A Romantic Comedy Inspired by Small Town Shenanigans

My debut romantic comedy novel, Sorry I Stole Your Truck, is one of a series of novels I wrote that are set in a small town full of crazy characters. It was inspired by my own experiences in small communities. Years ago, different jobs took me to different little places around my province, with the smallest ones between 130 and 2500 people. My experiences in those places led me to write a novel where everyone was an eccentric or stereotypical character.

I once dated a guy who thought the TV show Corner Gas was stupid, whereas I thought the show was hilarious because it’s just like what small towns are like. There are characters. There are shenanigans. Most of all, everyone is in everyone else’s business all the time.

The main character of my novel, Cedar, is the city girl, goggling at all the nonsense that goes on around her as she makes her way through the story. In true rural romance fashion, she falls for the town bad boy, who isn’t really that at all. You have the town drunk, the religious fanatic, the gun-toting lunatic, the busybody, and more. Some of these characters are genuinely those stereotypes, while others are simply perceived or labelled that way by others. So it ends up being an interesting mix.

I don’t want to seem like I’m making fun of small towns or the people who live in them. Quite the opposite, actually. To this day, I still hope to be able to live in one, because I genuinely loved the time I spent in them. They were memorable, silly, and left me longing for a place like that where I fit in somewhere.

At the time, I was a young, single, relatively attractive woman, and it’s very true that if you walk into a small town, you’ll become fresh meat. So, ladies, if you’re an unwed spinster and aren’t picky, do a stint in a tiny village and you’ll come out with a husband. The Hallmark movies are true, except that the hero might be a truck-loving redneck. The locals will tell you who is a decent fellow and who to steer clear of, and they absolutely will play matchmaker.

None of the small towns I visited used addresses. They will tell you something like “it’s the driveway by the green post down the road with the big tree.” I guess they were small enough that everyone just knew where everyone else lived, so there was no need for it. It was funny nonetheless, and I slipped it into my book, because why not?

The other thing I tried to capture was how a community will show the heck up for each other if something goes wrong. Death in the community? The place will shut down, as it should. There are no deaths in the story, because it is a romantic comedy, after all, but there are other ways in which people show up for each other when needed. I think I did a good job at capturing the spirit of community.

Another thing I threw in from experience was swimming as a hot date. It’s true. I swear it. In one community, I got asked to go swimming three times by three different dudes. Yes, I’m aware they just wanted to see me in a bathing suit. No, I did not accept, because I hate swimming enough that nothing short of a five-figure bribe will get me in water if it’s less than 40 Celsius outside. (Unless I’m flirting, of course, but I didn’t want to flirt with any of them.)

There are a few other things I mixed in the novel that are based on real-life experiences. I won’t tell you what they are, because you probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you. They slip into the realm of true ridiculousness.

Sorry I Stole Your Truck is a small town romance, a rural romantic comedy, and a story that tries to capture the spirit of small towns everywhere. I hope that I can make it a success, because the sooner I can make a living off writing, the sooner I can go and live somewhere far away in my very own shenanigan-filled place.