I was in Tallahassee, Florida recently to visit my elderly father. My sister, her husband, and various of their friends often take me on nature adventures when I’m down there–expeditions I would never entertain on my own. With the oil steadily encroaching on the Gulf coastline, they are particularly cognizant of how fleeting these moments might be.
Last week, the adventure involved scalloping. We motored out to a shallow grassy area off Keaton Beach and anchored in about 3 feet of water. Then we plopped overboard with snorkel, fins, and mesh bags. The scallops rest on the sand or the grassy flats, looking for predators with a half-circle of brilliant blue eyes. 
They can propel themselves quickly by squirting water with their muscles. (This photo was taken by photographer David Moynahan, who collected the largest sack of scallops and then returned over the weekend to capture them on film.) Because of my mixed feelings about killing these creatures and several sighting of a giant ray (yes the very ray that killed the TV nature star with sting to the heart,) my adventure was abbreviated.
My fellow hunter-gatherers filled their sacks–a bounteous harvest in comparison to my dozen and a half. And all of that bounty made for a long, long afternoon of cleaning. And scraping the guts out of hundreds of shells left me yearning for something other than seafood for dinner.
We ordered a vegetarian pizza…
Each year Mystery Writers of America chooses a celebrity editor/writer to put together an anthology of short stories based on a theme of the celebrity author’s choosing. Next year the anthology, THE RICH AND THE DEAD, will be edited by Nelson DeMille, published by Grand Central in April. I’m very psyched to report that my story “The Itinerary” was chosen to be included. I’ll be in terrific company–the authors who were invited to participate were: Ted Bell, Peter Blauner, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, David Morrell, Twist Phelan, S.J. Rozan, Jonathan Santlofer and Angela Zeman. And these writers had their stories selected for the remaining slots: K. Catalona, Tim Chapman, Frank Cook, David DeLee, Joseph Goodrich, Daniel J. Hale, Roberta Isleib, Harley Jane Kozak, Carolyn Mullen and Elaine Togneri.
In “The Itinerary”, Detective Jack Meigs (from the Rebecca Butterman series) has been sent on a forced vacation to Key West after his wife’s death. Of course he has no interest in playing the tourist and he gets drawn into the puzzle of woman who goes missing from her cruise ship.
Can’t wait to see the finished product!
Happy fourth and fifth of July–hope everyone had a great weekend! This was my masterpiece–a light yellow sponge cake covered with whipped cream and sliced fruit. The blueberries came right out of the garden and the raspberries from the farmer’s market.
It’s my week to come up with content for Jungle Red Writers so stop over all week and enjoy a variety of posts. Tomorrow we’re talking about energy independence–are we headed that way, or will we wait until we’re forced into changing by the price of gas? Make a comment to enter your name into a drawing for Unspoiled: Florida Writers Talk about the Coast.
On Wednesday, come meet writing newcomer Sophie Littlefield, who’s taking the mystery world by storm. And then we’ll finish up the week with my favorite topic on Thursday and Friday–food, glorious, food!
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