AN ISLAND CHRISTMAS
I hope you all had a delicious Thanksgiving! I did, but I’m happy to be back at my computer. I’ve been talking about where my ideas come from. I appreciate feedback from my readers, my Facebook friends, and my island friends.
About 2 & ½ seconds after A Nantucket Christmas came out, people messaged me: If you wrote a book starring a dog, you have to write one starring a cat!
Well, of course!
For nineteen years, Charley and I were owned by two cats, Rex and Regina.
Charley often called our orange male “Wrecks the House.” Rex was definitely the inspiration for a major role in my second Christmas novel.
This time I wanted to include more about our island’s delightful Christmas Stroll. Santa arrives by Coast Guard boat. The windows are decorated, Main Street is cleared for all traffic except the horse and buggy that takes Santa from the boat to the Jared Coffin House. Main Street is line with small Christmas trees blazing with lights, colorfully hung with decorations handmade by islanders. 
In A Nantucket Christmas, a baby was born. In An Island Christmas, I decided to have a wedding. So: cat, Stroll, wedding. . .mother/daughter! I knew at once that Jilly, the mother, would be planning a wedding for her daughter on Christmas day. Red velvet, white satin, red roses, white snow! But I stopped for a moment to remember that life isn’t always perfect.
I remembered the winter afternoon when my son Josh was eleven. He had been out with his friend Juno. Josh came in from the snow-covered world with his shoes and jeans wet and coated with ice. His lips were blue. He was shivering. He and Juno had tried to sit on an ice floe and paddle it like a boat. The ice floe tipped, fortunately near the dock. They caught hold of a ladder, climbed back on the dock, and hurried home. Josh got in a hot shower and drank hot chocolate and didn’t even get a cold. But I’ll never forget that day.
I added a boy and his icecapades to my thoughts, and wrote An Island Christmas.
The cover of the book is almost exactly like the real little boat in the harbor at Christmas. I’ll never forget that we live on an island!
I hear the weather for our Christmas Stroll this weekend will be perfect, not too hot, not too windy. I’m glad, because I’ll be signing books at Mitchell’s at 2 on Saturday, and I’ll be doing some strolling, too. Next week I’ll tell you how it went, and more about writing and life on this island. Cheerio!
