I recently published an ebook version of my story Baiting & Fishing on Smashwords. It is available here.
Ray Bailey is a newspaper reporter whose world is falling apart: the Florida he loves is being buried under the weight of development and “progress”; his ex-wife (the love of his life) is dying; the independent newspaper in Sarasota to which he has devoted his talents for thirty years has sold to a conglomerate that is only interested in profits, preferably without spending any money on actually investigating real news stories.
He learns that the widow of the CEO of a corporation that collapsed in an Enron-like way has moved to Sarasota and taken up residence in an expensive gated community, riding around town in a chauffeur-driven car. He finds that interesting behavior for a woman who is supposed to be broke, so he takes a closer look.
Marcella Wilson turns out to be Ray's idea of the “perfect woman” -- i. e., a really smart person who loves to fish-- and he falls for her, heart, mind, body and soul. After he's already fallen in love with her, he learns that she might be either a murderess or a person in mortal danger.
When the "whole truth” is ultimately explained to him, even Ray doesn't believe it.
This is what I call a "beach book". It makes no pretense for being great literature, but it has great scenery, quirky characters, romance, a little sex and violence, and a mystery. If it were a hard copy book, it would be the kind of book you can pack in your suitcase and then leave in the hotel without feeling guilty.
Beach reads are the best kinds!
ReplyDeleteThere really is nothing better than a beach read....except maybe the beach!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. The beach and trash reading go together.
ReplyDeleteI love high-brow fiction and non-fiction books on history, philosophy and theology.
But, I also love bodice-ripping Gothic romance and escapist beach-reading fiction. I think I wrote Baiting and Fishing as an experiment in writing for beach readers. I rather like the result.