The Rejected Writers' Book Club

Finished November 1
The Rejected Writers' Book Club by Suzanne Kelman, performed by Tanya Eby

This light novel is part of a series of books set in Southlea Bay, a small island in Puget Sound. The main character here is Janet Johnson, local librarian. Janet used to live in California, but she and her husband Martin moved to the island fairly recently. Martin is trying to figure out how to deal with the pesky raccoons that keep getting into their garbage when Janet is asked to come to a meeting of a local club. The Rejected Writers' Book Club is a group of women who have all written books, but have never been accepted for publication. They read from their work and celebrate the receipt of rejection letters, planning a large celebration for 500 letters, which is less than 100 letters away as the book opens.
Janet is also worried about her daughter who lives in San Francisco and is encountering some issues with her first pregnancy.
But then tragedy strikes. One of the women gets an acceptance letter, and is crushed. Not only does this mean she will have to leave the club, but the novel she submitted contains a plot that she borrowed from someone else, and now believes may be a true piece of someone's history. Janet is asked for her assistance, and the group plans a road trip to the publisher's office in San Francisco since Janet is already planning to go there to see her daughter.
As with many road trip novels, many interesting meetings take place, introducing other characters, quirky and helpful, and the group has issues that delay them, from car trouble to weather.
Living in close proximity to each other during this trip, they get to know each better, and bond in ways Janet wouldn't have imagined. She returns home with friends, love, and maybe even a solution to the raccoon problem.