Home Archive for January, 2009

Baby on Board, my second Harlequin American Romance, has just come out. I enjoyed writing about Patrick Berzani and Kate Stevens. They are two people from two different worlds: Kate is an artist who works in glass. Patrick races sailboats across oceans. When I started the book, I knew a bit about Kate’s world (I was once an interior designer) and a bit about Patrick’s world (I live and cruise on a sailboat). Thanks to them, I now know much more. It’s almost as though each character takes me by the hand, leads me to their home and shows me who they are and how they live their lives.

Currently I am working on the story of Ian Berzani, Patrick’s older brother. He just finished telling me how he met Mimi Green. And how he fell in love with her. I just finished the first draft, so I’m pretty sure I know how it all ends. I’m not going to give it away—you’ll have to read their story for yourself.

I knew I would have to write about Ian after his younger brother introduced us. He is such a quiet man, always careful in how he treats other people. He is definitely more cautious than Patrick. In Baby on Board, he tries to rein in his brother, but with little success. His advice to Patrick proves right, but Ian is not one to force his opinions on others. Patrick has to choose for himself the right path to take.

As much as Ian wanted to remain backstage, I wanted to shine the spotlight on him and see what would happen.

Ian’s big dream is sailing his own boat around the world. He built it from the hull up and it’s ready to go. He’s been trying to leave Crab Creek for years, but something has always stood in his way. Finally, he sees his chance and he can’t wait to slip the lines. Then Mimi enters his life. I understand Ian’s longing for what’s over the horizon; I’ve felt it, too. Sailing on the open ocean is also a thrill that beckons: blue water, white, cresting waves and dolphins playing in the bow wake.

I love seeing dolphins when I’m out on Thalia. In the lore of sailors, they portend good fortune. It seems like I have always had something good happen to me after they pay a visit. In November, when we were on our way south down the Chesapeake Bay, I ran the boat aground. Hard. I was horrified, but it happens to most sailors eventually.  Another sailor/writer, Don Bamford is quoted as saying, he only met two sailors who had never gone aground: one who never left the dock and one who was a terrible liar.

After hauling out the boat and patching the divot I’d taken out of the keel—and installing a new depth-sounder to prevent it from happening again—my husband and I continued on our trip south. Part of the journey took us through the IntraCoastal Waterway. After my grounding I was very paranoid about this shallow water route that runs just inside the coastline, from Virginia to Florida. Just before we entered the waterway, four dolphins came to play around the boat. I had never seen them in the Chesapeake before and I knew it meant good things.

After the dolphins, our passage was pretty smooth sailing. We had some nasty cold and windy weather, but we handled that. Again, just when things looked grim—high winds and blowing sleet as we were docking in Beaufort, North Carolina—here came more dolphins. We pulled into our slip effortlessly, tied up and were snug in our berth that night.

Dolphins. Almost everywhere I sail, they seem to be there, ready to frolic in the boat’s wake and welcome me. They play tag under the water, first one leading, then another. They grin as they look up at you on the bow platform, waving down at them. In the middle of the night, just when you’ve relaxed into the rhythm of the passage and settled down to read a good romance, they sneak up and blow their air-holes right next to the boat. Whoosh!  Scares me half out of my wits. I swear I can hear them chortle as they swim away.

Maybe the good luck dolphins bring is simply my over-active imagination creating magic out of coincidence. I don’t care if it is. They make me happy and, when they smile up at me from their underwater world, I always smile back. I want to know what they think. What are their secrets? Do they fall love like us? Someday, I’ll have to write a story about dolphins and find out.