Sweating Out Winter

When I moved south from Indiana, one of the things I left behind was my ability to withstand the cold. Though we’re not even a month into the winter of 2009/2010, it’s already one of the bitterest in a number of years. Where is global warming when you need it? Hmmm?

While seals sun themselves on icebergs, I’m looking for ways just to think warm. I want to imagine my tootsies tucked in the hot sand or that I’m wading knee-deep through the warm ocean currents—not wrapped in layers of clothing or taking a polar plunge.

That’s the wonderful thing about a book. Through well-placed sensory details, we are alongside the hero/heroine lying on the brightly colored towel. We hear seagulls screaming overhead and children’s giggles as they run up and down the beach, smell the seaweed and decay of dead fish, feel the hot sun baking the tops of our heads and the sand sticking to our damp legs, taste the cold soft drink from the cooler and the salt on our lips, see the sails of boats like tiny specks on the horizon and the guys ogling the bikini-clad girls.

Are you there yet? Feeling warmer? 

Of course, if you like the cold, there’s always a story where the snow stings the skin or near-frozen fingers and faces move in slow motion, a thermometer shows an outside temperature of five degrees and…  

Brrr. We’ll tackle those in the heat of summer. Right now, I’m headed back to the beach. To join me, here are a few novel suggestions from fellow Christian writers: 

Love Finds You in Treasure Island, Florida is Debby Mayne’s romance set in (where else?) Treasure Island, Florida.

For suspense in Hawaii, try Colleen Coble’s Aloha Reef series: Distant Echoes, Black Sands, Dangerous Depths, and Midnight Seas.

Trish Perry has two books featuring different characters and plotlines, but both are set on Mission Beach in San Diego, California: Beach Dreams, a contemporary romance, and Sunset, in the women’s fiction/romance genre.

Julie Carobini specializes in “beach reads”, as evidenced by her website’s tagline, “Faith, Flip-flops, and Waves of Grace.” Look for Chocolate Beach, Truffles by the Sea, and Sweet Waters.

Diane and David Munson take their suspense from small town Florida in Confirming Justice to the shores of Lake Michigan with The Camelot Conspiracy.

Keep warm and keep reading!