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Living, loving and writing on the beach: Meet Delaware author Cindy Cavett

April 18, 2018 by coastaldelaware Leave a Comment

Cavett holding a copy of Running Wild. 

Coastal Delaware author Cindy Cavett writes stories beloved by both tourists and locals of the peninsula’s coastal beaches. In fact, the beaches play such an integral role in her writing that she often goes by the pen name “Seaside Cindy.”

She writes love stories by the beach and cozy mysteries by the seaside, and lately she’s been especially busy: Three of her short stories, all which take place on the Delmarva peninsula, are debuting this year within the span of three months.

She’s not a Delaware native — Cavett is originally from Philadelphia — but the coastal towns and communities of Delmarva continue to inspire her across every genre.

Taking a Beach Break

Most recently, her short story “Rehoboth Beach Break” was published in Running Wild Anthology of Stories, Volume 2 back in March. Cavett lives in Smyrna, and she most often uses the coastal beach towns of Delaware and Maryland as the settings for her stories.

“Beach Break” takes place in, of course, Rehoboth Beach, DE. The story follows a WBOC reporter who’s sent from her office in Salisbury to Rehoboth, where a rogue pirate has hijacked the townspeople’s points from a “Rehobie Points” rewards app.

The story is two parts fiction, one part local history. The pirate in question, Captain Kidd, is said to have buried a treasure chest of gold somewhere in the Lewes area.

“I enjoy promoting the local beaches and businesses and just everything in those areas… including the pirates that used to be around,” Cavett said. “It’s rumored that the pirate’s treasure is still off the coast of Lewes and Rehoboth. Apparently he was friends with Blackbeard.”

Her interest in technology also played a large role in “Beach Break.” She studied cyber security in college before switching to media communications, and her background in both of those areas still lend themselves to her writing.

“I’d like to see technology and apps and even hacking be used more in fiction, but I wanted something lighthearted, too.”

Romance by the sea

In addition to “Beach Break,” Cavett also has two stories coming out in the anthology Beach Love, which she co-edited with Nancy Sakaduski, founder of the anthology’s publisher Cat & Mouse Press.

Those stories take place in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Island, DE, respectively.

“Dog-napping in Ocean City” is a “reluctant love story,” as she described it, where an Ocean City cop and a former Delaware cop team up to find a wealthy woman’s dog, and end up bringing down a notorious Ocean City dog-napper in the process.

“Stranded in Fenwick” is also a love story, but one with a dramatic rather than comedic edge; a woman finds herself unlucky-in-love (and life in general) when her fiancé breaks up with her at their engagement party, set at the Fenwick restaurant Our Harvest.

***

Cavett moved to Delaware in 2011 and “hasn’t looked back since.” By writing, she’s able to dive headfirst into the cultures of the communities on the coast of Delaware and beyond. That’s something she’s especially excited to share with her readers, whether it’s by way of podcasts, articles she’s written for Coastal Delaware and other local publications, or short stories.

“I honestly feel like there’s so much going on in this area that people don’t know about,” she said. “I feel like if I keep discovering that over and over again, I can’t imagine people don’t know how vibrant the Delaware and Ocean City communities are.”

Not to mention how different the communities are, despite being so similar geographically.

“There’s such a contrast between Rehoboth and Ocean City,” she said. “What’s better in a quiet beach town than having some drama happen?”

Some of Cavett’s favorite places to write about — the ones she specifically associates with each town — include the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, The Dough Roller in Ocean City and Browseabout Books in Rehoboth.

In fact, Browseabout Books is where she’ll be signing copies of the Running Wild anthology on April 21 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. There she’ll be joined by two other local authors published in the anthology, Gemma L. Brook (who wrote “The Guest” and “Last Memory”) and Laura Nelson Selinsky (author of “Seawall”).

On May 12, also at Browseabout Books, is the launch of the Beach Love anthology. From 2 to 4 p.m., Cavett and Sakaduski will be signing books and hosting the launch party with refreshments and giveaways.

There seems to be an endless supply of art that beautiful beach towns can inspire, but Cavett is also happy to have found a community of writers in the region to collaborate with and support.

“It is amazing to see how many people are writing about the beach towns and Delaware in general,” she said. “Seeing how many talented people are here is mind-boggling to me — Where did you all come from and why did I not hear of you before?”

Filed Under: arts Tagged With: cindy cavett, Delaware author, seaside cindy

Local publisher and authors win Delaware Press Awards

March 31, 2017 by coastaldelaware Leave a Comment

As the list of books published by Cat & Mouse Press grows, so does its number of awards. When the 2017 Delaware Press Association (DPA) Communication Contest awards were announced, the small indie publisher based in Lewes, DE, had garnered eight awards, including first-place awards for three of the books it published in 2016. The entries will now be eligible for the national-level honors through the National Federation of Press Women.

Beach Nights, the anthology of winning stories from the popular Rehoboth Beach Reads Short Story Contest won first place awards for short story collection (multiple authors) and book editing, and two authors in the book placed in the category of single short story: Kathleen Martens (Rehoboth Beach, DE), who received a first-place award for her story “Flight of the Songbird,” and Rich Barnett (Washington, DC, and Rehoboth Beach, DE), who received second-place for “Cooking Lard and Candle Wax.” Other stories in this eclectic collection of beach reads involve a ghostly WWII tower, a couple with an unusual annual tradition, a boy who learns the snow cone king has a secret, an old lady who is inspired to get a tattoo, and a despondent man who is resurrected through the tango.

The Mermaid in Rehoboth Bay, a sumptuously illustrated children’s picture book, received two first-place awards, one for its author, Nancy Sakaduski (Chadds Ford, PA, and Lewes, DE), and one for the book’s design team, which included Marcella Harte (Bear, DE) and James Dissette (Chestertown, MD). The Mermaid in Rehoboth Bay is a story that celebrates the beauty of the sea and tidal areas, and depicts two strong female characters who confront their fears and achieve their goals on their own. The story is inspiring and addresses themes of friendship, girl-empowerment, respect for differences, love of nature, and overcoming fears to achieve your goals.

Fun with Dick and James, a raucous romp penned by Rich Barnett received a first-place award in the category of short story collection by a single author. The stories feature Dick Hunter, a Delaware blue blood who would be perfectly happy to spend his days writing obscure historical biographies, taking naps, and lying on the beach who seems to find himself in one jam after another. Fortunately, his young boyfriend, James Flores, is a natural problem-solver, even though his methods aren’t always by the book.

The Sea Sprite Inn by Lynnette Adair (Wilmington, DE) received a third-place award in the adult novel category. As the book opens, Jillian finds herself in the middle of a perfect storm of stressful situations: newly divorced, her daughter leaving for college, an ailing grandfather, and now responsibility for the run-down family home in Rehoboth. But with the help of some loyal friends and a newly discovered sense of purpose, Jillian turns lemons into The Sea Sprite Inn, a bed and breakfast that serves as the backdrop for stories within the story as the book progresses.

The awards will be presented May 4 at the DPA annual banquet at the University & Whist Club, 805 N. Broom Street, Wilmington, DE. The event is open to the public. A registration link will be posted at http://delawarepressassociation.org.

Filed Under: arts

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