Linnea turned to face him, her intent to be heard. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Yet in this year of 2020, there is no hindsight to be had! All of us are trying to make the best of this year like no other. We don’t know what the future will bring. It’s like you said, every day is precious. So let’s be happy just living in the here and now. Let’s try not to get sick.” She laughed. “That’s enough adventure for me. That’s all the decision I can make right now. There’s a freedom in that. The pressure is off. I’m going to take it one day at a time. And you know what?”

John shook his head.

“Today, I’m glad you’re here.”

His face broke into a wide grin. “I am too.”

Linnea looked out across the empty beach. Not even a dog frolicked at the shoreline. The tide had swept away all sign of trespass. Nary a footprint scarred the smoothness. Linnea felt a sudden urge to make her mark.

“Want to take a walk?” She stuck out her hand.

John grasped her hand, and they began walking down from the dune to where the sand was soft under their feet. Luna trotted happily at her side, nose in the air. Linnea looked over her shoulder. The sea oats waved on the dune where a seashell sat on a small mound. The only marks along the beach were her footprints and John’s, side by side, in the sand.

Looking forward again, she smiled and lifted her face to the rising sun.

acknowledgments

EVERY BOOK I write is a journey. Yet the writing of The Summer of Lost and Found was, like the year 2020 it was written in, an experience like no other. For the past twenty years I have written books in a process that I had designed to help me create themes I developed from the species or environmental issues I chose as the novel’s backdrop. That process included intuition in the choice of species, academic research, extensive interviews with experts in the field, and finally, hands-on work experience with the animals. From that research and experience, I derived my story. By the time I wrote the first word, I knew my themes, plot, characters, setting, and often, the end.

Not so with this book. I figured that since all my stories center around a woman’s life—I write family sagas—what could be more interesting to write about than the changes and challenges families faced with forced isolation, togetherness, and economic strain? I wanted to write about this phenomenon we were living in—not about the Covid-19 illness, but family dynamics. And how better than with a family I knew so well—the Rutledge family of the Beach House series.

I wrote this novel in real time—and what a roller-coaster journey it has been! I let go of a process that worked for me and went boldly into the story. I write from structure and yes, I did begin with an outline. The problem came, however, when living through the weeks and months of the pandemic year, my perspective kept changing and I threw out my outline. I was introducing the next generation in the series and recognized that the problems of 2020 were different for the older generation than the younger. After the original shock and fear of a global shutdown, we went through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Our defense strategies shifted to coping strategies.