Dear Reader:

Don’t we all wish we could maintain such a “laissez-faire” ( take life as it comes) attitude? It is summertime … but we all know… the ” living isn’t always easy!

Still… I am no naysayer to my love of summer… as a student and later teacher… summer meant freedom and possibilities of new experiences. But my number one thought always included two things…beach and beach reads! This has not changed!

I was watching our local ” Lowcountry Live” television show the other day and they had an author on talking about her debut new book. Something about her felt familiar… then her name popped up on the screen… Victoria Benton Frank.

I was still staring at the screen as she talked about her novel setting on Sullivan’s Island and her personal experiences she wove into the story spending time there as a child growing up.

Suddenly the neurons lit up… of course! We have several nationally well-known popular storytellers-especially “Beach Read” authors whose latest novels are highly anticipated each summer season.

Victoria’s mother was Dorothea Benton Frank… a very popular author in this genre. As Victoria told about her mother’s courageous fight against myelodysplastic-a bone marrow disorder-she said her mother listened to her thoughts about writing a book set on Sullivan’s Island and her mother was thrilled… encouraging her to try her hand at writing.

Dorothea’s novels scanned from 1999 ( Sullivan’s Island… still my favorite) to Queen Bee-her last novel in 2019 before her passing.

Victoria went on to tell the studio audience that life got in the way initially …concerning her writing career, she tried a different career, married, had children and then one day, out of the blue, she remembered her mother’s excitement about her potential story and her father’s continued encouragement-end result… My Magnolia Summer.

I have just started the novel… but I must admit the beautiful descriptive first paragraph has already drawn me into the world of summer beach reads…

” Last night I dreamed of Charleston, as I do almost every night. Far away from my beloved land by day, at night I am there. I dreamed of the marsh grass, the coral sunsets, the smell of ploughing mud, and the sound of the breeze rustling through the fronds of the palmetto trees. If you were to cut me open, you’d find the water of the Atlantic instead of blood, driftwood instead of bones, and seashells in place of everything else. When I was a little girl, and I couldn’t sleep, my grandmother used to tell me to pretend that my breaths were the ocean waves rolling in and pulling away from shore. I belong to Charleston. I belong to the island. Sullivan’s Island, where I grew up , calls me home every night.

… This is my story about how I returned to the island and found my wings.

So until tomorrow..,If I could snap my fingers right now… I would be in my tall beach chair ( don’t want to have to crawl around to get up) with a cold beer, my beach read, a floppy straw hat … digging my toes into sand and mud-depending on the tides. It’s time … and as the saying goes ” Time and Tide wait for no man… or woman.”

Today is my favorite day –Winnie the Pooh

*** I loved Victoria’s dedication page

For Momma, who told me I could do it

For Daddy,For making sure I did.