Visiting Door County to research for my next novel. My daughter and I are staying in Jacksonport on the shore of Lake Michigan. The lake was wild last night and today, waves pounding on the shore. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, rain came in hard bursts, then sunshine so bright it ached with color.
Today, after the storm, the lake calmed. We took a walk along the shore at sunset. White gulls of some sort wheeled across the sky and floated on the calm water.
My novel takes place right here during the summer of 1944. It opens in May, when cherry orchards are in bloom. The cherries aren’t yet in bloom this year because of the cold weather. Drat! But I do have lots to learn about the lake and the weather and the people and the place and the history, and I’ve lined up interviews and visits to do just that.
Yesterday the entire county was under a tornado watch. I learned of it this morning when visiting Bley’s Grocery in Jacksonport, just a block south of where we’re staying. The tornado touched down in Algoma—which is where we stopped yesterday at a great little cheese shop, Renard’s Cheese Store.
Went to a fun roadhouse on Kangaroo Lake in Baileys Harbor for dinner tonight: Coyote Roadhouse. Had a very dry martini and the pork ribs. The lake was high, the grass Irish green, and the sun gave off that fresh clear blue light that comes after a storm - white birch trunks, green-gray leaves, glassy reflective lake.
Now back to the novel…
Lucy