I’ve lately been working on the 4th book in the Blue House Series, Serenade of the Cattails. This book, as the others in the series, is set in the 1960s. What a very different world that period is from the one we live in now. Or is it? Or not so much, huh? Crazy times call for crazy, or at least odd, characters. I really like Mary Bolton, a pretty much eccentric old gal who is chock full of old wives tales and off the beaten path beliefs. She shapes the story in ways that take the reader to very different places and she loves the cattails.

Who likes short shorts? We like short shorts….words to a song popular in the 1960s. And this is a photo of my father, my sister and myself in 1967. It was a different world then, we saw nothing wrong with wearing short shorts-and that was way before Daisy Dukes came into fashion. People thought differently then, I think. Anyway, we were safe on Topsail Island even though miles and miles away the Vietnam War was waging, cities were being burned, women were burning their bras, MLK had been shot, Bobby Kennedy had been too.

My new series, The Blue House Series, is about those times. Starting in 1963, when women wore gloves and pill box hats with matching shoes, and hemlines were either mid-knee or just below. Three short years later those fashions were passe and hemlines were mid-thigh. This series traverses time, capturing the journey through the 60s. At least that’s what I’m shootin’ for.

So far, Topsail Island Tango, Sneaky Freaky, and Blowfish are available. Presently I am working on Serenade of the Cattails and I’m having a ball researching information about that time in our lives and trying to make the words a story. Please check out these books. And if you have been reading me, I would say the story line is somewhere between The Topsail Island Trilogy and The Murder by the Seas books-with some coming of age, romance, murder and intrigue. Thanks for reading!

If you remember the swing bridge Topsail had a few years ago, then perhaps the blurb on this back cover will bring back some good memories. If you don’t remember the bridge, hopefully it will give you an idea of how things were way back when, in the 1960s. Blowfish is set in the Vietnam era, the age of the hippies and revolutions and anger, riots, bra burnings. But Topsail was a bubble, an impervious bubble where one could be safe.

I often wonder if my parents felt as I do now, worried about our country’s future.

Off to the printer, manuscript and cover. So very excited to get this baby done. I love the cover, the back is great too and I’ll add that later. For now, check out Amazon in a few days if you want to order one and check with me or with local stores in about two weeks. I will be at the first Topsail Beach Market May 25 and hopefully the books will be there on time. If not I will post when. Thank you so much readers. Hope I don’t disappoint.

BLOWFISH! It is off to the editor and hopefully will be available in a couple of weeks. We are working on the cover and I’ll post that asap–things are going along swimmingly. BLOWFISH is the third novel in the BLUE HOUSE SERIES and to tell the truth, it is probably my favorite book. (Hairawn Muhly is tied for that position) I did a lot of research and spoke to so many Vietnam vets and old fogies from the 1960s. God bless them all! Here is a little excerpt from my new book:

To you a bath is water hot

Enough to make it steam

To us it’s nothing more than

A leech infested stream.

You have no doubt, been scared enough

To think the end is near

But I bet you’ve never had to live

A whole year in total fear.

You’ve got it pretty easy

Compared to us across the sea

But all any soldier asks of you

Is to please remember me.

From “Just Thinking,” a poem by Carl Andersen, a former US servicemember, used with permission from his estate.

Love clouds, love the ocean, love the song “Time” by the Alan Parsons Project.  SNEAKY FREAKY  kinda reminds me of that song. There’s a scene in the book where clouds have a definite role. (Anyone who has read the book, give a shout out if you know what I’m talking about) It’s kinda freaky, but if you were around in the 60s, lots of people were doing freaky stuff-not that it was good, it was just the times. I try to imagine how the kids of today look at those times, the 1960s, Some with whom I’ve spoken, say those times were stupid-to others it was cool. Some blame the problems of today on that generation. I guess everyone has a point of view. But every generation blames the one before–well, I’ll be, that reminds me of another song!

Change is good-well, not always. But in this case, I’d say yes-and necessary. I’ve always loved this cover, the girl on the front is perfect as she is posed in front of a 1965 photo of Barnacle Bills Fishing Pier. However, I needed that little strip on the top to tell the sequence of the books from the Blue House Series. Made a few changes to the back as well, but it’s the little things that mean a lot. Now there will be no guessing as to which book is first or second or —YES! I’ve started the third book in the Blue House Series. It is titled, BLOWFISH-and I have decided just what I want for the cover. Man, it’s cool, again a pic from the past. Writing is more than words! It is an entire series of thoughts and erasures and beginnings, research and all kinds of emotions-love it, and thank you God for this little bitty gift.

I’m still debating which photo to use and also what the backdrop will be. Tooling around Sneads Ferry for that and have just about made my decision. The more I search, the more I fall in love with the Sneaky Freaky. The book is now at the editor’s and I am looking for a 2 week window for completion. I’ll let everyone know when it’s out. Always love the new babies! I hope my readers do too. Here is a sneak pre-view, a little excerpt:

“Thanks for driving all the way out here to pick me up, Mim.”

“We are the only two out of the class who live north of Hampstead,” Mim offered as she stood beside the Mustang. “Besides, I like driving down here. It’s pretty, you’ve got a great view of the river.” She walked to the side of the house and peering south to the bend in the landscape, asked, “That’s the Intracoastal, right?

Naomi nodded. “Yes, it turns into the ICW right past that bend and takes you to the inlet and out into the ocean.” Her eyes twinkled, “Roy and I have made the ICW our second home, we spend so much time on it.”

“And that,” Mim pointed across the water to the gathering of brick buildings, “that’s Court House Bay, Camp Lejeune? Wonder how many pass through there before going to Vietnam?”

“No idea,” Naomi exhaled an annoyed breath and changed the subject, “How about that storm last night?”

I’ll be having a book signing at Barnes and Noble tomorrow from 1PM to around 4. So very excited to have this opportunity and am grateful to the managers there for displaying my books. Hope to see y’all at the bookstore at Mayfair in Wilmington,