Lowcountry Summer (46 page)

Special thanks to my friend of many decades, Charlie Moore of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, for once again taking up the cloth to portray the Reverend Charles Moore. Charlie Moore was and is still one of the funniest, smartest, coolest men to have ever lived and I am sending you a big smooch, my friend. The dweeb he plays in these pages bears no resemblance beyond height and gender to Charlie’s intellect, character, or sex appeal.

To my agent and great friend, Larry Kirshbaum, a true prince and the most charming and elegant gentleman in the whole darn city of New York, with enormous gratitude for his excellent counsel and humor. To my wonderful editor, Carrie Feron, for her good humor and incredible insights and understanding, I am giving you three curtseys, plus a bow, and a scrape and blowing you many kisses of appreciation from the other side of the Hudson.

And to the entire William Morrow and Avon team: Brian Murray, Michael Morrison, Liate Stehlik, Adrienne Di Pietro, Tessa Woodward, Lynn Grady, Tavia Kowalchuk, Seale Ballenger, Ben Bruton, Greg Shutack, Shawn Nichols, Debbie Steir, Frank Albanese, Virginia Stanley, Bobby Brinson, Jamie Brickhouse, Rachael Brennan, Michael Brennan, Carl Lennertz, Carla Parker, Michael Morris, Michael Spradliln, Brian Grogan, Gabe Barillas, and Deb Murphy, thank you one and all for all the miracles you bring about every day, for your amazing and generous support. Y’all make me want to dance!

To my writer friends in New Jersey and South Carolina who prop me up from time to time with your amazing humor and generous compassion: Pamela Redmond Satran, Mary Jane Clark, Laurie Albanese, Debbie Galant, Deborah Davis, Benilde Little, Christina Baker Kline, Liza Dawson, Jack Alterman, Marjory Wentworth, Jenny Sanford, Josephine Humphreys, Barbara Haggerty, Mary Alice Monroe, Pat Conroy, and his long-suffering wife, Cassandra King Conroy, I love y’all like a crazy woman! And if I left anyone out, I’ll buy you a glass of wine at Station Twenty-Two Restaurant on the island or at Halcyon in the ’burbs.

To my dear friend Buzzy Porter, Buzz Man, Wonderful One—I’m missing you! Is there Chick-Fil-A in our future? And special thanks to Giovanni Castilla for bringing an international flavor to these pages.

To Debbie Zammit, my stalwart and dearest friend of so many years. It’s a little scary who keeps me on track, who is so meticulous that I look organized, and so funny and crazy, what can I say? Thanks for another year of fabulous tuna salad and for making me laugh until it hurts. Love ya, love ya!

To Ann Del Mastro, Mary Allen, George Zur, and Kevin Sherry—the Franks adore you all and deeply appreciate all you do to keep us afloat. To Penn Sicre for your friendship and faith. To my fabulous cousin Charles “Comar” Blanchard of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, for reasons too numerous to cite. Love you all!

To the real people who appear in these pages besides Charlie Moore, Oscar Rosen, Nancy Poole, and Lynn Brook, if they act out of character, and I’m just guessing that they will, don’t blame them. It’s just the writer having some fun and their antics in no way reflect the character of these law-abiding, tax-paying, mighty-fine folks.

To booksellers across the land, and I mean every single one of them, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, especially Patty Morrison of Barnes & Noble, Charleston, South Carolina, who has led the launch of
nine
books and with whom I have eaten more cookies than either of us will ever admit; Larry Morey and every single sainted soul from Barnes & Noble in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina; Jennifer McCurry and all her brilliant staff at Waldenbooks in downtown Charleston; Margot Sage-El of Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey; Frazer Dobson and Sally Brewster of Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina; and everybody hold the phone for Jacquie Lee of Books a Million! Holy moly. What can I say? Jacquie, you are the greatest! You all are the greatest! My whole family is in your debt and all the Franks thank y’all from the depths of our gizzards!

To my wonderful husband, Peter, and our two glorious children, Victoria and William, I love y’all with all my heart and I thank you for your endless patience and support. I am so proud to own the bragging rights because with everything you do and just because of who you are, you make my heart swell in gratitude.

Finally, to my readers to whom I owe the greatest debt of all. I am sending you the most sincere and profound thanks for reading my stories, sending along so many nice e-mails, for being my Facebook friends, for coming out to book signings in the rain and all kinds of crazy weather. You are why I continue to try to write a book every year. I hope someday you’ll find yourself in the Lowcountry’s ACE Basin and get some of Millie’s magic for yourself.

I love you all and thank you all. Yes, I do, ’eah?

Also by

DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK

Return to Sullivans Island

Bulls Island

The Christmas Pearl

The Land of Mango Sunsets

Full of Grace

Pawleys Island

Shem Creek

Isle of Palms

Plantation

Sullivans Island

LOWCOUNTRY SUMMER.
Copyright © 2010 by Dorothea Benton Frank. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN 978-0-06-196117-5

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