Everyone around me at the day job is taking this week off.
Kids home from school, travel plans to warmer climates (although this year,
Alaska was warmer than St. Louis on days) or just relaxing.
I’m not a spring breaker. Or at least not a consistent one. My
son in fifth grade got measles the Friday before spring break. We didn’t have
school trips out of the country when I was in high school. Most of my
classmates spent spring break plowing the fields to get ready for spring
planting.
But I did take a couple spring breaks just for me. When I
turned 40, I realized my marriage wasn’t working. In fact it was on life
support and I was the only one manning that breathing bag they use in movies
and television shows when the electricity goes out. It took a long time before
I admitted it to myself but once I did, I was resolute.
That spring break, I took a trip to California to see my
sister. I’d invited my son (a teenager) along, but he wanted to stay close and
hang out with his friends. So the 10 hour trip was on my own. And I loved it.
Music blaring, I stopped at any road side attraction I wanted to see. No
negotiating. No losing. I was my own boss for a week.
During this time, I visited a lot of little tourist spots
along the coast. Solvang, Cambria, Hearst Castle, Santa Barbara, San Diego. I
even drove the mountain roads where James Dean wrecked his new Porsche 550
Spyder in 1955. (Photo from Wikipedia)
The trip grounded me. And for the first time, in an awful
long time, I felt hope.
When I left California, I had a ton of pictures and a new
lease on life. I knew I was doing the right thing in my personal life. One of
the pictures, an old run down house for sale, haunted me. I kept that picture
on my wall for years. The idea for Guidebook to Murder grew from that picture. It’s
ironic that many years after my spring adventure, the book will release April
17th, 2014.
So what adventure are you having this fine spring break?
Lynn
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In the gentle coastal town of South Cove, California, all
Jill Gardner wants is to keep her store--Coffee, Books, and More--open and
running. So why is she caught up in the business of murder?
When Jill's elderly friend, Miss Emily, calls in a fit of
pique, she already knows the city council is trying to force Emily to sell her
dilapidated old house. But Emily's gumption goes for naught when she dies
unexpectedly and leaves the house to Jill--along with all of her problems. .
.and her enemies. Convinced her friend was murdered, Jill is finding the list
of suspects longer than the list of repairs needed on the house. But Jill is
determined to uncover the culprit--especially if it gets her closer to South
Cove's finest, Detective Greg King. Problem is, the killer knows she's on the
case--and is determined to close the book on Jill permanently. . .
5 comments:
Spring breaks from my years in college are lost in the mists. But I do remember one taken years later with my wife. I was now a college teacher, and we used the annual spring break to take a loop cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Cozumel. The ship was old, and would eventually be sunk, perhaps intentionally. But its keel had been laid in the bygone era of ocean liners, not today's floating hotel/malls. That experience included my wife and me finding a "private deck" all to ourselves. Fittingly--in the age of video-everything--that deck was just outside the wholly unused ship's library. In short, the experience energized my imagination, and provided "material" for at least two novels. They haven't been published yet, but when they are, I will have that simple five-day loop cruise to thank.
Sometimes a break is all you need to get onto the right path in life.
Morgan Mandel
Barry - congrats on finding the private deck. Another bonus for being a reader. :)
Morgan, isn't that the truth...
My spring break this year was at Left Coast Crime in Monterey.
Marilyn - Jealous! One of my friends, Laura Bradford went to LCC this year. Sounded like a fun time.
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