Below is the old Sea Gull restaurant around 1960 or so. Our family ran it for a couple of years. Of course, it is gone now-a parking lot-yep-it’s a parking lot now. Have to make room for all the tourists who are coming-and they are coming and coming. We love to see the tourists come. We love to see the tourists go. Made some good tourist friends. Flipped off a few too.

I often write about tourists. In fact, I’m working on something sort of touristy now. How to use the so varied personalities is difficult, incorporating them into the story, making them the fabric of a story. But how much fabric? that’s the question. Reminds me of two Hemingway quotes: “The first draft of anything is shit.”    “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit at a typewriter and bleed.”  Good quotes-huh? The last  is probably my favorite-it is oh, so true.

My sister Mary Ellen, Daddy and me in 1967.

Never did like shoes. Liked to feel the tickling grass, the sand beneath my feet. So much easier climbing dunes when you’re barefoot. Downside: stickers-they hurt. You always run the risk of getting hurt when you go barefoot.

QUOTE: Sensuality does not understand why everyone else is disturbed by her. As a young girl, she was often scolded for going barefoot. J. Ruth Gendler.

Well, here she is boys and girls! the second book in my Topsail Island Mystery series. Hope you enjoy the twists and turns-the titillating characters, nefarious bad guys, and the fun of watching their lives unravel.

Bridge Tender is available on Amazon NOW, but I won’t be getting my copies for about a week. If you order from Amazon and happen to come to one of the markets at Topsail, I’ll be glad to sign it for you.

Hope you enjoy this thriller! I love the cover of the book about as  much as I love the story. Wow! what a beautiful place our beloved Topsail Island is.

Searching for pictures for the cover of my new book BRIDGE TENDER. It should be out mid June!!!  I sort of like this one but am going out to take more pics this week. I’d appreciate any feed back from y’all. Thanks — the flood gates are open and here come the summer folk. HAPPY SUMMER  to everyone living on and visiting Topsail. Be sure to visit the market this Saturday in Surf City-just on the other side of Hardees. And starting Tuesday, May 31 the Surf City Summer Market will launch its first market of the year.

Quote-Happiness is a warm puppy-Charles Schulz.

This is Joey. See how peacefully he sleeps-he’s not always like this. But I love him and to prove it, he has a definite role in my book Waterlogged and the up coming sequel Bridge Tender. Some new pets find their way into the pages of the new book too-Mildred and Nicky. They’re just as loyal and loving as Joey. Animals are always so much easier to write about than people-no twists and turns-they don’t lie, or say mean things or try to poison, drown or stab you-like some of the characters in the above mentioned books. Well, we have lots of work ahead of us if we want the next book out by June so I guess I’ll have to wake him. Ta Ta.

Beyond words…of course a better camera could have said it better.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of golden daffodils
                         William Wordsworth

My favorite flower-the daffodil. A harbinger of spring, of light, of hope, of joy. Who doesn’t smile when they see this jocund perennial.

Isn’t jocund a cool word?!

Quote-I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by-Douglas Adams.

There’s something to be said for the freedom creativity allows.

QUOTE-Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it-John Steinbeck.

I find this quote so appropriate for one of the characters in my upcoming book, BRIDGE TENDER. But then, John Steinbeck is my favorite author of all time and his influence on me seems to have no end.

Hank, the character I mention, first appears in Waterlogged, (a mystery novel I wrote last summer) and finds his way into Bridge Tender (the book I’m working on now), WELL, he is on some kind of journey, let me tell you! Even though he is the bad guy (and I mean bad) I find myself sympathizing with his plight. Does that mean I’m bad too? Well, yes you dummy- you created him. (the little voices said in her head) AHHH! Maybe Hank is screwing with me too.

Oh well, Hank does that sort of thing. And as we all know, characters have a life of their own, an author merely writes it down.