Amazon Best-selling Historical Romance

Amazon Best-selling Historical Romance
Escape to a romantic period where love endured, grew, and flourished despite a Civil War.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Fishing on the Real Dead Lakes


My husband and I went fishing one day with my in-laws on Dead Lake near the small town of Wewahitchka, Florida, called Wewa for short by the locals. Yes, there are really dead lakes with a lot of dead trees that could make the trip dangerous, however, we survived. The name of the lake and the dead trees inspired this mystery set on Dead Lakes in Wewahitchka, Florida. Yes, there's more than one lake. These lakes are legendary. According to Florida State Parks, Gulf.com, and the City of Wewahitchka, sand bars created by the current in the Apalachicola River blocked the Chipola River. High water killed the trees in the flood zone and gave the area its name.

The Seminole Indian name means "water eyes" because when viewed from the sky there are two round lakes resembling eyes. The city is located in the Florida Panhandle's northern Gulf County and has approximately 1,800 residents. It's best known for the Dead Lakes and Tupelo Honey, which is world famous and has been harvested for over one hundred years from the Apalachicola River Basin. Peter Fonda's 1997 movie "Ulee's Gold" was set in this majestic beauty. It's a story about the beekeepers.

If you decide to try your luck with fishing on Dead Lake, be forewarned of a graveyard of cypress knees and dead stumps that can tear apart a boat or motor. I hear the fishing can be good. In fact, it's considered the best. You'll find crappie, blue gill (bream), shellcracker, large mouth bass, and white bass. Maybe you'll have better luck fishing than we did, if you believe in luck, fisherman's luck, that is. Dead Lakes State Recreation Area is only a mile north of Wewa.

The many cypress trees create a beautiful majesty and though we didn't catch any fish that day, I enjoyed the boating and beautiful scenery. You'll find a variety of trees including magnolia, cypress, longleaf pine, and sweetbay. I took a spiral notebook and pen with me and began this mystery. I hope you'll find it intriguing. It's the first one in my Dead Lake Mystery series. If you want to experience a hauntingly beautiful area of cypress skeletons, stumps, and knees in lakes that are considered the best freshwater sport and bass fishing in the nation, brace yourself with courage to boat in a graveyard of trees and explore. Nature photographers will find an oasis. Enjoy.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Preview Dead Lake

Judy helped paddle the boat, and they rounded another curve. The trees made shadows on the lake, creepy ones like demons reaching out to snag them. She'd rather enjoyed the shadows during the sunlight. Mirror images had come to mind. Reflec...tions. She gasped. There'd be no time to reflect. A man in a pirogue glided toward them upon the still, night waters. He seemed to rise out of a mist like a ghost, and she shivered as she slapped another mosquito from her arm.

  Mere hours ago, Dead Lake had rippled in the early-morning misty fog, and she'd agreed to go on this adventure with her husband, despite the prophetic feeling of doom that assaulted every nerve in her body. She frowned as the SUV pulled into Dead Lake Park and commented, "Isn't it something that a prisoner escaped less than a mile from our house last night? Gives me the creeps." Judy didn't want to go out in the boat. A deep sense of foreboding clutched her heart.

http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Lake-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00EW1LTRG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378116851&sr=1-1&keywords=dead+