As you may know by now, I was brought into this project at the last minute.  Lani and Jenny had already brainstormed the idea with the divine and gifted Alesia Holliday/Alyssa Day, when suddenly her career took off and she had to bow out, which she did, most graciously, passing on all her hard work.  So Jenny called and said “wanna collaborate again?” and I said “yup” and that was that.  Alesia’s character was a goth named Angel with a pug named Petunia, but of course I needed to come up with my own, and Abby was born.

I wanted someone who wanted to feed the world but didn’t realize she was starving to death emotionally.  I wanted someone who loved to cook, loved her dog, but hadn’t really learned to connect to other people.  She comes to town in search of her legacy from her grandmother, quickly meets Daisy and Shar and falls in love with the coffee house, with their friendship, and much to her own dismay, with the extremely cranky math professor, Christopher Mackenzie.

She’s broad-minded, one might even say gullible, and ready to open up her heart to the extremely bizarre new world.  Except, of course, for Christopher, who’s much too moody for her liking.

Cook with Honey is Abby’s song, and I pictured her as Katherine Heigl in her Izzy the cook mode from Grey’s Anatomy, covered with flour, baking up a storm, sweet, fecund, an earth mother ready to feed the world but ignoring her own needs.   She’s the heart of the story, warm and emotional, Daisy’s the mind and Shar the soul.  Jenny and Lani might disagree with that (though they’d be wrong).

Abby’s got mother issues (her mother is the Real Estate Goddess of Escondido) and she never got to know her bohemian grandmother.  Abby’s been on the road, driving all over the country in her ancient station wagon with Bowser, her gigantic Newfoundland, for company, and she’s never really felt at home in all the places she’s lived and visited.  Not until she finds Summerville, and her friends, and her calling.  Not to mention her true love.

Abby is a survivor — she can handle just about anything, be it talking dogs, reincarnated goddesses or the threat of world domination.  She just can’t handle Christopher.