Beach Chair Books

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Simon, Joan, and June

I trust you all are as thrilled as I am that we’re now in the month of June. June holds the promise of warm weather, sunshine, blue skies, summer, no coats, graduation, Father’s Day, weddings, and all things good. Hooray, it’s June!

I told you in my last blog that I was having a launch for my latest book, Restoring Simon, on May 20. I did have the launch and considered it a success—good people, good food, good sales. My readers were three people from my writing group—Jim, Ellen, and Nancy, as well as my daughter Cyndi, and myself.

Everyone did an excellent job of bringing my book to life. You can see from the pictures that my “trip” to Charleston has healed considerably. In fact, all that remains is still a little lump on my left wrist that no longer hurts. All’s well that ends well.

Cookies and Cake

Marble Cake

Book Display Table

Display Table with an actual WWI helmet that Jim provided

And speaking of Simon, the audio version is finished and will be available in a few days on Amazon. The narrator, Larry Sonderling, has narrated four or five of my books now, always doing a great job. He wrote me that he thinks Simon is the best of my books. The print and digital versions are available on Amazon and will soon be joined by the audio version.

So what am I doing now that that book is done? Silly you, I’m writing a new book, of course. This time, it’s about . . . a . . . (gulp) girl! I’ve avoided writing about girls for my last seven books. When I have such fine boys as Mark, Gary, Lou, Danny, Rob, Michael and Simon, why would I want to write about a prissy little girl? Good question. It seems my writing group suggested I write about a girl and even suggested who that girl might be.

If you read Testing Michael, then you read about the Civil War soldier Michael and Jim meet who turns out to be a woman passing herself off as a man. Her name is Joan. She is the subject of my new book, starting when she’s a little girl with three older brothers meaning she has to be tough if she wants to play with them. She’s not a prissy by any means. Wish me luck as I develop and flesh out her character and home life.

Dad's clock

Her father is a clockmaker around 1840 Connecticut and just doing research about clocks made me long to have the grandmother clock my dad made me fifty years ago running again. It hadn’t run or chimed in years so I called a clockmaker and yesterday he came and got it running for me. Hallelujia! I LOVE hearing it chime on the hour and the half hour. My dad would be happy. He made a few clocks, but mine was the first. And, I picked the clockmaker’s brain for information for my book while he was here. My book will be “Something” Joan. I’m a long way from coming up with the title, so stay tuned.

Quote of the Day: Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going. Sam Levenson

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Experiencing Charleston Way Too Close and Way Too Personal

In my last post, I told you I was meeting my friend Sue in Charleston, SC. Well, I did. I drove down to Charleston Saturday , April 29, and she drove up from Jacksonville. We arrived at the Hyatt at the same time in the afternoon.

In that last post I also told you that I would finally be seeing Fort Sumter. No such luck. Sunday, Sue and I were on our way to the Visitor Center to take a bus tour of the city and as soon as I stepped off the curb, something happened and I ended up lying smack in the middle of the road. People came out of nowhere to help me up and put ice on my bleeding forehead and swollen wrist. Consequently, we didn't get the tour in that day but, thankfully, we were able to take it the next day. Never got to take the harbor tour though.

I've driven south three times in three years and three times my kids have had to drive down to rescue me. No more driving south for me! I wanted to see Charleston from the ground up, and trust me, I did exactly that!