Welcome, Kat Holmes

Howdy Ginger. Thanks for telling Kat Holmes you wanted to let one of her characters come on over to your blog and yak a bit. Kat asked me if I would mind popping in and telling you a bit about me and well, my island. Hope that’s okay.

I am the sheriff of Star Island, Maine. Have been since my Dad decided to retire when Kelly Westmont fell to her death not that long ago, reminding Dad just how short life really is. He and Mom are world hopping now and loving every minute of it. Before Dad left I was just one of his deputies, as was my sister Paulette, though we call her Pauley. Now that Dad’s gone, I’m the Sheriff, Pauley’s one of my deputies and I also have a nice guy Ryan Siders, who used to be from New York.

Ours is a small force, but then we’re not exactly a huge island, and crime on our island consists of little more than kids playing tricks, most of the time, although we do get the occasional summertime crime when the island becomes packed with tourists. Still it’s a really great place to live.

The biggest attraction is that lighthouse. I mean you can see that sucker from miles and miles away. Like the island, it’s filled with local lore. A Westmont has been the lighthouse keeper since the very beginning. When Kelly fell to her death there was a lot of talk. None of us knew if there were any Westmont’s left out there beyond the crashing Atlantic waters. Kelly’s brother, a nasty, self-centered piece of work had left the island without looking back ages ago, and for all any of us knew, could be like Kelly, gone…so it came as a surprise, and offered up a lot to the local gossisp when an heir, Kelly’s niece, by the name of Rachel Westmont was not only located, but willing to come to our island and take up the cause…keeping the lighthouse bulb burning.

As you can guess, there aren’t a lot of “regular” people living on the island, and those that are natives, I’ve known since I was a boy. I left the island for a spell. Thought I’d seek greener pastures out there in the great big world, but found I really do like it better here on my island where I am part of a pretty neat whole.

But now that we knew Kelly Westmont’s niece was on her way, the Native’s began speculating. What was she like? When would she arrive? Would she adapt to the isolation…the ferry runs only twice a day between Star Island and the mainland, and come winter, that can be a pretty brutal crossing. How would she like having to be up all night tending to the vital lifeblood for the seafarers by trudging up and down those winding stone steps several times throughout the night to make certain the light remained burning bright? It was a lot to ask of a landlubber. What would she be like as a person? Shy and somewhat reclusive like her aunt, stuck up and self absorbed like her father?

There were wagers about when she would arrive and how long she would remain. No one truly believed she would, stay. She was, they learned after all, from CALIFORINA…and they’d heard about THOSE people. Still some held onto the hope that deep down she was still a Westmont and the legacy burning in her DNA would surface. The islanders wouldn’t admit it, they were a proud, hardy stock, but they really needed her and they wanted to believe that a part of her needed them to.

As for me…the minute I saw Rachel Westmont for the first time, I needed her to want to stay way beyond any legacy dealing with the Lighthouse. Now all I have to do is convince her Star Island has everything she would ever need; mainly me, for the rest of her life.

THE LIGHTHOUSE by KAT HOLMES is due for release from MUSE IT HOT PUBLISHING on JANUARY 1, 2011. Celebrate the new year on Star Island where ghosts play a pivotal role in the lives of the islanders and Rachel Westmont learns just how strong she truly is.