That would be one Cora Miller, Taft High School and UC grad who moved to Atlanta in '87 to work in the not-so-glittery world of finance. That was to pay the bills. For fun, she wrote, something she's been doing since her childhood here — plays, poetry, short stories, but no novels.

Cora Miller

        Until now, and that's what brings her home. Back in February, she scrapped her spreadsheet and dove into Taxes, Death, & Trouble (Writer's Club Press; $12.95), a tale of money, mayhem and murder in the fictional African-American town of Rosemont, Ohio.

        Well, semi-fictional town. There's an awful lot of Cincinnati there, though it's not named. It's just pretty hard to miss for anyone who has lived here more than 20 minutes.

        She'll talk about that — and sign books — at a book release party at a Hyde Park residence (3659 Brotherton Road), 2-5 p.m. Sunday. The book's available at Borders.com and icuniverse.com.

        It's also the first installment in her Audrey Wilson Mystery Series. Next up is Accrual Way to Die, due in summer 2001.

        Sing it: Yeah, we know it's a school night and we shouldn't be out carousing, but this here CD release party they're throwing for Mary Ellen Tanner's latest looks to be a right good bash.

        Live at the Celestial (Strugglebaby, $15) was recorded July 7 and 8 in the room where Tanner has been singing — backed by the venerable Lee Stolar Trio — for 15 years. Singing, we might add, to a zillion fans who show up Fridays and Saturdays to pack the dance floor.

        That's one of the cool things about the CD: Tanner and CD producer Stan Hertzman had a photographer snapping guests at both recording sessions. Close to 100 of them are reduced and reprinted on the liner notes, making for some find-the-guest games. There's pianist Shirley Jester. Businessman Roger Ach. Retired broadcaster Bill Nimmo. Retired Judge Bob Wood. Weekend regular Millie Zeff and, goodness knows, dozens more.

        It all debuts at a 5:30-7:30 p.m. party tonight at the Celestial with Tanner singing selections from the CD.

        Oh, and being feted. Today's also her birthday.

        Park memories: Poor Charles Jacques. All of a sudden he's overwhelmed.

        Jacques is the northern Ohio writer who specializes in books about venerable amusement parks, including his current project on Coney Island's glory days.

        So he asked in a Sept. 19 column that Cincinnatians with fond, unique, odd memories contact him.

        And so they did. Within a week he had 100 e-mails and a stack of letters.

        “The response was overwhelming,” he says, “from people in their 80s to people who were kids when the Old Coney closed.”

        He got so many that he spent last week in Cincinnati interviewing some of the respondents.

        The book is due in 2001.
       Contact Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330. Read his previous columns at the Enquirer web site on Cincinnati.Com.

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