Hello everyone!

Wishing you a romantic beach vacation this summer.  Sun. Surf.  Coffee. Chocolates. And, an excellent beach read.

Can I suggest four short stories in our anthology, Beach Season?  This anthology is being re – released, back for ladies who like to read on the beach while sipping mimosas and eating brownies. What? Mimosas and brownies don’t sound good together?

The four authors of Beach Season, Lisa Jackson, Holly Chamberlin, Rosalind Noonan, and myself are interviewed below.

Yes, I interviewed myself. It was an odd experience, but one I’ve done before. I ask a question, then I answer it.  Not unlike how I write my books. I hear voices, I write down what they’re saying.

Anyhow, happy summer to all of you. We hope you enjoy Beach Season – the book, and the sandy beach.

 

Lisa Jackson

Cathy Lamb: Describe the best day you ever had at the beach.

Lisa Jackson: I live part time at the beach and I have so many great days. Especially with the dogs. Once my little pug, Jackie O No, jumped into a deep tide pool as I was taking a picture of a starfish on a rock. I had to drag her out of the frigid water and walk her over two miles back to the house.

Another time my girlfriend and I were walking and Bonzi, my son’s rescue pitbull, was galloping beside us. A little girl and her father, each on a horse, came racing by, chasing him and actually tried to lasso him like a calf in a rodeo! They requested my help and I flipped out. They thought Bonzi belonged to someone a couple of miles down the beach and I emphatically assured them he was my dog! They left, but Bonzi never trusted a horse again!

Tell us about your story in Beach Season

My story in BEACH SEASON is THE BRASS RING, and it’s a book I wrote a few years back. It’s the story of Shawna and Parker, about to be married and it seems, to catch the brass ring of life. However things are never as they seem. Tragedy strikes and the couple has to struggle to reconnect.

What are three things you love about being a writer and three things that are a challenge?

Writing the book is a thrill and a challenge. Writer’s block, looming deadlines and real life get in the way, but how much fun is it to create characters and a story around them? I have to admit, I love to write in the winter, but when the summer sun appears, I have a more difficult time staying inside with the characters I’ve created.

What are the plusses of writing a short story versus a novel? I prefer writing a novel. I just need the time to develop the character’s plotline and subplot. I love to fill a town with characters. A short story is pretty condensed for me.

What do you like about writing romantic scenes, or creating romantic tension, in your books?

I only like to write romantic scenes if there’s a lot of tension involved so that’s what I work on, the tension within the romance, the reason these people can NOT fall in love; otherwise, for me, the scenes fall flat. So the more reasons they shouldn’t be together, the more angst of them aching to be together but knowing it’s a mistake works for me.

You can find out more about my books at www.lisajackson.com

Thank you, Lisa! Wishing you lovely days at the beach this summer!

 

 

Holly Chamberlin

Cathy Lamb: Describe the best day you ever had at the beach.

Holly Chamberlin: My best ever day at the beach? That’s a tough one but I can say that just yesterday my husband, Stephen, and I walked Scarborough Beach at mid-tide against an extremely strong and cold wind. We had the beach pretty much to ourselves, except for a few piping plovers, and it was just beautiful. That’s how I like the beach best, empty of other people and with sand scooting along in ghost fingers created by the wind.

Tell us about your story in Beach Season.

My story in this collection is called “Second Chance Sweethearts”. The heroine, Thea Foss, was separated from her first and greatest love, Hugh Landry, back when they were in college, due to circumstances beyond their control. Now in their mid-thirties, Thea and Hugh unexpectedly bump into each other one fine summer day. Thea is recovering from a disastrous marriage to a crook and an abuser, and Hugh is the survivor of a bad accident and a broken engagement. The big question for these star-crossed lovers is: Can a new reality ever equal the perfection of a remembered past?

What are three things you love about being a writer and three things that are a challenge?

Three things I love about being a writer? That’s another difficult question to answer because being a writer is just what I have to be. The deal is that I’m pretty useless otherwise! Still, there are plenty of challenges. One of the biggest is not succumbing to despair when the ideas aren’t forming and the words aren’t flowing. You have to learn how to keep soldiering on – not an easy lesson! – and trust that your sluggish creative mind will indeed wake up before your next deadline.

What do you like about writing romantic scenes, or creating romantic tension, in your books?

For me, writing a short story or a novella is far more challenging than writing a full-length novel. I can’t even read a short story without palpitations! I’m far more comfortable with the expanse of a novel. Maybe because given my particular strengths and weaknesses, packing a serious emotional punch takes more time and space than a novella allows.

What do you like about writing romantic scenes, or creating romantic tension, in your books? Honestly, I hate writing sex scenes and have to be prodded none too gently by my editor to do so! I enjoy, however, creating romantic tension, as long as there’s a playfulness to it. Verbal sparring is fun. I leave the real romance writing to the experts!

Thank you, Holly!  Have a wonderful summer. I hope you get long, lazy reading and writing days at the beach! 

Visit with Holly here: http://www.hollychamberlin.com/

 

 

Rosalind Noonan

Cathy Lamb: Describe the best day you ever had at the beach.

Rosalind Noonan: Ocean City, Maryland, some July day in 1970. The waves were cresting just over our heads, making a perfect curl for body surfing or using rafts to ride in on a clean line. And when we took a break from the ocean, we crossed the sand to the boardwalk for thick slices of pizza, cheese bubbling. And caramel corn. And boardwalk fries. And cool shops. Back then the beach boutiques had purple peace signs, hippie beads and psychedelic posters. I can still hear Neil Young singing “Ohio.” It was quite an era.

Tell us about your story in Beach Season

CAROLINA SUMMER is the story of Jane Doyle, a New York City realtor who is trying to escape a bad situation in the city for a safe harbor with her brother in Florida. Along the way, a car accident waylays her in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where the local sheriff becomes her protector.

What are three things you love about being a writer and three things that are a challenge?

Three things I love: working in my jammies all morning, having the chance to illuminate issues through storytelling, and that feeling — a bit of a buzz –when you’ve nailed a scene. Three things that are a challenge: getting out the door to exercise, finding my way out of a wormhole in my plot, making the muses sing when they’re on strike.

What are the plusses of writing a short story versus a novel? Shorter, for starters. It’s less time consuming, and it’s fun to keep the narrative a bit more sparse and crisp. The story has to take some quick turns. Keeps me on my toes.

What do you like about writing romantic scenes, or creating romantic tension, in your books?  There is something wonderful about puzzling together two people who feel that their lives are far beyond romance. When someone thinks they are too damaged for love and then they find it? That “aaaww” moment warms the heart.

Thank you, Rosalind! Hoping you have time this summer to sit in the sand, read a book, and drink a margarita! 

Visit with Rosalind here: http://www.rosalindnoonan.info/

 

 

Cathy Lamb

Here’s where I interview myself.  As I hear voices in my head all the time when I’m writing, it’s not really that different, right? Right?

Cathy Lamb: Describe the best day you ever had at the beach.

Cathy Lamb: The best day I had at the beach was last summer when my kids, three loud ones, and Innocent Husband, loud too, and I all went to the beach for the weekend. We walked on the beach each night.  Darling Laughing Son made us laugh, and Rebel Dancing Daughter regaled us with her quirky imagination and “interesting” thinking. Singing Adventurous Daughter dove head first into the frigid Oregon waters.  She comes up shrieking and it’s hilarious. Diving into the ocean each year is her tradition.

Cathy Lamb: Tell us about your story in Beach Season

My story, June’s Lace, is about a woman named June MacKenzie. She grew up hippie – like with a vagabond family that traveled all over Mexico and the states with various pets. It was a happy, non-traditional, free childhood complete with tie – dyed shirts, bare feet, and a VW bus.

At complete odds with her nomadic upbringing, June later became…sigh…an attorney. She hated it.

After quitting her soul-smashing job, she became a designer of unique wedding dresses, which is ironic, as she is in the middle of a chaotic divorce and vows that she will never, ever wear a wedding dress again.

At the beach, in a blue cottage over looking the waves, with two hilarious co-workers, she strives to find peace again, and herself, if possible.

Peace comes in the form of a country song singing cowboy…

What are three things you love about being a writer and three things that are a challenge?

I love telling stories. I love daydreaming, which leads to the stories. I love writing. Three challenges? It’s a tough business. The social media part can be time consuming.  When I’m on a deadline which, for me, is three months before a book is due, I look like hell, work all the time, and forget to wash my hair. Other than that, I love it!

What are the plusses of writing a short story versus a novel?

I love writing short stories for anthologies. Don’t tell anyone, but if I could do this year round, all the time, I would. I love how tight they are. How focused. I love the romantic piece of it and how they end happy. I love how you can develop quirky characters, different plot lines, angst and difficulties and challenges, but the focus is on the relationship between the man and the woman – imperfect and exciting and passionate and painful, all at the same time.

What do you like about writing romantic scenes, or creating romantic tension, in your books? 

Can I say I like to live vicariously through my characters and get away with it? (Don’t tell my husband – of 22 years !! – that I said that!)

Thank you, Cathy!

Oh, you’re welcome! Thanks to myself for interviewing me!

CathyLamb.org

Email CathyLamb@frontier.com

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/cathy.lamb.9