Sonoman’s new novel not quite by the numbers

Bonnie Lee has always been a writer and a storyteller. She also runs Taxperise, the Sonoma income tax firm. But since the IRS has never been known to appreciate creative writing, Lee found an outlet in a form she calls the “tax novella.” 

Her first book using that technique, Taxpertise for the Creative Mind, set factual tax tips and problem-solving within a fictional framework. “I can’t think of a single artist who wants to read a straight up tax book,” she figured. Then came the fictional comedy, Taxpertise The Heist, 50 Shades of Green.

Arriving this month is her first true novel, The Card Game. 

The book takes place in 1976. Jeanette, Sarah, and Minnie, while packing up the last of their friend’s life, hatch a plan to go on a splurge. Using the deceased’s credit cards they leave their dead-end lives in SF for a cross country adventure. 

It’s bonding, shopping, and high living. Escape and reinvention. Romanced in New Orleans, robbed in Savannah. And George, an ex-cop, is on their tail.

Lee is a native of San Francisco. After attending San Francisco State University, Lee was certified as a tax preparer in 1985 and as an enrolled tax agent in 1990. In 1993 she moved her business from Belmont, California to Sonoma and concentrated on Taxpertise and her mission “to take the ire out of IRS.”

The publisher of The Card Game, Joni Albrecht of Little Star Publishing Company, host a launch party on June 14. 5:30pm, at Readers’ Books in Sonoma.