Don’t get me wrong, I loved the islands. I enjoyed the scent of exotic flowers, the sound of string bands playing Christmas carols, and the feel of the gentle ocean breeze on my sunburned skin (I am a redhead). I even took a community taxi sightseeing across St. Martin/St. Maarten trying to decipher the patois spoken between the locals. My daughter and I also enjoyed scuba diving on several islands. We floated over coral reefs teeming with vibrant tropical fish and felt warm champagne bubbles emanating from hot springs deep within the ocean floor. We tasted weird and wonderful cuisine and accidentally paid way too much for a lobster in Guadeloupe, which we’re still paying off to this day. We couldn’t do justice to all of our adventures in a factual guidebook, so I tucked the experiences away for another day.
It wasn’t soon after we had published the first book, Cruising the Caribbean, when Laura thought about writing a mystery set in the Caribbean. She hated writing fictional stories, so she gave the idea to me. Writing a mystery takes lots of planning, especially when the goal is to use the amazing adventures and island locations we visited in the Caribbean. So I invented a cruise ship company and complex schedule to allow my heroine to investigate a murder while she travelled from port to port. I thumbed through our own travel guidebook to remember the real locations which helped to recreate the ambience of the Caribbean.Now, nearly 20 years after that first research trip to the islands, I still enjoy reading our current guidebook called, Cruising the Eastern Caribbean, together with my new mystery, Murder Caribbean-Style. The two go hand in hand as we set sail around the same glorious islands.
I’d love to hear about your tropical adventures, so send me an e-mail and let me know which Caribbean island is your favorite, and don’t forget to check out the latest edition of Cruising the Eastern Caribbean!
See more blogs and explore my books at my website www.quicksilvernovels.com.
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