'Sandy Shorts' contains ideal beach reads for vacationers and residents
What do you get when you combine bad dogs, bad men, and bad luck? Great beach reads. And “Sandy Shorts,” a new book by Nancy Powichroski Sherman, offers just that. Stories in the book are set in the coastal towns of Bethany Beach, Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, and Cape May, Ocean City, and Wildwood, N.J.
They are grouped into sections labeled Sunny Days, Shifting Sands, Stormy Skies, and Starry Nights, according to their mood. Many of the stories reference local restaurants, beaches, bars, stores, and other familiar locations.
Sherman is an award-winning author who especially enjoys writing beach reads. “I love that the coastal towns of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey each have their own personalities. I was able to tap into that in the stories and create a wide variety of characters, situations, and settings.”
The “sandy shorts” deal with such wide-ranging situations as taking a less-than-cooperative dog on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, dealing with a rental mix-up in Bethany Beach, getting caught in a sudden storm on Rehoboth Beach, hitting the bars in Dewey, and facing real and imagined demons on a seemingly haunted ride on the Wildwood amusement pier.
The cover of the book features an illustration by local artist Patti Shreeve, whose work often appears in Delaware Beach Life magazine and other publications. It perfectly captures the spirit of the book, with two pairs of beach shorts capturing a summer breeze on a clothesline. The drawing continues on the back of the book, where a towel on the same clothesline serves as a backdrop for information about the book.
Short stories make ideal beach reads. They can be read at one sitting and are often light enough to allow the reader to follow the story even with the distractions of kids, lifeguard whistles, and breaks to reapply sunscreen. The fact that the stories are set in recognizable locations to beachgoers in the featured areas adds to the fun.
“Sandy Shorts” is available at Bethany Beach Books, Bethany Beach; Biblion Books, Lewes; Browseabout Books, Rehoboth Beach; Proud Book Store, Rehoboth Beach, and other stores in the area. For more information on the publisher and where to purchase “Sandy Shorts,” go to www.catandmousepress.com or its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/catandmousepress.
