Everyone loves the beach. Though I live in Montana, I’m fortune to spend my winters at the beach in sunny California. My writing space looks out on a boat channel that leads to the harbor so I watch the tide go up and down several times a day.
A bicycle-ride away, a sandy beach slopes down to the water where a frothy tide rolls in and out, the perfect place to talk a stroll at the end of a long day or just dig your toes into the warm gritty sand.
For me, there is no better way to spend an afternoon than lying in the sun on a bright-colored beach towel, straw hat shading your face while you read a delicious, page-turning novel. The rhythmic curl and tug of the waves is the perfect backdrop, lulling me into the story, shutting out the day-to-day troubles of the world, if only for a little while.
As a writer, lying half-asleep in the sun, listening to the soft rush of the wind and the cry of seagulls, is a great way to get story ideas.
Too often I get stuck when writing a novel (I refuse to call it writer’s block, which is way too scary). The beach, I’ve discovered, is a great antidote.
While I was writing the third book in my Texas Trilogy, BEYOND CONTROL, Josh Cain and Victoria Bradford’s story, I found myself unable to figure out how the heroine was going to escape the perilous situation I had put her in. After several sleepless nights, I took a drive along the beach just a few blocks from my house.
As I looked at the clear blue ocean stretching endlessly in front of me, my whole body relaxed–a little slice of heaven. An hour away from the computer, watching the waves crash up on the shore, my creative juices started flowing. Ideas flashed in my head, some good, some not-so-good, as the next part of Josh and Tory’s story opened up in my mind.
Hurrying home, I madly began pounding on the keyboard, desperate to get my thoughts down on the page. The story started moving forward again, and I was even able to get a good night’s sleep!
So the next time you’re feeling jammed up about something, whether you’re a writer or not, whether you live at the beach or in the desert, the mountains or the city, find a place that lets you breathe, refreshes you and lets you face the world again.
Have a great summer and happy reading. Till next time, Kat
BEYOND CONTROL by Kat Martin
Present Danger
When Victoria Langford got engaged, she told herself to give love a chance. Six months later, she’s on the run from her angry, abusive ex-fiancé with her four-year-old daughter and nowhere to go.
Seventy miles north of Dallas, the Iron River Ranch is pretty much nowhere. That’s what its new owner, Josh Cain, wanted when he came back from Afghanistan. Big skies, quiet nights, no trouble.
One look tells Josh the pretty redhead with the adorable little girl will give him trouble of the most personal kind. But he’s seen trouble before, and he doesn’t scare easy. Not when “accidents” start happening around the ranch. Not when Tory’s best friend back in Phoenix is abducted and brutalized. Not even when it looks like their current problems are only the tip of the iceberg.
But if he gets too close to fierce, determined Tory, Josh knows his nights are going to be anything but quiet. And that’s one possibility no amount of training can prepare him for…
Romance Suspense [Zebra, On Sale: May 29, 2018, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781420143195 / eISBN: 9781420143201]
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About Kat Martin
New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. Currently residing in Missoula, Montana with her Western-author husband, L. J. Martin, Kat has written sixty-five Historical and Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Her last novel, BEYOND DANGER, hit #4 in Mass Market fiction on the Bookscan National Bestseller list.
Kat is currently at work on her next Romantic Suspense.
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