all day in retail sales, she is ready to stay home with family until it’s her shift again.

I think Anastasia would be both delighted and slightly embarrassed.