I hope you all are enjoying Scent of a Beach Rose. I've just started writing my next novel. I do have more research to do but the plot line is coming along. The story starts here, at Joe Tuttle's barn. (This is an AI generated image.)

This Photo is going around Facebook today. It is from the Great Fire of Portland in 1866 that started from Fireworks. It was not the first burning. In 1775 the British set fire to an area of Falmouth (Mass) now Portland, Maine. A petition of relief for sufferers was made to the then Massachusetts legislature and notably signed by John Hancock and also notably given to Samuel Freeman and others. The land grant was for two townships. One was the New Portland area and the other

Now for my not so much fun. Well fun in a weird way that Historical Fiction writers usually enjoy research. Freeman, Maine is listed as a ghost town. Indeed, the town was abandoned in 1937. I was up there this week with an 1862 map trying to align it with what is really there. Hmmm not so much. I'm feeling like I am going to be creating a whole town that once was. Didn't sleep all night. Anyway, I love this picture. This is sort of how I saw it almost 60 years ago. I was very

I was having to much fun tonight with AI.

I love to see when leaves depart The clear anatomy arrives. Winter, the paragon of art, Saves what is pure and will survive.

Isn't this the most inviting joy!

My next foray will be away from the coast and into the woods. It will be a post-civil war time period. I'm heading out for another research trip soon and looking forward to the fall foliage on some old dirt roads in lumbering territory. Stay tuned.

This was a really fun series to write. Mariah Sholte O'Hara, her daughters and the O'Hara boys have carried the series through a lot of adventure and romance along the coast of Maine beginning in 1890 and ending in 1914. The last book should be on Amazon soon but you can certainly buy it from Maine Authors Publishing Bookstore. Although this genre is considered Historical Fiction, it is really also romance. A Place of Herons is a lusty love triangle. Fair to the Wind is a lov

In the third and final book of the Casco Bay series, Camilla Scholte has returned from abroad where she was working as a journalist. It is the gilded age between the progressive era and the roaring twenties. An indulgent socialite, Camilla has settled in Cape Elizabeth near the Cape Cottage Casino and the theater there. World War I is looming, prohibition is going National and now that she is home, the family is ready for her to join the company business as their first woman

Finn is looking for someone to attend a wedding with him. He asks Camilla. He picks her up in a sporty little Phaeton carriage and they head for the little Spurwink church overlooking the marsh. The bride is late and they take a walk through the cool cemetary. The reception is at the Green Gables in and cottages on Bowery beach (now the Inn by the Sea on Crescent beach). Camilla and the Bride just maybe, finish off the champagne punch.

Camilla meets a very handsome Anthony Merino who is the chef at the Cape Cottage Casino. He takes her to meet his family who has moved in from Chicago. They will open the Roma. Anthony takes her downstairs to the Bramhall Pub one of the first Speakeasy's in Portland. On a later date he takes her to a dance at the Mechanics Hall Ballroom. The Merinos will also build the Eastland Hotel. I am not sure if the Top of the East was there at the time of the story, but the famous Cora

After a few weeks mulling around Cape Elizabeth, Camilla and Chaz get a gig at the Hillcrest Inn on Chebeague Island, today it is the Chebeague Island Inn. They mingle with guests and are invited to a very unique midnight bash.

This is the McCullum Theater, aka the theater at Cape Cottage. Camilla spends a lot of late nights here. On her first foray over she meets Chaz, who becomes her cohort, singing Vaudeville style together at several resorts. I love Chaz. He is so much fun.

This is the Belfield Mansion. Camilla is completely enamored with it as she travels around Cape Elizabeth. One crazy night she and Chaz end up there after hours and get into way more than they bargained for.

As I enter the editing process I thought I would share a snippet on some of the stories from Scent of a Beach Rose. This book follows Camilla who is a journalist and is writing an article on some of the Maine resorts circa 1914. This is the first one. It is very early in the book where Camilla is coming home from abroad. Her mother, Mariah, is living on Long Island. Her sister Janie is 14 and her brother Freddy is 20. They visit this resort on Peaks Island together. When the

This is the hotel that Camilla and her photographer are staying at in Cape Elizabeth while she works on the Maine Resort Article for Harpers Bazar.

My reader for book three, Scent of a Beach Rose just gave me a big thumbs up.

I'm having so much fun with this one. I have been searching out period correct options where there can be dancing to an orchestra. Below is a Gallopade which surely looks fun. You will also find an Imperial waltz, a wedding waltz, a mellow two step as well as the Charleston, Jazz and the lindy hop. Dont worry guys there are still plenty of boats and the automobile is out and a good old fist fight as the men in the O'Hara clan expand.

In the third and final book of the Casco Bay series, Camilla Scholte is coming home from working abroad. It is the time period leading up to the roaring twenties. An indulgent socialite, she has settled in Cape Elizabeth near the Cape Cottage Casino and the theater there. She is now working for the provocative Harper’s Bazaar magazine out of New York. Her first assignment is to do a piece on the amusing antics that occur at the resorts along the Maine coast.

Here is my vision of Captain Paddy Connell, Samanthas love interest in Fair to the Wind.