Americans thrown a curveball by a pandemic by Mary Ellis

The Covid-19 epidemic has affected everyone during 2020. Many have seen family members fall ill and in some cases, die from this insidious virus. Others have lost jobs and are suffering financial hardship through no fault of their own. Even if your family wasn’t as direly impacted, no one has gotten away unscathed. Graduations, baptisms, showers and weddings cancelled, dreams put on hold. We’re no longer allowed to play proper respect at funerals. Schools have been closed with the responsibility for education thrust upon parents. Parks, playgrounds, pools, amusements, theaters, and sports facilities shuttered. We haven’t been allowed to meet a friend for lunch, get a haircut, or attend our place of worship. I am not implying the shutdown wasn’t necessary, especially since my husband and I are “of a certain age” with serious medical conditions. But now that restrictions are lifting, I’ve come to three observations about American personalities.

We are impatient by nature. We can follow the rules for only a certain length of time. After that we want everything to go back to normal, myself included. We might be able to survive three months without a haircut, but not six. My British friends are still under lock-down and thriving better than my neighbors here. A summer without block parties? A fall without football? No hayrides, no Christmas caroling, no taking grandkids to see Santa at the mall? Enough is enough.

We don’t mind suggestions, but please don’t tell us what to do. We are far more independent than the rest of the world. If you observed the streets of Paris or Rome after lockdown was imposed, not a “creature was stirring.” Not the case in many parts of the US.

We don’t like living with uncertainty. We want definite answers and solutions to our problems. We don’t like all these ideas being tossed around regarding treatments or possible vaccines. Are masks good or bad or somewhere in-between? Everyone has an opinion but no one seems to have an answer.

God has the answer. God knows how this will play out and asks only that we trust Him and be patient. Not just for the month or June or the rest of summer, but until we feel safe again. And I know just how hard that can be.

These were my opinions. Please leave me a comment with yours.  You will be entered in a drawing for a copy of The Amish Sweet Shop, recently nominated for a National Readers’ Choice Award. You must leave an email address, US or Canada only. Happy Reading, Mary Ellis

Mary’s latest book is Island of Last Resorts. : Cut off from the outside world on a private island, can a crack team of investigators solve a cold-case murder before a rich madman picks them off one-by-one?

Buy it on Kindle for $8.79: https://www.amazon.com/Island-Last-Resorts-Marked-Retribution-ebook/dp/B07V5WP7KD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29THW1ZL5IRGO&dchild=1&keywords=island+of+last+resorts&qid=1592841809&sprefix=Island+of+Last+%2Caps%2C274&sr=8-1

What I Won't Do for Research ~ Win a copy of Island of Last Resorts by Mary Ellis

Happy Wednesday, readers!  I got a big surprise last week....my next installment of Marked for Redemption Mysteries, Island of Last Resorts, (which I thought was coming in late October) released in early September. Island of Last Resorts is set on the fictional island of Elysian, but is loosely based on two real-life islands, namely Sapelo and Cumberland. Both of those islands are partially privately-owned and partially publicly-owned by the US Park Service. Don't you think a remote island off the coast of Georgia would make a great setting for a murder mystery? I thought so too. Many of my characters from Secrets of the South Mysteries return for a company retreat that could have fatal consequences. 

Join me for a background research...Sapelo Island contains the community of Hog Hammock, which is the last known Gullah community in America. Many of the full-time inhabitants (estimated at 47) of the Hog Hammock Community are African Americans known as Gullah-Geechees, descendants of enslaved West African people brought to the island in the 1700s and 1800s to work on island plantations. Hog Hammock contains homes, a general store, bar, public library, and a few small businesses including vacation rentals, along with two active churches: St. Luke Baptist Church, founded in 1885, and First African Baptist Church, established in 1866. The residents must bring all supplies from the mainland or purchase them at the one small store. The children of Hog Hammock take the ferry to the mainland and then a bus to school, since the island school closed in 1978. Hog Hammock is also home to the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society, Inc. (SICARS), a non-profit organization to increase awareness of Sapelo’s two-hundred-year-old African community. I was lucky during my trip to Sapelo Island to have Yvonne Grovner as my tour guide, whose husband is a direct descendant of the Gullah-Geechees.

Here's a bit about the story: Kate Weller’s boss, Nate Price, has some exciting news: Julian Frazier, a friend of one of his PI agency’s wealthy clients, has invited the Nate Price Investigations team and their partners on a trip of a lifetime to his home on Elysian Island, an exclusive retreat off the Georgian coast. But there’s a catch. Frazier has written his own murder mystery script, and the PIs must work out whodunnit. As they’re about to discover, though, the murder Frazier wants them to solve is a real cold case, and there's a killer twist that isn't in the script . . . Unable to reach the island and her coworkers, Kate is sure that someone wants her to stay away. Can she reach Elysian Island and stop a savage killer before a deadly game reaches its conclusion?

Island of Last Resorts is available in Kindle or Hardback editions. Get it here!

Please leave me a comment about the most bizarre place you ever visited for an e-book copy of Island of Last Resorts. 

Have a great  week, readers!   Mary Ellis