As the town's chief cook and part-time janitor for Jerusalem Baptist church, Velma Brendle has never done anything more outstanding than putting on a good meal at Velma's Place, the one restaurant in Leeway, Kansas, but she takes good care of her customers, neighbors, and friends. However, in the midst of these two jobs, Velma's husband stops talking, Cousin Albert comes to live with her, and she finds herself dealing with the town's problems. As memories of past troubles plague her, she grows weary from even the tasks she loves the most. Old Sunday School lessons take on new meanings, and new problems illuminate trials Velma thought were long over. In sudden leaps of faith and moments of tragedy, Velma and all those she loves journey toward facing their sins and finding forgiveness.
To see what Vinita is doing currently, you can find her posting regularly on her own blog (http://vinitawright.typepad.com)and on Days of Deepening Friendship: An Online Spiritual Journey (http://deepeningfriendship.loyolapress.com). These days she is editing, blogging, giving workshops and retreats, and working on a new novel (yet to be named and too young and fragile to be exposed to the outside world). She's also on Facebook and Twitter, although "I tweet only sporadically, which probably defeats the purpose entirely--sorry about that, Tweetlings!" She's begun building a book shelf on Shelfari and hopes to connect with like minds through the books people are reading.
Vinita Hampton Wright has been a book editor for nearly two decades, currently senior editor at Loyola Press in Chicago. She leads workshops around the country on the creative-spiritual process--The Soul Tells a Story grew out of this work. Of her full-length novels, Velma Still Cooks in Leeway won a Logos Book-of-the-Year award, and Dwelling Places was selected by Christianity Today as Best Fiction of 2007.
Wright recently published an updated edition of Simple Acts of Moving Forward, and her most recent nonfiction, Days of Deepening Friendship, focuses on the spiritual experience of women. She now leads retreats on this topic (contact her at wright@loyolapress.com).
Vinita loves to cook, walk the city of Chicago, and watch movies. She and photographer/designer Jim Wright have been married 18 years. They share a bungalow on the far South Side with 2 cats and 2 dogs, all of them rescues, all spoiled, and--depending on the day--helpful or not to Vinita's creative process. Vinita is finally learning to garden and now adds homegrown tomatoes, peppers, and herbs to her little feasts.
