First Westerns, Now This?

I stumbled across the following item while browsing at Bob Ames’ Bullets and Beer site, a terrific resource for fans of Robert B. Parker and his various protagonists:

Parker writes so fast that his publisher has somewhere between five and seven books waiting to be published. One of them is a novel aimed at young adults which will come out next May [2007]. Titled Edenville Owls, it’s the story of two teenagers, Bobby and Joanie, and is set in 1946. Was it Bobby who carved “RP+JH” in a diner tabletop in Playmates and a desktop in Love and Glory?

“Bobby and Joanie”? Is this forthcoming young adult story supposed to be autobiographical? After all, Parker’s wife of half a century is the former Joan Hall, a specialist in early childhood education and guidance, and the couple did in fact meet when they were children growing up together in Springfield, Massachusetts (though they didn’t start dating until they were attending Colby College, in Waterville, Maine). In developing fictional players, this author has periodically borrowed characteristics from his wife. He’s even borrowed her name: Boston private eye Sunny Randall’s client in her third adventure, Shrink Rap (2002), was a best-selling romance novelist named Melanie Joan Hall.

So is Edenville Owls a thinly veiled recollection of their youth together? Hmm. Let’s see, in 1946, Bobby Parker and Joanie Hall would’ve both been 14 years old. Coincidence?