Dare I Say the ‘S’ Word?

 

I’m almost afraid to say it.  Can it be s…s…spring?

How’s the weather where you are?

That might normally be a boring question, but not in North Carolina.

From the mountains to our beaches, we’ve had weird weather patterns.  After one of the coldest winters on record, we emerged into spring…experienced sudden frosts and snows…reemerged into…summer?

Here in the foothills, our fruit trees bloomed, then took a hit from sudden cold snaps.

Even our beaches were deserted in early spring, the harsh winds keeping all but the shells and the birds off the sand.  The only company I could gather was my own shadow.

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The seafood is always good, though, especially now, before the heat of summer dehydrates it.

Atlantic Beach is close to historic Beaufort, NC–founded in 1709, it’s the third oldest town in NC, also the place where Blackbeard ran his ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, aground–so we drove to Clawson’s 1905 Restaurant and Pub for dinner.

A picturesque town, the harbor carves right into it, giving the sailors easy access and the rest of us a beautiful image of their boats, one with a massive mast.

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You may recall that I wrote about Queen Anne’s Revenge and the sunken pirate ship in The Haunting of William Gray.  Surrounded by details like these, I suppose it’s only natural that they show up in my novels.  It would be impossible not to bring these influences in my environment to the printed page, but that’s true of every writer.

It’s what makes us unique, our voices our own.  So, I can only assume there’s a strange weather pattern waiting to influence a main character in some future novel.  But for now, I’ll step out on my apple tree limb and declare it officially spring, even if the temperature have soared from fifty to eighty in a single leap.

Renee Johnson is the author of Behind The Mask, Herald Angels, Acquisition, and The Haunting of William Gray.  She is currently working on a romantic-comedy, and a historical novel, while editing a suspense novel which has international flair–an homage to her love of travel and foreign food.  She lives on a farm in North Carolina with her husband, Tony Johnson, and two very spoiled German shepherds named Hansel and Gretel.