Chincoteague Island Archives

Many readers have fond memories of Misty of Chincoteague, the beloved tale by Marguerite
Henry about the Beebe siblings and their Chincoteague pony. I still own my paperback copy, now falling apart at the seams. I don’t know how many times I read it, but I know that the book and the island left an imprint on my heart that I wasn’t aware of for many years.

In 2014, I began writing a book about Kate, a young woman who flees her life in the city to start over in a place with no ties to her former life, a place to escape and hide, a place to be reborn. Without giving it a thought, I watched my character pack her car and head to Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia.

This wasn’t surprising for me—my characters always do what they want and end up in places and predicaments I never foresaw. What was surprising was how vivid the location and the islanders were in my mind. I’d been to Chincoteague a handful of times, and have family who live on the island, but these images and personalities were so real to me that I began to think of them as friends.

Six years after the publication of the award-winning Island of Miracles, I can honestly say that…

My next book, Seeking Tranquility, comes out in just over a month! I loved writing this book. The two sisters are as different as night and day, the two older women are busybodies who genuinely care about everyone, and the scientists on the mainland add humor and spice to everyone’s lives.

Christy MacLane is smart, but in her eyes, not smart enough. She’s in over her head, having to care for Molly–both of them orphans now–trying to figure out how to finish college, working two jobs to make ends meet, and wondering if this is all that life has to hold for her. She’s sure that she will never have a life of her own or find love or have the time to look for either. Of course, life barges in when we least expect it, and love has a way of finding its own way when the time is right.

Molly is a science prodigy–a whiz at math and an expert on space science at the age of ten. She longs to follow in her father’s footsteps and work for NASA, maybe even go into space someday. She just needs to get through the summer before 6th grade first.