Guest Author Monday

Please welcome today’s Guest Author — May Williams

“Take a left,” Bill said. My husband is a firm believer in a left turn. His theory is that in our right oriented world sometimes we have to correct by taking a left. If we get lost, we always hang a Louie.

On this particular day about five years ago, we weren’t lost, just wandering. We’d left snowbound Ohio to head south for spring break. Virginia Beach was just enough closer to the equator to give us warm days and sunshine in early April.

Our group of eight (Bill and I, our two kids, my sister, two nephews, and grandma) left our hotel on the beach late one afternoon to explore the area. We all wanted to see the famous Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel that spans the 20 mile waterway. Everyone could agree on that as a place to start.

The kids, after a day of playing in the cold Atlantic, fell asleep, heaping their little bodies on any adult unlucky enough to be in the back of our oversized vehicle. We crossed the bridge with appropriate oohs and aahs at the water and structure of the man-made feat.

As we climbed north into Virginia on Route 13, the road was lonely with only a smattering of houses. When we came to what seemed like the first official intersection, my husband advised the left turn. There was no sign indicating a town in that direction, but with the assurance of a man born from generations of men who can guarantee something, Bill decreed a left.

About three miles ahead, a town appeared – Cape Charles, Virginia. First a water tower and some evidence of an old railroad line, then a small, but quaint downtown area facing a harbor. We stopped (I’m sure someone had to pee) and wandered the few shops open that early in the season and ate at a little place with wide planking and mismatched dishes.

After dinner, we walked the short distance to the town’s beach and that’s when I felt it– the cosmic draw of Cape Charles. I’ve spent time on the big beaches of the eastern seaboard from New Jersey to Daytona, but this was different. A calmness and assurance descended over me as we found shells and took pictures until darkness fell.

I’ve returned to Cape Charles twice since then, researched the town and its history. In the days before the bridge over the Chesapeake, the railroad built the town as a place to load ferries with train cars and passengers. Now, the town draws tourists seeking relaxation and fabulous sunsets over the bay.

On my first visit, my career as an author was a half-finished manuscript stuck in the bottom drawer of my desk. It’s never getting out of its dark cave, but I keep it around as a reminder of how far I’ve come. Cape Charles stayed in my imagination as a possible location until I wrote Tempted by Adam.

Not long after I finished the work, I returned to the bay side town. Although it was the day after Thanksgiving, there were no frenzied shoppers here. I had a nice conversation with some locals in a little wine shop and the best burger of my life in the downtown pub. But the beach, ah, the beach. Again we wandered along the sand until it was too dark to see, and I felt as I have before—I belong her.

Blurb: Adam Gable has one idea in mind when he moves to Cape Charles, Virginia, after the long years of WWII — build a business handcrafting wooden boats and forget the loss of his brother in the war. Rescuing the lovely Shelby Stanton when her auto gets loose on the ferry gives him another interest, but she’s second to his boat. Shelby, a local reporter, plans to leave this little town where everyone knows her as a war widow. But she has one assignment left: interviewing Adam as a local veteran resuming civilian life as a businessman. One conversation and a boat ride on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay should give her a great story and answer her question: Are her feelings for this handsome former Coast Guard officer real? When the water sizzles with their attraction, Shelby finds her answer. But with Adam pouring all his time and money into his boat, how will Shelby tempt him away?

May Williams loves to travel to find inspiration for her books. Cape Charles, Virginia, is one of her favorite destinations. Something about the sandy beach, the Victorian setting, and the friendly locals draws her back time and again. May is fascinated with the home front during WWII and many of her stories are set during that time period. For more romances about WWII see May’s previously published works: Landed by a Flyboy, Cape May Serenade, and Ellen Takes Troy (the prequel to Tempted by Adam).