Last year at this time I was fast tracking my manuscript, Bent Tree Cottage, through the editing and publishing phase. I needed finished copies ready for the Marblehead Lighthouse Festival held the second weekend in October. Fifty copies of the book were delivered two days before I was to leave for Marblehead! That was cutting it too close, and I vowed never to do it again!

This year on January 1^st I’d already gotten a good start on Windswept and had a very doable schedule mapped out. The first draft of the manuscript would be finished at the end of April. Revisions finished by June 1^st and then off to the editor and ready for formatting soon thereafter. I could easily have the copies in hand by the beginning of October. Unfortunately, by the end of April, I was loving the story and kept adding more scenes. I gave Big Pine Key a new history, dating back to 1560––actually the first settler didn’t appear until 1870. That took some time to create. But I was still convinced I could make the June deadline. All those new twists and turns in the plot meant more fact finding. And Spring meant the beginning of yard work. So, I gave myself a new deadline––July. I was finally happy and finished on August 1^st!

I’m on the fast track again!

WINDSWEPT

Still grieving over the loss of her family . . . Winifred Forrester learns she had another family she never knew existed. She is contacted by a private investigator to talk about her inheritance. Inheritance? From a notorious Detroit crime lord? It must be a joke. Follow Freddie through her journey of uncovering the family she didn’t know about, the forgotten island property she is to inherit and the lucrative history behind it, all while trying to figure out who wants her dead and why. This book takes you from Chicago and Detroit to the Florida Keys and its rich history going as far back as the fifteen hundreds. A suspenseful mystery full of intrigue, mob bosses, movie stars, pirates and history dating back to the Spanish Royalty of 1560. Hang on for another fast-paced mystery suspense full of twists and turns that you won’t want to end.

I let my long-standing membership in Romance Writers of American lapse during the COVID years and didn’t consider rejoining until this year. That is when I found out that the Northeast Ohio chapter had closed and many of the members moved into the Great Lakes Fiction Writers organization. So today I attended a membership event that was held at Bookhouse Brewing near Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood.

I look forward to attending many of the upcoming meetings and getting to know new authors, as well as getting reacquainted with authors that I haven’t seen in the last few years.

A great event on a beautiful day.

I had a wonderful time yesterday at the Books In The Woods event in Mentor, Ohio. It was great meeting and chatting with so many readers who are new to my books, as well as, the many authors. One new author, Bella who just turned 14 not only sold out of her books, but gave a reading as well! I’m sure she is off to a wonderful writing career.

Much of the third book in the Tanner family series, It Started With Besse takes place within a few miles of where the event took place. The people I talked to loved hearing how I took locations that they were familiar with and turned them into a mystery with lots of suspense.

I look forward to going back next year.

I can’t believe it’s just one week from now and I’ll be attending this great event in a historical old mansion––the perfect location for a murder mystery or romance novel. I will have all four of my books for sale.  Hope to see you there!!

February flew past in a writing frenzy with WINDSWEPT’s story now taking place on Big Pine Key. What is a key? Why not an Island? By definition, an island is a piece of land surrounded by water. A key is a small low-lying coral reef.

Over the past twenty-six years I spent many winters (and some summer months) at our house on Big Pine Key. I love the diversity the Keys offer to someone who has spent her whole life living in northern Ohio. Well, except for the six years that I lived in Toronto, Ontario, and the winters up there were even more brutal. Living in the Keys, you learn that there are major differences even between mainland Florida. Like not having dirt! If you want to plant something you first need to go to your local garden centers and buy the soil by the bag or have it delivered in a truck, if you are really ambitious. What about digging a hole for that bush, tree or flower––you can’t––you are living on a rock! When I first moved to Big Pine, I thought how wonderful it would be to live on an island surrounded by beaches. Right!! You must drive to Bahia Honda State Park for a sandy beach. Thousands of years ago the Florida Keys were nothing more than coral reefs.

My first year on Big Pine, and wanting to create a tropical oasis, I made my raised flower beds, filled my SUV with bags of soil and bought all the beautiful flowering plants that grow so well in South Florida. My piece of paradise was fenced in, so I didn’t need to worry about the marauding little deer, unless someone left the gate open––which did happen on more than one occasion.  I planted several Hibiscus in shades of pink, yellow and red in soil-filled rings of garden edging.

Bougainvillea bushes were planted in raised beds in the front corners of the fencing to add curb appeal. Over the next couple of weeks, the deer had eaten the Bougainvillea petals that they could reach, the Hibiscus flowers had all disappeared and I walked outside one morning to see a giant iguana sitting on top of the last bush eating the red flowers.

After twenty-six years I got pretty good at gardening on Big Pine, I now have very large and healthy cactus!

It seems like only yesterday when I finished decorating the Christmas tree for the holiday season. Fleeting glimpses into my next book, WINDSWEPT danced around in my head yet I wasn’t ready to commit them to paper, actually my laptop. Festivities with family and friends kept any serious writing at bay, along with the twenty inches of snow that dumped on us the days following Thanksgiving.

The snow continued into January, so did temperatures in the single digits. Four to six inches of snow is typical weather for northeastern Ohio, but that much in the deep south??? The kids looked like they were having a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. That snow and ice created a whole new adventure for the adults who had to figure out how to drive in that stuff. So, I huddled down and began writing.

My research so far has taken me from Mob Bosses of the 1960s to the present-day areas of Traverse City, Michigan and the Florida Keys. I must say that I’m so impressed with the diversity of the Traverse City region that I feel a road trip this summer is in order.

This bit of catch-up has been nice, but I must get back to Windswept. I’m about to throw  Winifred Forrester into another difficult situation.

Were you hoping to attend the Lakeside-Marblehead Lighthouse Festival for your autographed copy of BENT TREE COTTAGE and stuff got in the way? Well, you can still get your personalized copy by submitting your request on my CONTACT form. I will get back to you as quickly as possible.

I had a wonderful time this past Saturday at the Lakeside-Marblehead Lighthouse Festival. A huge THANK YOU goes out to everyone who stopped by my booth and purchased books. Some of you were first timers who purchased copies because the storyline takes place in Marblehead, Port Clinton and Kelleys Island. Many of you who bought the first book in the series last year came back for the next three. And then there were those of you who love the Tanner Series and came to the event just to purchase the book you had been waiting for all year.

If you were hoping to get an autographed copy and couldn’t get to the event, you can fill out the contact form and let me know. I will be happy to send you a personalized copy.

It’s been a long time coming but the latest book in the Tanner family series, BENT TREE COTTAGE, is finally live on Amazon. Other outlets will be available in a day or two. I want to thank everyone who fast-tracked the editing and formatting process so the book could be available by October 1st.

The fourth book in the Tanner family series has Travis Tanner purchasing Bent Tree Cottage, located on Kelleys Island in Ohio, out from under the grasps of Uncle Sam. Owning the “cottage”, believed to be haunted by the residents of Kelleys Island, has been his boyhood dream. Now Travis and his cousin Nick begin the monumental task of bringing the huge house back to life after being closed-up for forty years. Meanwhile, his wife, Olivia Bentley Tanner, head of McLeod and Morrison, a company that builds ships for the Department of the Navy in Norfolk, Virginia, must keep herself and twin sons safe from enemy agents who will stop at nothing to retrieve the latest files on HELIOSmm-88, a newly developed tracking and monitoring device that will give our Navy unimaginable abilities over our enemies. The secrets held within the walls of Bent Tree Cottage bring the Civil War and today’s espionage crashing together on Kelleys Island.

After a year away from blogging it feels good to be back in the groove and focused on the completion of my current book, BENT TREE COTTAGE.

It’s been a rough two years. My partner of twenty-six years was diagnosed with lung cancer. Unfortunately, by the time he realized something was wrong it was stage four. My writing ceased as my head was filled with him and his care––Bent Tree Cottage was not going to meet the publication date of mid 2023. After his passing in April of last year and legal details completed, I packed up our two Yorkies, Hemingway (Hemi) and Peluche (Teddy) and headed down to our house on Big Pine Key, Florida. Big Pine Key is the home of the small Key Deer, and Hemi and Teddy love watching, and barking, at the little guys that roam freely around the island.

Florida in June and July is not the ideal time for an extended visit with temperatures in the mid to high 80s day and night. However, it was just what I needed to get my life back on track. While exploring parts of the island that I had not seen in twenty-six years of owning the house, the little voice in my head directed me to a street I had never noticed and at the dead end was a lovely gate with a FOR SALE sign. My curiosity took over and I sat there in the middle of the road and GOOGLED the address.

It turned out to be a fabulous “old school” estate built in the early 1960s. It was situated on ocean-front property, very private and on a street named Winifred. Well, it happened––by the time I got back home a new story was in my head. It’s called WINDSWEPT and my character’s name is Winifred.

I spent the next month driving to remote areas of the island, talking to the locals, and buying every book I could find on the history of the Florida Keys, especially the southern keys and Key West. I look forward to my future blogs and letting you in on my findings.