Molly Jubitz, our wonderful librarian at the Cedar Key Library, has put together an exciting series to be given over the next three months.  "Exploring Place:  Finding Self" will feature six women authors who will speak about their writing and how it was influenced by Cedar Key.

I spoke last Thursday to a wonderful group and very much enjoyed sharing my writing experiences.

I explained how moving to Cedar Key five years ago (Yes! It was 5 years last Wed. since we relocated here) stirred my muse and helped me to create SPINNING FORWARD and my cast of characters.  Originally, I had attempted a mystery, but realized it wasn't working for me.  A cute story, with Miss Dora as my main character.  When I abandoned that project, I returned to writing what I knew best......women's fiction.....and I took Miss Dora and Saren with me into the novel that ended up becoming SPINNING FORWARD.

A huge thank you to Molly for organizing this great series at our library and another thank you to those of you that attended my speaking event.  I enjoyed meeting and chatting with all of you.

Yesterday we had another woman author speaking, Maureen Landress.  Maureen is a former Cedar Key resident and was editor of the Cedar Key News. Maureen and I first met in 2002 when my debut novel, Lost Souls of the Witches' Castle, had been released and I was at the Cedar Key book store doing a signing.  Maureen showed up to cover my signing for the newspaper and also do a review.  I lived in New Port Richey at the time, but we continued to stay in touch and got together during my visits.  When I moved to Cedar Key, it was Maureen that gave me a great orientation.......on local families, folklore, island history, touchy subjects and a multitude of other information.  Although she moved away the following year, we have still managed to stay in touch.  Maureen and her husband did attend my book launch in November, but unfortunately we found little time to actually chat, since I was trying to mingle a bit with everyone.  So it was great to see her again yesterday and be able to catch up.

Her debut novel, Sour Grapes, won First Place in Humor/Satire from the Florida Writers Association 2008 Royal Palm Literary Awards.  This was the first in her humorous Marvella Watson mystery series.  Marvella is a "woman of a certain age" who's still passionate and filled with life.  The setting is a small southern town and the characters are quirky and believable.  The book was a delightful read and now we can follow Marvella again in One Bad Apple, Maureen's second book in the series. 

There's a new man in town who's set his sights on Marvella.  His romantic attentions throw her off stride and with a killer on the loose, she doesn't need that kind of distraction.  I'm looking forward to visiting with Marvella again, so I bumped up this book to number two in my "to be read" pile.  Coming next for Maureen and Marvella........Mango Madness, due out in a few months.

Our next woman author will be speaking on March 25 and I'll be sure to share that with you here at Island Writer.

See you next time..................