On March 16^th I have a new book coming out in the Lighthouse Sisters series. This third title in the series is called LIGHT IN THE DARK. It follows Celeste’s story, who grew up at her family’s inn by the Deveaux Lighthouse on the South Carolina coast. As the back of the book reads in brief:  “In this third novel in the beloved Lighthouse Sisters series, Celeste Deveaux struggles to find her way back to joy, love, and meaning after a painful relationship almost shatters her life.” I hope you’ll enjoy Celeste’s journey in this new novel with a little romance, a touch of suspense, and rich scenes on the coast at Edisto and in downtown Charleston.

For me, most all of my book story ideas come from thoughts or mental pictures that slip into my mind while visiting the places I write about.  My home and heart live here in the mountains of Tennessee, but our favorite vacation spot is Edisto Beach, that we first visited when our children were small in the 1980s. Edisto is a quieter and less commercially developed place than busier beaches like Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head nearby. We loved this aspect of the island, enjoying the easy beach access, the peace and calm of this laid-back coastal community.

One summer at the end of the 1990s, when J.L. and I were vacationing at Edisto, we visited Hunting Island State Park and the big lighthouse there. The idea began to play around in my mind, wondering what it might have been like for four sisters to grow up on a windswept island beside a lighthouse. I soon began to envision these sisters, each different and distinct, raised in the family’s big bed-and-breakfast for tourists that had once been the lighthouse keeper’s home. Ideas began to drift in more and more and I was soon excited about this new book idea.

Once I get an overall concept and loose plan for a book, I begin to visualize the main characters for the books. For this four-book series, each book focuses on one of the four sisters. The first book LIGHT THE WAY introduced fictitious Watch Island on Edisto’s north end, plus the Deveaux Inn, Lighthouse, and the Deveaux family. The head of the family, Lloyd Deveaux has died unexpectedly, bringing sorrow and more work load to his wife Etta and to her daughter Burke. The oldest sister, Burke, has always loved the life at the island and never left as her sisters have. LIGHT THE WAY Is Burke’s story … and it becomes Waylon Jenkins’ story, too, when he retires from the Navy to come back to his family home on Edisto. Waylon and Burke grew up together, and it is sweet how they reconnect in this story. Lila, the youngest sister, has recently returned home, too, and before the book ends, the other two sisters also return, each running from personal problems. Gwen returns home with her three children, hurt over a betrayal with her husband. Not long after that, Burke and Gwen go to Nashville to bring home Celeste, and it is Celeste’s story you will read in LIGHT IN THE DARK.

Even though I have always visited the places where I set my books, I return to those settings again to explore as I begin to work on a new book set there. I pick up brochures, take photos, talk to people, learn historic facts, and gather story ideas. As I am researching and creating the settings for a book, I also develop and flesh out all the secondary and side characters. The sisters’ parents, Lloyd and Etta Deveaux, had to come to life, as did a diversity of neighbors and friends.  Additionally, I spent months developing the Deveaux Inn, lighthouse, gift shop, and the entire 500-acre lighthouse station.  I had to find out how a lighthouse works and to design the interior and operations of the inn and lighthouse. I also spent time learning about and creating the cottages, outbuildings, harbors, marina, and creeks around the island, and developing the employees who would help the Deveaux family run the inn.  I studied extensively, too, to gain more knowledge about the South Carolina coast, the tides, ocean, climate, about the island, the lighthouse’s history, Edisto’s marshes, creeks, birds and animals, seashells, and a million other small things that might play into the stories.

To make each story more unique, I varied the setting focus of each book. LIGHT THE WAY focuses its story and setting on the lighthouse island at Edisto. LIGHTEN MY HEART branches out to take readers to scenes around Beaufort and Port Royal. This third book, LIGHT IN THE DARK, centers much of its story in downtown Charleston. I researched and learned about the city’s history, studied maps and articles, and my husband J.L. and I explored all over the downtown streets where scenes in the book would take place. We discovered so many spots we’d never visited before on these explorations, finding quiet gardens tucked away between gracious historic buildings, sleepy cemeteries, little museums, and cute restaurants and shops. I spent extensive time around King Street where many scenes in my story take place, bringing me wonderful ideas to help enrich Celeste’s story.

Our graphics artist daughter, Katherine, worked with me to create the linked, and glorious, book covers for these new books. For series books, I partially plan all the books before writing even the first. Yet each story evolves more richly, and in much more detail, as the story is written later. I think you’ll truly enjoy Celeste’s story, as she works her way past a harsh time of life into many new beginnings and into new happiness after a dark time. LIGHT IN THE DARK is a perfect title for her story.

As an author, I always create an “Inspiration Collage Board” for my books … and here you can see my board for the Lighthouse Sisters books. The four books have a rich array of characters you will meet along the way.  All their lives have problems and challenges… and they often little mysteries to unravel.  In LIGHT THE WAY, a series of murders are going on around the coastal area that Burke and Waylon get swept into. In LIGHTEN MY HEART Alex’s family’s restaurant gets troubled, as do other Beaufort businesses, by a counterfeiter. And in LIGHT THE WAY, Celeste and Reid work their way through their own set of problems you will soon read about and get caught up in.

I hope you’ll curl up in a comfy chair in your house, or out on the porch in a favorite rocker, and settle in to enjoy this new Lighthouse Sisters book.

Looking ahead, I’ve recently finished the fourth and last book in this series, Lila’s story, THE LIGHT CONTINUES, which has already begun the various editing and production stages a book goes through for about a year before it finds its way into reader hands. You’ll be hearing more about this title next year … and I am sure there will be more coastal books to come for you to enjoy—along with more titles set around the mountains. … Next month in my blog, I’ll talk to you about my upcoming Mountain Home book, publishing in mid-March, too, called SHOP ON THE CORNER and set in the charm of Waynesville, North Carolina.

See you then … Happy Valentine’s Day … and don’t forget to read my February Newsletter, too  ….All best, … Lin

Note: All photos my own, from royalty free sites, or used only as a part of my author repurposed storyboards shown only for educational and illustrative purposes, acc to the Fair Use Copyright law, Section 107 of the Copyright Act.