I have a soft spot for surly characters. When Tamsin needed to escape in my second novel, Stick Figures from Rockport, I created an entire Maine town to serve as her quick retreat. And in the miraculous way a vibrant scene can arrive fully formed in a writer’s mind, Helen’s Tavern came to be. In an instant, every inch of that bar became clear to me, including Logan Cole, the unlikely bartender who would rather be anywhere else. Something about her and that town called to me, so when it came time to write my next book, I was eager to return and create The Collected Stories of Ramsbolt. Like my own hometown, Ramsbolt is smaller than it thinks, but it dreams big. It has bold personalities. Every good egg has made its mistakes and must earn its redemption, and even the curmudgeons find their way into your heart. Blood and Sand was the start of a town built on a bedrock of belonging. However reluctant, the town draws in characters one by one, and Logan – the city girl who’d lost everything – is the first to learn that the one thing she wants more than anything is to…