Sullivan's Island Magazine Spring/Summer 2019

17 www.SullivansIslandMagazine.com | www.SullivansIslandHomes.com Miss Buddy’s store where I’d blow my allowance on candy or a popsicle if it was super hot that particular day. And, as soon as school was out for the summer, we’d all hurry down to Burmester’s Drug Store for a new pair of flip-flops. Buying flip-flops was a huge decision – almost as trying as choosing a lunchbox when August rolled around. Of course, we dug holes to China, played baseball, collected baseball cards, caught lightning bugs in mayonnaise jars and danced in front of the television watching “American Bandstand.” We stood as close as possible to the confessional at Stella Maris Church, straining to hear the admission of sins. We called our elders Miss So-and-So and said ma’am and sir, please and thank you. Nobody had any extra money, and we all thought we were rich. We were an odd little tribe of islanders. Oh, and all the dogs resembled each other, which I always thought of as curious. There were no dog laws back in the day either. And, yes, I am romanticizing the past, but all these things are true and sadly, no more. What sparked you towrite your first novel,“Sullivan’s Island”? Lord, child, that was over 25 years ago! As I recall, I’d had a little spat with the long-suffering one (my husband), and we made a bet. He lost, and I got a house on the island. Did you have any writing experience, or was it simply an idea and determination that drove you? I started a school newspaper for Stella Maris Grammar School when I was in the third grade. Then, many years later, said spat became fuel. (I was always a writer.) Today you divide your time between the island and New Jersey. Are you a snowbirdwhomigrates for the winter, or do you come and go often? I’m in South Carolina as often as I can be – no set schedule. I’m in New Jersey just long enough to pay the ridiculous taxes there. When you’re not writing, what do you like to do? Cook, listen to music, travel, get together with friends and catch up on each other’s lives. I love to walk on the beach. When you finally finishwriting a particularly hard chapter, where do you go or what do you do to celebrate or unwind? If it’s after 7 p.m., I have a big vodka martini. If it’s before 7 p.m., I go online and buy shoes. Contrastingly, when you have writer’s block, are there any spots around the island where you go to find inspira- tion? Writer’s block you say? Blasphemy! Sorry, not on my schedule – something’s going on the page, okay? It may not be Proust, but it’s going on the page. I can always rewrite, unless I succumb in my sleep, and then you’ll know how terrible my first drafts are. Your books are quintessential beach reads. Are you a beach reader as well?What are some favorites? Thank you. I like to think they hold up to airplanes as well. What do I know? I don’t sit in the sun. My mother died from skin cancer. But over here in the shade, I read the same people you probably do – Alice Hoffman, Ann Patchett, Ann Tyler, Isabel Allende. I also read all the other Southern writers, as well as my Yankee friends Adriana Trigiani and Elin Hilderbrand and, on occasion, I like a big fat Nathaniel Philbrick for a lesson on something or Dan Brown for kicks. You spin tales known for their“breezy”humor and the ability to overcome. Is your real-life personality similar? I imagine so. Somehow – and the how of it is mystifying to me – I’ve made it this far. Your newbook,“Queen Bee,”comes out at the end of May – congratulations on novel No. 20!What do you think your fans will likemost about it when they fin- ish the read? Thank you! That there’s still hope for all of us. And that there’s magic in the Lowcountry, because there absolutely is. [ Feature ]