On a spring-like February day I’m having coffee at Crane’s in the City in Holland, Michigan. A Sourcebooks publicist has just confirmed that I am booked to participate at the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association meeting April 19. Half a dozen authors presenting to 50 or so booksellers! My ARCs are taking wing to dozens of potential reviewers and bookstores. The process of getting my book out into the world is happening…

Holland is a second home to me in many ways. Charming coastal city that was my home during the time I was revising the Lake and the Lost Girl into its final form. The inspiration of Lake Michigan and its warm sands, winds, grasses, storms, and birds was only a short hike up a hill or bike ride down the road from the house I shared with my partner Bob. I could walk the narrow road behind his house and into wooded dunes of the State Park, then up the Mt. Pisgah boardwalk for a long view of Lake Michigan and the channel that connects it to Lake Macatawa.

I am back here visiting today for the usual long drink of nostalgia, and another uplifting breath of Lake Michigan’s soul.