Lisa Wingate's Newsletter

Inspired by a true story!

THE SUMMER KITCHEN is available now in bookstores everywhere.

Happy summer, everyone! I hope this note finds you enjoying the long, lazy days of July, spending time with family, and in the mood for a little summer reading. For those who enjoyed meeting Teddy, Hannabeth, and Rebecca last year in A Month of Summer (Now available on audio from Recorded Books, by the way), the second book in the series, The Summer Kitchen, has just been released. I'm incredibly excited about this book, because it was inspired by a fascinating true story. To introduce you to it, I thought I'd share this newspaper article about the The Summer Kitchen and its real-life inspiration:

Waco's Gospel Cafe Inspires New Lisa Wingate Novel

Truth and fiction don't often find themselves on the same page, but in the case of Lisa Wingate's latest novel, The Summer Kitchen, the two are very much intertwined. Inspired by the Gospel Café in Waco, Texas, the new novel marks the national bestselling author's 12th release.

Wingate compares writing stories to panning for gold. "You never know where the nuggets will be," she says. "Writers are the sort of people who eavesdrop on cell phone conversations in malls or clog the checkout line while collecting background information from the cashier." But she didn't have to look far for inspiration in the case of The Summer Kitchen; it literally walked up to her, as a customer at a booksigning suggested, "If you're looking for a good story, I think there's a place you should know about." She told Wingate about the Gospel Cafe, located in a restored blue and white Victorian house, where a volunteer staff offers meals cooked and served with love for those who need a meal, regardless of ability to pay.

"I was fascinated by the story," Wingate said, "not only because of the work the cafe does, but because it was a story of a few people reaching out and doing something most of us would consider incredibly bold. When the founders bought the house in the Kate Ross area, it was a derelict structure that had been used as a crack house. Even people from the neighborhood thought they were crazy for taking on its renovation." Crazy or not, the cafe founders were encouraged on their first day of work when they found four crisp one-hundred dollar bills underneath a filthy, ragged carpet.

Thirteen years later, the Gospel Cafe provides a safe place where neighborhood residents, the homeless, transients, workers, children, business people, students, and Baylor University professors can be found sharing meals on tables covered with bright vinyl tablecloths. "This is not a soup kitchen," say the organizers of the Gospel Cafe. "All are welcome here, and we want each guest to feel valued."

For Wingate, who researched The Summer Kitchen not only by visiting the Gospel Café, but by volunteering in the kitchen, that sense of community was key. She says, "In the novel, the main character, SandraKaye, isn't comfortable in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. She's only there to arrange for the sale of a rundown house she has inherited, but when she sees children digging in the dumpster for food, she can't turn her back. She is compelled to do something bold. She starts making sandwiches and, with the help of a young runaway, begins handing them out to hungry kids. Their partnership eventually takes on a life of its own and, much as in the case of the real Gospel Cafe, their Summer Kitchen becomes something much bigger than either of them expected."

The Summer Kitchen and the Gospel Café will be featured during a big after-work release party for The Summer Kitchen from 5:00 to 7:00 pm on Tuesday, August 4th in Waco. The event, dubbed A Café Tuesday, will be hosted by Central Christian Church (4901 Lakeshore Drive, Waco, TX), and will feature a booktalk and booksigning, as well as stories, volunteer chefs, and specialties from the Gospel Café, including the café's famous Banoffee pie.