Escape or Staycation?

 RHYS BOWEN: When you read this I’ll be on my way to the airport, flying today to Canada. My son Dominic, his wife Meredith and I have rented an AirB&B on Vancouver Island–actually on a small island off the coast of Vancouver Island. It’s on a beach, surrounded by trees.  The perfect escape, actually.  It’s what we all needed… to be in the middle of nature with time to decompress, to think, to journal and for me to adjust to a new way of life. 

A vacation with them will be perfect. They like to experience everything… so they’ll find the best artisan bakery in the area, fresh seafood, craft shops, farms where you can pick your own blueberries and with plenty of down time too.  This will be quite different from vacations with John, who would have planned out in advance what we were going to see every day. His idea of Vancouver Island would be driving several hours up the coast until we had circumnavigated the whole thing.  And if I saw a sign to a craft fair along the way it would be ignored because it interrupted his plans and we had to reach the motel he had booked by four PM check in.

So one of the things I’ll be learning to do is to go with the flow–to sit and do watercolor if I feel like it, to realize I have nobody to please but myself. Dom and Mer are so easy-going and get delight from the smallest things. They are definitely foodies so there will be a lot of trying nearby restaurants ( poutine at least once).  I can’t wait.

So how about you, dear Reds? Any plans for this summer? What is your ideal way to decompress?

LUCY BURDETTE: we will be spending lots of time with the grandchildren over the next two weeks! The family has already been to New York City (with three kids under 10 in tow) and then to Montauk to visit relatives, and next stop Connecticut. It is always a busy and fun time to have them here. After that, I can’t think of any trips on the docket this summer. So I should be able to get my work done and also do some relaxing and I hope extra reading!

JENN McKINLAY: I’m glad you’re finding a new rhythm, Rhys, and doubly glad you have Dom and Mer to ease you into it.

I just got back from a trip to Connecticut and Massachusetts and South Carolina. The trip broke down into a book thing in CT, a family barbecue in MA, and checking out my college roommate’s new home in SC–hard to believe we’ve known each other for 40 years! We spent hours on the beach in SC and I am ready to move. Seriously! 

I’ll be headed to Canada in a few weeks to our summer place in Nova Scotia and I’m looking forward to that. More beach time! But in the meantime, I have loads of work to do–revisions and proposals and promoting the streaming series based on my book Paris is Always a Good Idea, the first two episodes of which air on Hallmark Plus on July 30th! Yay!

HALLIE EPHRON: July 30 for PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA! Hallmark Plus… We’re all writing it down. 

I’m just back from teaching in Paris… there for 10 days and could easily have spent another ten. And I’m missing my Jerry who, like Rhys’s John, did the trip planning so I could just relax and be surprised. We shared the same priorities (he traveled with a little pad filled with menu translations, along with a list of where we were going and the culinary specialties in each place.)

The summer will be quieter than usual. 

Mid-June I’ll be teaching a master class on harnessing voice and viewpoint at Book Passage’s Mystery Writer’s Conference in Corte Madera, CA. Hobnobbing with Cara Black, Tim Maleeny, Elizabeth George, Lisa Scottoline, Rachel Howzell Hall, and more! I love this conference. So much heart and professionalism. 

For any aspiring mystery writer who’s never been there, write it down!! 

Then things slow down for some medical procedures (ick) and visits from my daughters and grands (yay!) Hoping I’ll be able to take a low-key week with my family on Peak’s Island in Maine. Beach. Hiking (flat!) Lobsters!

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Absolutely, on July 30 I will be at my TV, cheering! This summer is wild–no vacations, because Jonathan has a murder trial (he’s the lawyer, come on!) so he’s preparing But my days are super-full, because  I have a book DUE August 1, AHHHHH because then the paperback of ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS comes out  August 11, so I will be on a mini-tour …in preparation for the launch of MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER  in September! When I will be on the road again.

So it’s interesting–I have cut way back on events for the next two months to be able to focus on the writing. It’s terrific to be able to really buckle down.Okay, well,  I am interviewing some fabulous authors in person at local bookstores though–Hannah Selinger, and then Robyn Gigl, and then Riley Sager! Very exciting.

Rhys, your escape plans are perfection. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hank, Riley Sager is going to be signing here in McKinney, and Kayti and I have tickets! CJ Box was here, too, a couple of months ago–maybe McKinney, Texas is becoming a literary destination! We also have a great indy bookstore, so if anyone wants to come here and do an event… Kayti and I are also seeing Jo Piazza at the DMA (Dallas Museum of Art) Arts and Letters Live–has anyone read her? And then, I think, Karin Slaughter, so sometime between now and mid-August I need to read some of her books!

Those are my big summer events. Otherwise I am doing loads of catch up and edits, which is all fine. Oh, and watching Jenn's Hallmark movie! So exciting! Do we have to sign up for the Hallmark Channel streaming, Jenn, since we don't have cable or satellite?

RHYS: Now it's your turn, Reddies. Who has exciting plans this summer? Who is planning on a relaxing time at home?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I also want to know how to watch PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA while streaming! Jenn, you have to do an announcement for all of us who are your fans.

My summer plans were ALL stacked up in June: the visit from Youngest and VOC, my son flying in, two weeks of non-stop activities, several professional events and then a five-day writing retreat. Now I have nothing on my calendar until the end of August, when a dear friend’s daughter is getting married. I’m actually thrilled - this is the least scheduled summer I think I’ve ever had, giving me lots of time to enjoy Maine in its best season and get a whole bunch of writing done for my next book!

My Heart Place

JENN McKINLAY: The summers of my childhood were magical. There were no cell phones or Internet, and video games were mostly still found in arcades. My parents kicked us out the door after breakfast and we were not to be seen again until we heard my dad’s piercing whistle sound off the back porch at supper time. My brother and I ran wild, eating blueberries and raspberries from wherever we found them, jumping feet first into swimming holes, making daisy chains, trying to ride the neighbor's horses bareback and, yes, starting some illicit fires on the banks of the river with a lighter we found who knows where. We were dirty and sweaty, covered in scabs and bug bites, and spent our evenings sucking on popsicles which melted down our hands and arms while we caught fireflies in old pickle jars before taking our baths and passing out.  

The Hooligans 4: aka my sons and nephews

Summer was our time for mischief and shenanigans, you know, like climbing hand over hand on the underbelly of the steel bridge that spans the third largest river in Connecticut. Yeah, that story still makes my mom’s hair turn gray. You can watch it happening while telling the story. Heh heh. Or the time we threw all of the squash blossoms in my dad’s garden into the river because we were so over the deluge of zucchini from the year before. Turns out Dad had planted melon the next year. Oops!

We got into loads of trouble, sure, but we also learned how to get ourselves out of it -- because having Mom find out we were climbing under the bridge was way scarier than falling to our deaths!

The Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia

Because I loved my childhood summers so much, I always wanted my hooligans to have the same. One problem, we live in Arizona. It’s 115 at the peak of summer so the free range thing, throwing them out the door and I’ll see you at supper is mostly a winter thing here and, yes, I did do that and, oh, the stories I could tell of their mischief but that's another post. Luckily, my family has a small cabin on the shore of the Bay of Fundy in Canada with a trout stream running through the property and a beach just beyond the cabin door that goes as far as the eye can see. It's so rural you can’t even get a cell phone signal. This place has been my mother's sanctuary for thirty-two years and this is where the hooligans learned how to summer properly.

Wowa and her boys!

When we're there, our time is spent hiking, fishing, reading, building bonfires, experimenting by making rockets out of toilet paper tubes, vinegar, and baking soda, or baking chocolate cakes cooked in orange rinds on the grill (really, really good)!   

At the cabin, the entire world falls away and I get to watch the hooligans and their cousins run free, causing mayhem and shenanigans just like my brother and I did. It’s still pretty magical!

I love everything about this place from the red clay of the ground to the overgrown bushes of pink summer roses to the bald eagles who live in the surrounding pines. When I am in this space, I find the better version of myself, as if I arrive a jagged piece of glass to be rolled over and over by the waves, polished against the sand, and spit out onto the shore with smoother edges. It heals me, which I suppose is the whole point of heart places, isn't it?

As you read this, I am likely walking that beach right now. So, I send you warm greetings from Canada!

So, tell me, Reds and Readers, what is your heart place?

Cape Split, N.S.

The Ultimate Beach

RHYS BOWEN:  I have just returned from a vacation in Europe that included two weeks on a secluded bay in Corfu, a Greek island. Two weeks of doing very little except for sitting on my balcony reading, eating at bayside tavernas and lying in the warm waters of the Ionian sea. To make it more special our apartment belonged to the White House, which was where Laurence Durrell lived in the 1930s and where he wrote Prospero's Cell. Everything was perfect except the beach was stony, not sandy.

 So I realize I am being very picky but I started to wonder whether I had ever been to a perfect beach and what a perfect beach should look like.I once saw what I thought was a perfect beach near Darwin in northern Australia. But nobody was on it. I asked a park ranger whether it was okay to go swimming there. "Of course you can," she replied, "If you don't mind the sharks, the crocodiles or the jelly fish."
Okay, there are certain things the perfect beach shouldn't have. Sharks, crocodiles and jelly fish for starters.
But what should it have?
Clean water, for one thing. I went snorkeling on the island of Bali and was horrified to find so many plastic bags caught up on the coral.
It should be sandy. Have warm water. Some shade on hot days. A bar or cafe for moments of thirst. And not be crowded
.My contenders: the beach on Whitsunday Island, Queensland. Pure white sand. Tree lined. Only the occasional monitor lizard to make it scary.
Hanauma Bay on Oaha used to be a favorite until it became a national park and is now crowded with newby snorkelers.
The beach at Noosa on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland is another favorite. Unfortunately my brother moved away, so I don't go there any more.
In Europe a little beach outside Nice (which is stony). It's called the Baie des Fourmies and is pretty darned nice.But in the US? California ocean water is all too cold for me. Some Florida beaches are contenders. Naples was nice but no shade.
So I'm open to suggestions:
What does your perfect beach have to have and where is it?

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm a California girl and spent summers body surfing in Malibu and Manhattan Beach, so those are still my perfect beaches. Broad white sand and wave after perfect wave that you can swim in front of, get picked up by, and carried forward so just your head sticking out as you coast onto the shore. Hold onto your bathing suit top.

LUCY BURDETTE: I was imprinted on the beach near Hatteras, NC, which is the end part of the Outer Banks. We went every summer and spent hours roasting on the sand, and swimming--big rollers usually, and a perfect cool temperature. We'd be out there floating in the salt water and game would be to call out whether each wave was an "over" or an "under." The overs you could float over the top. The unders would grind you into the sand if you didn't dive through them. And the dunes are stunning too, planted with sea oats.
Several families would go at the same time and we'd have enormous games of kick the can and pounce at night. Wonderful memories, gorgeous beach.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, yeah. Out of the US? Easy. Easy! Nevis. It is..white sand. Turquoise water.  EMPTY. The beaches are so unpopulated, they don't even have names. We named the one we go to, though. (Cleverly.) Beautiful Beach.  Which says it all. There are palm trees, and we sit and read and watch the pelicans fly and soar and pounce, then shake their little tailfeathers when they catch a fish. My idea of a perfect beach is peaceful. This photo is Nevis--but it's very faded. Just up the chroma to intense blue and white..and that's it!

In the US? Truro on Cape Cod.  We go to the bay beach, and it is gorgeous. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Rhys, so jealous I am green. Sigh. Especially since we haven't taken a beach vacation in longer than I even want to admit... I didn't grow up going to the beach. Dallas is a LONG way from beaches, and my parents were into golf courses, not beaches. (Sighs again...) But there have been beaches that stood out. We stayed at a lovely place at the tip of Cozumel. White sand, palms, little rush huts to protect you from the sun, clear blue water that was lovely for snorkling off the beach if you didn't mind the friendly barracuda that hung out occasionally. But my favorite was a beach in Puerto Rico. Empty (this was years ago, mind) with lovely sand and palms AND the best thing was the hammocks strung between the palm trees... Beach, hammock, book=heaven.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Not a well-known place, but the Canadian shore of Lake Erie is fantastic and where I went during the summer with friends while growing up in Buffalo, New York. These days, the family and I love the beaches of Narragansett, Rhode Island — which seems to be overlooked by tourists who opt for the Hamptons or the Cape (shhhhhh....). A day at the beach, then a lobster roll at Aunt Carrie's (now in its 95th year and going strong) — can't be beat.

And outside of the US, the beaches of the west coast of Scotland are beautiful, especially near Arisaig. (Yes, beaches in Scotland! No, I'm not joking!) The water is warmer than you might expect, thanks to a Gulf current passing by and the beaches are fine white sand and gorgeous! You may spot a seal!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Rhys, if you think California water is too cold, the Atlantic Ocean off the Maine coast would kill you! I want to propose a different kind of perfect beach: Old Orchard Beach, located in its eponymous town in southern Maine. It's a throwback to the old vacation beaches of the east coast: a seven-mile-long golden-sand beach with a century-old Boardwalk extending out into the ocean; an inexpensive, small scale amusement park, candy stores and ice cream stores and t-shirt shops in between art galleries and Italian sausage stands. It's definitely not about lounging in the sands with a cocoanut-flavored drink, but if you want to sample an old-fashioned all-American summer, you have to try it.

I met Jessie Crockett, whom many of you know from Crimebake, and in 2016 she's going to have a mystery set in 19th century OOB coming out. So I know what will be in my beach bag when I go there next summer!

RHYS: So there you have it. Our favorite beaches. Which is yours?