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Thursday, June 16, 2016

#ThursdayThoughts: Guest post by Katherine Fleet

Good Morning from soggy Panama City Beach, Florida!

Florida is known as the 'sunshine' state...well today it's a bit soggy out there. It rained, actually stormed last night and now the Gulf waters are a deep, roiling green and the wind is saturated with moisture. Should burn off later and we'll be scorching later but this morning it's really nice out.

Today we welcome Katherine Fleet back to our blog to share some thoughts with us....


Hi! I’m Katherine Fleet, debut author of the YA Contemporary, The Secret to Letting Go. Thanks so much to Pam for sharing my Thursday Thoughts today!

My novel is set in a fictional town on the Gulf Coast of Florida during that magical summer after high school graduation when the whole world is out there waiting for you. It’s the story of two teens – Clover, a mysterious girl who shows up in town lost in her secrets and fears, and Daniel, a boy who’s drawn into her troubled world despite his better judgment. Life keeps throwing them together, but their secrets keep them apart. Ultimately, it’s a story about living through tragedy and learning to forgive your self.

The tagline for my book is “One summer can change anything.” Since my story is set over one summer and the lives of Clover and Daniel are transformed during this period, the tag line made sense. But it called to me for another reason. As a teenager and young adult, I remember feeling that there was nothing more exciting than the idea of an entire summer ahead. As I finished those last days of school in June, summer felt like a promise of something great on the horizon.

I remember what my room felt like with the windows open and that warm, summer breeze lifting the lace curtains. I remember the sound of lawnmowers and the smell of fresh cut grass. Growing up in St. John’s, Newfoundland, summer was the only time of year where you could count on some warm, sunny days, but even then, hot days were rare. I used to sunbathe on my back porch lying on a blanket. This was before we knew about ozone layers and skin cancer. When the sun ducked behind a cloud, I’d wrap the ends of the blanket around me, so I wouldn’t freeze! I spent a lot of time walking the trails in the city, daydreaming about stories that I’d only get the nerve to try writing years later. But mostly, I remember the feeling of freedom, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

I now have three kids, two of which are teenagers. They are reaching the end of the school year and my oldest son is graduating! Sometimes I wonder how they will remember their summers. We live in the Caribbean, and for us, summer is travel time. We normally return to Canada and visit family and friends. We’ve also travelled throughout Europe and the US. I wonder which feelings and sensations will stand out to them decades from now.

I’d love to hear from you. What are your favorite memories of summers past?

Thanks again to Pam for hosting me and thanks for reading.  J


Thank you, Katherine for sharing your story with us!

Katherine writes Young/New Adult fiction. She is represented by super-agent Carrie Pestritto of Prospect Agency. The Secret to Letting Go is her debut novel. You can connect with her at her Website (be sure and sign up for her newsletter!)Also be sure to like/follow/etc Katherine on TwitterFacebookInstagram and Good Reads. She was our Saturday Spotlight guest last month so be sure and check that out.

The Secret to Letting go can be found at Amazon, B&NITunesKoboAmazon UKAmazon CA and directly from the publisher.

Hope you enjoyed today's thoughts. Stay tuned weekly for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight!

Until next time....take care and God Bless.
PamT

9 comments:

Kara O'Neal said...

Your book sounds like it would be filled with emotional moments. I love the concept. When I was a child, my favorite moments of summer was when the lightning bugs would come out. I loved, and still love, that time of day when it's not to hot and a little breezy. We would play all kinds of outside games. I really miss those moments.

Marissa Garner said...

Here in SoCal, summers were all about the beach. Best of luck with your book!

Patricia Kiyono said...

Congratulations on your book's release! I love your descriptions of summer memories - they pretty much match mine, and since truly hot summer days are rare in MIchigan I remember treasuring them. Moving to the Caribbean is a dream to us northerners. Lovely post.

marilyn leach said...

Katherine, I love your look at summer memories. As a child, I remember almost daily downpours of afternoon rain, quick and powerful. When the storm passed, we would make newspaper boats, go back outside, and sail them in city gutters flush with rain. We'd laugh and run along side, then snatch them up and do it all over again. Sweet memories. I hope your newest book does very well. Cheers

Elizabeth Alsobrooks said...

Congrats on the release! Great summer memories. But as a child I loved going to summer camp, camping up north with the family, canoe trips, swimming, riding horses, playing baseball and archery, just being outside in the sunshine. I chased the sun to AZ after I retired in MI! Now I have year-round summer!

Katherine Fleet said...

I love everyone's summer memories - camping and summer rain storms, lightning bugs and the beach. These are all fantastic. There is definitely something magical about summer and being young. And thank so much for all the good wishes on my debut:)

Alicia Dean said...

I am so sorry I didn't make it by yesterday. Your summer memories are wonderful. :) I don't really have any particularly fond memories of summer. I'm a winter person. As a child, I'm sure I liked summer, I just don't know of anything that stands out. Except, my birthday is July 1, so I always had that in the summer. :) I love your cover and premise...best wishes!

Nightingale said...

Late as usual, but I finally made it by to read the post. Book sounds very emotionally moving. Best of Luck

M.J. Schiller, Romance Author said...

I'm even later, Linda! ;) What a wonderful look at summer! My favorite summer days happened when my kids were little and we had "Mommy School." I would try to keep the kids up on their skills with workbooks, but we also had a lot of fun with different themes of study. Since taking my triplets to the library and hunting up books was not humanly possible ;)the librarians were nice enough to help me out and gathered great books for me. We read poetry, made crafts and special treats, too. We must have studied space, because I remember a rocket ship cake. When we had the ocean as our theme we had octupus hotdogs (you cut the bottom into legs and use mustard to make a face) on a bed of seaweed (Top Ramen I died green.) We had Goldfish crackers, made blue Jello with Swedish fish in it and whipped cream for the foam. Now that my kids are grown and gone, I'm looking forward to having some grandkids to play with!

Your book sounds awesome! Can't wait to read it! Have a great summer, and thanks for the post!