Welcome Back Kait Carson — Learning to Reason Without the Hurricane Season #Giveaway

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Mark Baker and Luis Nunez are the winners of Death Dive!

Sherry — after six weeks in the South, I’m heading north tomorrow

I’m delighted to welcome back Kait Carson and hope you will love hearing about her big life move (in real life and her fictional world) as much as I did!

Kait: Greetings Wickeds. I’m excited to be here. Thank you for inviting me. I freely confess, I’m at a crossroads in my writing life.

If you are familiar with my books, you know I’m a Florida writer. The Hayden Kent Series is set in the Florida Keys—with side trips to Grand Cayman and Belize. All places close to my scuba-diving heart. Hayden is a Florida paralegal. In Death Dive, she expands her probate practice by working for an insurance company as a paralegal/investigator. It’s all Florida law. By coincidence, I had a twenty-year career as a Florida paralegal.

Life in the tropics was familiar and comforting. I knew when the temps dropped into the 50s to beware of falling iguanas. They’re fine, just inanimate until the weather warms. When June rolled around, I stocked the pantry with non-perishables and got the go bag together. Only had to leave once—for Hurricane Irma. If my first stage blew up at one-hundred and twenty feet under water, I had a plan. It worked, I survived, and Hayden had a like experience in Death by Blue Water.

Yep, Florida was home. Except this writer is a Jersey Girl who, after forty years, missed the changing seasons. Hubs and I had bought a Maine camp intending to move full time when we retired. The 2020 pandemic forced our hand. Far northern Maine sounded its siren call and off we went.

Now it’s time for a second confession. I love change. It fills me with a heady sense of possibility. If you are uprooting your life, you might as well go big! I’d been a part-time author for years. It wasn’t satisfying. I had so much more to say. With Florida in the rear-view mirror, literally, I ditched the day job, and dove in.

Since I’ve been writing full time, I’ve edited and re-published the first two of the Hayden Kent series and written and published the third, Death Dive. It was time to cast around for what’s next. Ideas were popping for a series in the Keys. When I sat down to write, my heroine refused to cooperate. I was a Mainer now, and danged if Sassy Romano didn’t want to see the north country, too. What’s a writer to do? At the end of the day, the author takes dictation and the characters drive the bus. Sassy wanted nothing to do with Florida. After all, she was on the run from a bad marriage in California. She wanted the change of seasons, too.

Together, she and I set out to explore this gorgeous state. Sassy lives in a fictitious town in the Allagash. She grew up in Tremayne Lodge. An inn and artist colony her family owned for generations. One she’s now inherited. Bears, moose, deer, and fisher cats, don’t bother her. They’ve always been in her backyard, but a body in the pottery studio. That’s another matter.

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My trips through the uncharted north Maine woods have been a revelation. There’s a raw beauty that steals your breath. Northern lights dance overhead. Stars blanket the night sky. Hoar frost shimmers on icy branches under cloudless blue skies. It’s a land ripe for mystery, and one I’m proud to share.

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June passes unnoticed these days. There’s no hurricane season here. December, that’s a different story. Time to hunker down when nor’easters blast through the trees, and power lines bend under icy coats. Maine in the winter holds no forgiveness but the promise of spring. A time when the landscape fills with all shades of green and the beauty of a pointillist painting. A place where secrets, and ideas, percolate.

Readers: Have you ever reinvented yourself? How did it work out? How do you feel about change? Kait is giving away a Kindle copy of Death Dive to two lucky commenters. US only, alas!

Kait Carson left Florida living behind to move to the Crown of Maine. Her latest book is Death Dive. She lives on 120 wooded acres with her husband, four cats, six conures, and a Cavapoo puppy. Visit her at www.kaitcarson.com

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Published by Sherry Harris

Sherry Harris is the author of the Agatha Award nominated Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery series and the Chloe Jackson Sea Glass Mystery series.

32 Thoughts

  1. Welcome back, Kait! I’m a southern Californian transplanted to New England and I know what you mean about the seasons. I’m also a fan.

    Tells us more about Sassy and when she’ll appear in a book!

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    1. Thanks, Edith. California is so beautiful. It must have been hard to leave.

      Sassy is so much fun to write. She’s a native Mainer and she’s teaching me a lot. She’s newly single, feisty, funny, and learning to trust herself again. If this was a Florida book, I’d say she got tossed into the deep end of the pool. Since it’s a Maine book, I’ll say her homecoming is….wicked!

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  2. “At the end of the day, the author takes dictation and the characters drive the bus.” How very true, Kait!

    I admit, I get anxious about change. Excited and terrified in equal parts. I’ve had to reinvent myself and my careers many many times. I’ve lived my entire life on this piece of land that my great grandfather owned, moving from my parents’ house to the cabin my husband and I built while also planning a wedding. A distance of maybe a hundred yards away.

    Looking forward to getting to know Sassy!

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  3. Kait, congrats on your books! I will have to put them on my list to check out.

    I’m not a fan of change. I like routine and I’m really good at doing the same thing day in and day out.

    But I know that change is inevitable no matter how much I fight against it so at least I’m not without a sense of reason..

    I think the only real “re-invention” I’ve had to go through is when my days as a youth basketball coach ended after 25 years. I had to find something else to do and it led to me writing online for various websites about pop culture, music and eventually to book reviews. And despite being a proud supporter of unchanging stagnation, I have come to love what I do now so apparently some change is good.

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  4. Thanks, Annette. You’re describing some pretty big life changes. Deep roots are something you and Sassy have in common. How wonderful that you are still part of the land that’s your heritage.

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  5. “the author takes dictation and the characters drive the bus.” I learned that in a big way with the last two books I’ve written!

    I don’t know that I’ve reinvented myself yet – but I feel like I’m on the edge. Maybe.

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  6. Welcome, Kait! It is so great to have your post here. I like change but I don’t like surprises. I feel like our lives are opposites. I’ve been writing a Maine series for 12 years, but when I’m here in the Keys the amazing history of this place pulls at me.

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    1. It is amazing in both places. Is Julia planning a trip to Key West? She’d feel quite at home on Pigeon Key, but she might get a huge chuckle out of what Floridians call lobsters!

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  7. I’ve never been good with change. Strange coming from an old Army brat – or maybe that’s the reason. However, after hubby retired and with the death of my parents, there wasn’t anything or any one that was holding us where we were any more. We had often vacationed in the Ozark Mountains and loved it. It was on a trip home from such a trip that I said “Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived here”. Hubby actually pulled over and asked if I was serious. After a moments thought, I said yes. The rest as they say was history. We sold everything, downsized, found the perfect piece of property and built our dream home – just right for us with no concern about how it would affect resale value. Best decision every. We love it here! Proving that sometimes change it good, but you have to take the leap of faith to take advantage of it.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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    1. Sounds like you made a fabulous change. You are 100% right, sometimes you have to take that leap, and often you find it’s been brewing for a long time.

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  8. Hi Kait, With a hubby in the military, I’ve had to move and reinvent several times! I’d love to reinvent somewhere down south next, maybe your old stomping grounds.
    And “the author takes dictation and the characters drive the bus” – that’s the best definition of writing yet! xo Shari

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    1. Definitely keeps us out of a rut! Curiosity is the key to reinvention, and being a writer helps, we get to explore all the possibilities through our characters.

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  10. I have to get reading your books. I am happy you republished a couple-makes it more convenient to people like me. I do have to admit however that my TBR list is growing again! You’re right about curiosity being the key to reinvention and here I go planning to move somewhere come June! Either back to New England(NH) or to Virginia. All my kiddies have moved away!
    I look forward to reading about Hayden and Sassy. Ah… The travels continue….

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    1. Thank you, Doris! I hear you about the TBR. Isn’t it amazing how it grows by leaps and bounds. I hope you have a fabulous move to where ever you decide. Having lived in both, I can see why the decision would be difficult.

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  11. Hi Kait. I’m looking forward to getting to know Sassy. I love her name!

    I guess I’m more of a Sissy than a Sassy. When my husband and I sold our antique house in Connecticut and started splitting our time between Cape Cod and Florida, I missed that house so much that it became one of the characters in my Baby Boomer mysteries. When I write about Carol Andrews sitting in her kitchen, I’m back in my happy place!

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    1. Hi Susan, thank you for commenting. It has to be hard to move from a home where you have so much history. I love Carol’s house and neighborhood. You must admit you opted to live in two of the best places on earth. Cape Cod and Florida – Yep, perfection.

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  12. Hi Kait. Welcome and thanks for telling us more about you. I read your posts every day here, and enjoy them. Change? I have said before that it is my middle name. I was born in Chile and came to the US as an exchange student. Then immigrated and became a citizen. My care was in the airline industry, and I was traveling worldwide for about 50 years until I retired. Now I make changes possible for my travel agency clients, creating customized, magical trips for them. How blessed I am, right? And all this is possible only due to CHANGE. JOY! Luis at ole dot travel

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  14. Congrats on all the big changes, Kait! Exciting, indeed! I guess I sort of reinvented myself in 2014. After 16 years as a litigation paralegal, I left the legal field and started anew in the health care compliance arena. Since I’m still in the compliance field almost ten years on, I think the change worked out. Have a great weekend!

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  16. I’m not a fan of change. It’s why I stay in jobs longer than I should, when I’m miserable. And it’s why I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I’m just a horrible decision maker. (Yes, please enter me in the giveaway.)

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  19. Wonderful post, Kate. Maine is gorgeous and I haven’t explored enough of it. (Although your winter excursions only sound lovely from the comfort of my CT home.) I reinvented myself in 2016, although it was out of necessity and not desire — a divorce after a 25-year marriage within weeks of turning 50. I turned from housewife to mystery novelist (and continued to be a mom, my favorite role). I prefer temporary changes, like traveling, to permanent ones, but I accept that we don’t always get the luxury of choice.

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