Sheila Jarkins

I'M BACK !

I'm back from Charleston, SC and back to blogging.  My husband and I escaped the frigid North for a few months in Atlantic (visited my son and family-check out our adventures there-Feb post) and Charleston.  We explored every area of downtown Charleston---especially loved the ironwork and gardens---visited many art galleries---and got info on the writing community.

The food was incredible, loved the hominy grill  (great low country cooking) --- we had the best breakfast ever at The Lost Dog Cafe in Folly Beach.   Poe's Tavern was a quaint place filled with Poe posters

(Edgar Allen Poe served in the army at Ft. Moultrie). and across the street was Dunleavy's Pub---the best mussels --steeped in broth and chunks of garlic!  Can you tell I love food!!  Actually I have a PB manuscript that is very food inspired that I have yet to finish.  

Some other highlights of our trip were:

Visits to the Edgar Allen Poe Library--unique place-

 housed in the Battery Gadsden

 (nat'l register of historic places) >>>>

Meeting Wendy Pollitzer, an interpretive Ranger

at the Hunting Island State Park.  She wrote 

Isle of Palms, a history of the Island.  My husband 

and I stayed in a villa by the ocean on the 

Isle of palms, so I bought her book.  She bought

Marco Flamingo for her daughter.  It's spooky that she

looks like me---a blonde version! >>>>

Of course we walked the beach almost every day---

even on cooler days there was sun!  It only rained a few days.

The expanse of salt marshes revived the soul, birds singing

in January--uplifting.  Harbors of shrimp boats--scenic.

A highlight for my husband was touring Naval and Maritime Museum at Patriot's Point (Charleston Harbor).  The USS Yorkstown is one of several ships moored there.  I enjoyed it too, but Gary is a WWII  

buff on propeller driver fighters.  There were plenty of those and jets too--like the Panther F9 below.

Hi, Gary!!

Once back home in March, I had to scramble to get the illustrations done for the second book in the Marco series the adventures of Marco Flamingo under the sea.  The book will be released in Fall '09---a year earlier than previously scheduled!  I agreed to meet the new deadline.  I actually loved working, sometimes till 2AM, on the paintings.  It went easier than the first book...what a little experience does for one's confidence and creativity!  There WERE flamingos in South Carolina--the plastic kind.