MILLIONAIRES' PLAYGROUND AND ME AS AN AUTHOR

More pictures of our trip to Jekyll Island (see last post).

The black and white millionaire's "cottage" is in the Italianate architectural style. Built in 1904, today, it has 10 guest rooms available plus unique meeting rooms, for a total of 157 rooms in the Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

The plain brown and beige building was the dormitory for servants employed by the club, and also for the millionaires' servants, nannies, etc.

While visiting there on Labor Day, my author's mind went cavorting through a plethora of ideas. What about a story about one of those nannies? What about a story about a rich guest of say, the Rockefellers, or the Vanderbilts? What if the nanny fell in love with a rich young playboy?

Think of all the things they could do, all the scenes that could be set in such unique places. The beach. The riverfront. The tennis courts. The hunting grounds. There were lawn parties and dinner "sociables" and dances and boating trips and "shelling" on the shore.

It was as if I could see these people and hear their conversations.

This happened to me when I visited Manatee Park Historical Village in Bradenton, Florida, where I saw the Stephens House, an old "cracker gothic" cottage a settler built in the late 1800s.

When I toured the Stephens House, Sebbie was "born!" Sebbie is the heroine in my novel, The Tender Heart (published in 2002; now out of print), which is set in old Florida, and features a family living in an old "cracker gothic" cottage. I "saw" a young woman standing on the porch in a tattered dress. I "felt" a fit of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, as well as Catherine Marshall and Janette Oke, coming on me. The young woman became Sebbie!

An author humorously said: "Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers, and they do pretty much the same thing."

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Oh, the picture of the plate of boiled shrimp shells? Monday evening, we found our way to the wharf and ate at SeaJay's. I ordered SeaJay's Original "Low Country Boil," a tempting medley of fresh coastal shrimp, mild smoked sausage, corn on the cob, and bitesize potatoes, prepared in a mildly seasoned pot and served with crisp slaw, fresh rolls and butter, sauces, and banana pudding. "All you can eat." All I cared about was the boiled shrimp, a dab of slaw, and a bottomless glass of sweet iced tea. Now that's good eating!