The Story Behind The Bonne Chance Bakery
I visited France for the first time in many years back in 2013. After a brief stop in Paris, I made my way down south, to a lovely small town near the Spanish border to teach a writing workshop. One of my students arrived bearing gifts, among them a box of macarons from the Parisian bakery Ladurée. I opened the lid and beheld a variety of pastel macarons that looked like little jewels in their box. I’d never tried a macaron before, but one bite and I was instantly smitten. On the way back to the States, I went through Paris and visited the flagship Ladurée bakery on the Champs Elysée. There, I fell more deeply in love with macarons.
A few weeks after I got home I was showering and I got an idea. (There's something about showers and water that foster ideas.) What if I wrote a story about a macaron bakery? And it was struggling? And the proprietor (and protagonist) got an offer to save it that she couldn't refuse because it came from a very famous and wealthy man? And what if this offer led her down paths she never thought she'd take? The plot for The Bonne Chance Bakery entered my head nearly fully formed. I wrote the first draft in a few months.
But it took a lot longer to get the book published. I nabbed my dream agent with my first submission - every writer's dream come true. But for various reasons, mostly the vagaries of the publishing industry, we never were able to find a home for the book with a traditional publisher. Finally, I got up the nerve to publish it myself - and here we are. Just like my protagonist Madeleine, this project has led me down a lot of paths I never thought I'd take and I'm forever grateful.
All Madeleine Miller wants is for her new Portland business, the Bonne Chance Bakery, to be a success. But things get off to a troubled start when her husband Will runs off with an employee and starts his own rival bakery, leaving her hobbled financially—and romantically. Luckily, she has the help of the bakery’s endearingly gruff accountant, Jack, and his precocious daughter Daisie. Portland foodies love the bakery’s French macarons, but alas, their passion doesn’t add up to financial success.
And then one day, world-famous entrepreneur slash actor Richard Bishop appears at the bakery and becomes smitten with Mad’s macarons—and her. His offer to franchise the bakery concept feels like selling out, and Madeleine isn’t interested. But when she learns of the shady dealings her ex-husband used to fund the bakery, she’s forced to accept Richard’s money. She also succumbs to the lure of his romantic interest. Soon she’s catapulted into a world of luxury and excitement in Los Angeles as she supervises the opening of a second Bonne Chance in Hollywood.
But in her efforts to save the bakery, will she lose herself? Set in Portland, Los Angeles, and Paris, the novel illuminates the crazy path romance can take us on—and the circuitous route that will lead the way home. With its themes of identity, self-determination and following your dreams, The Bonne Chance Bakery is a feel-good novel with a serious message at its core.
Book Information
Release Date: September 28, 2022
Publisher: Independent
236 pages; eBook $4.99
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3KWEBUt
The great-granddaughter of pioneers who walked across the Oregon Trail, Charlotte Rains Dixon considers herself a westerner through and through. Many of her stories are set in her home state of Oregon, where her characters reside in fictional versions of her favorite wine area and coast towns, as well as Portland, where she lives. She is the author of the novel Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior and the forthcoming The Bonne Chance Bakery.
When not writing fiction, Charlotte teaches writing in the south of France, England, and around the Pacific Northwest. She also coaches writers privately. She is Director Emeritus and a current mentor at the Writer’s Loft, a certificate-in-writing program at Middle Tennessee State University. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Spalding University and is the author of a dozen non-fiction books. Her fiction and articles have appeared in numerous publications.
Charlotte lives with her husband in Portland, Oregon, in a multi-generational home that is by turns boisterous and exuberant but seldom quiet. She believes no breakfast is complete without a crossword puzzle to work and no Happy Hour can actually be happy without popcorn.(Wine goes without saying.) Despite frequent stays in France, she regularly fractures the language. She is, however, fluent in Carney. Charlotte writes stories about places you long to live filled with people you’d love to know.
Learn more about Charlotte at her website, charlotterainsdixonauthor.com and be sure to sign up for her author newsletter at charlotterainsd.substack.com.
You can also connect with her on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Wordstrumpet.
Thank you for this lovely feature!
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