I’ve always learned a lot from powerful older women.  Mary Lethbridge used to work for the Library of Congress.  She met her husband Don, a Navy pilot, during WWII. The first night they  met, they rode bikes all night long all around Washington, D.C.  So romantic!

“Charlotte had already picked the lettuces, and set them, along with the bunches of asparagus tied with twine. . .”  So I had my idealistic young gardener, Charlotte.  But where would she plant her garden?  Perhaps she has a grandmother with a big old house. . .

Charlotte in Summer House was taking shape in my mind.  I thought of all the idealistic young people I knew.  One August day my daughter Sam and her husband Neil practiced yoga in our back yard, and Charlotte came clear to me.  And no, I don’t know why Sam’s pants have that funny bulge!

My friend Pam’s daughter Becca Sayre started an organic garden in her mother’s back yard.  It was, by the way, an enormous plot of land.  Becca planted organic veggies, and delivered them all over the island to island restaurants.  She wore a sundress, rode a bike, and carried the veggies in a wicker basket.  The entire experience was healthy and beautiful.  Charlotte from Summer House was coming closer to me.

Then I met Szabi and Zsusi, from Hungary.  They worked at Bartletts’ Farm and knew all about veggies and flowers.  You can see which character they helped inspire, can’t you?  Think of Charlotte and her garden in Summer House.

While writing Moon Shell Beach, the world swirled all around me.  Sam became an interfaith minister.  Her friend, and mine, island woman Dionis, returned from serving in Kyrgyzstan in the Peace Corps.

I’m starting a photo series to show where I get my ideas from.  While I was writing Moon Shell Beach, these things happened in my life: my daughter Sam became an interfaith minister.  The first couple she married, Wendy and Steve, were married on a sailboat in Nantucket Harbor.

I love my cats, but Rex, 17, is very demanding.  He follows me everywhere, wanting attention.  I told Charley Rex persecutes me.  Charley said that Rex purr so cutes me!

I love days like this, when it’s raining and cold and the sky is gray.  It’s conducive to writing–in my pajamas–and curling up with a mystery later.  Maybe a bowl of popcorn?

This is one of the reasons I love living on this eccentric  island.  Yes, the duck is alive.  He (she?) is the charming, if spoiled, companion to one of our mailpersons.  Don’t tell anyone official.