Dreamers Out of Step — James D. Yoder

Dreamers takes place during one year in the lives of women coming of age in a small, mystical college town in North Florida. The central "dreamer" is Frankie Nolan, a drifter who's not sure where she's heading, but on the way there Frankie copes with a motley crew of big band "has-beens," a horde of Elvis impersonators, an enigmatic stone lion named Cervantes, an Oreo-eating stalker, and her own obsessions with the past. She battles against her rival Vita Jasmine Foote and her misguided teacher Kathryn Halliday. To the bewilderment of her lover Tony Ciardi, Frankie takes over his nightclub, adopting whoever can play an instrument - including Ax who resembles Elvis, Blue Note an old jazz master, and Charlie the crusty bartender. Alice Chalfont, a free spirit, causes trouble wherever she goes. Sometimes Alice smokes pot on the closed fourth floor of the former resort, which she's taken over. Georgia Lee Jackson and Berta Thomas try to keep Frankie in line but they wind up in worse scrapes because of her! Jeannie Parker, one of Frankie's friends, has been having a tryst with the Dean of Students. When she's found murdered, all of the girls are in danger of being next.