Nearing completion, I thought I’d offer a little snippet of what the new book has to offer. Hope you like it. Hopefully it will be out by mid JUne.

Rae pushed past the empty crate boxes stacked willy nilly among the marsh grasses and softly spewed curse words as she progressed beyond old fishing buoys and decaying nets. Eyeing the one armed crabs scurrying from hole to hole, hiding as a foot neared, raising their one claw in defense, she cursed again, “What the frigging’ hell are all these little things?” Rae kicked at the tiny crustaceans and moved forward toward the waters of the sound………………….. Spying an oar-the oar, swollen from high tide waters, an oarlock welded by time jutted from the wood. Its spike rusted yet still sharp. Rae picked up the pace, careful to keep balanced in the muck. “Man oh man, I’d hate to fall on that thing,” Rae muttered. “And it being under the water at high tide, man that could really hurt somebody.”
The oar lay Just as the instructions had noted; across a cinder block and dipped into the oncoming tide. A discolored, rusty looking rope was tied to the long pole and then between the holes of the block. A length of rope led away into the oaks and myrtle bushes thickly lining the perimeter of the marshy sound-line.
Yes, it was the right place and the right time. Rae’s eyes followed the fraying rope attached to the block into the wooded area. For a moment the pungent aroma of marijuana filled the air. Rae dismissed the odor, smiled and continued following the rope.

Yooza, Yooza, Yooza. Finally made it in to this, been trying for a while. The 21st and 22nd…y’all come now. Lots of vendors from all over our area, many you’ve never seen before. All kinds of stuff by artisans talented beyond belief. Make a day of it in downtown Wilmington!

  The above picture is of the CLOUD NINE, my father’s fishing boat. The one I worked on for a few years..great times! I use those times often in my writing, they take me to a place I’ll never forget. Yes, the past was a great place-a place I personally like to visit but not live.

I’m presently finishing the last (at least for a while) book in my murder mystery series-ALL THESE LITTLE THINGS, and have been doing some research into my  next novel. It will be set in the 60s and so that’s where my head will be for a while. I sort of dread it because though I think I had an extremely cool childhood, I do not want to live there. I’m a little scared about going in that direction, but am compelled to do so. Drat and damn the life of a writer…these feelings of being compelled to do something drive me nuts.

QUOTES:  I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go..Jeffrey McDaniel

The past is a great place and I don’t want to erase it or to regret it, but I don’t want to be its prisoner either..Mick Jagger

WRITING TIP: Everything is fodder. Do not be afraid to explore and use it.