Madd Inlet - a New Novel About Sunset Beach - is Available Now!
Madd Inlet is here!
Local author Tim Swink has written a new novel about the Sunset Beach area.
We are so excited to share it with you! Below is some more information about the author, the novel, and how to purchase a copy of your very own.
From the author: Tim Swink
Why did you choose to write about Sunset Beach (and Madd Inlet)?
I first came to Sunset Beach in the mid-sixties when it was but a two-row beach cottage beach. The memories began there and continue there, to this day.
I met my wife, then a mid-western Ohio girl at a beach just a little south of Sunset Beach. I told her about Sunset...of its beauty and solitude... and she expressed a desire to go there. So we took a trip across the South Carolina line to Sunset Beach. While there, we took a walk down the beach to Bird Island...a late afternoon walk when the sky is soft and streaked in multi-shades of clouds by a descending sun.
As we strolled and chatted, a small wave came in and brushed our ankles. As it receded, it left seven sand dollars, in descending size at our feet. Later, my wife (and I) took that as an omen that we both were meant to be there at that specific time and place. We were married one year later.
Sunset became, and has been ever since that first visit, her beach as well. Like me, Sunset Beach and Bird Island are in her soul. So much so that one day during the writing of this novel, I nonchalantly asked her, over my shoulder, "Think you could paint a picture of a MADD INLET for the cover of my book?" She took me up on it. I loved it so much, I submitted it to my publisher's cover design department for their consideration.
Her painting adorns the face of my novel.
Tell us about your writing process!
The author E.L. Doctorow once said, "Writing is like driving a car at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." I wish I'd written that, because that is exactly how I write.
Some writers outline their books and work within that scaffolding, which is totally acceptable and fine. But other writers write by their headlights. That's me. The writing tends, I think, to be organic. The story unfolds and leads. It is that way with me. I follow the story as it unfolds ahead of me...in the headlights...out of the fog.
What is Madd Inlet about?
This book is set in the late 1960's right here in Sunset Beach. Times have changed since then, but this novel will transport you back to the Vietnam War era. Much as people "escape" to Sunset Beach today (for amazing beach vacations, relaxation, and adventure), so did Swink's main character, Jack Tagger. Jack is resisting the draft, but in doing so, finds himself in a completely different sort of conflict at Sunset Beach.
What lesson would you like your readers to take away from this book?
Love, respect, and a sense of place for a special 'island,' whatever and wherever that might be.
To whom is the novel dedicated?
A dear friend is in the late stages of ALS (Lou Gehrig disease). I have dedicated this book to him. I read the dedication to him because I wanted him to know. It is on page three. I told him he will forever be on page three of "MADD INLET." Although the disease had robbed him of his ability to speak, he smiled a beatific smile.
Have you written any other novels?
Yes! In addition to MADD INLET, which was released today (March 7, 2022), I have written two other novels.
My debut novel is called "CURING TIME," and is to be re-published and released on August 2nd, 2022 (purchase here).
"Curing Time is tobacco's season of harvest, a time of transformation, when the leaf is made golden by subjection to fire and heat. Tobacco farmer Hume Rankin endures his own curing time in the summer of 1959. When the rains won't come and the crops wilt in the field, he solicits the magic of an old, blind black woman. She warns of the dangers of calling on the middle world and tells him once those spirits are unleashed, it is they who decide when and how the spell unfolds. Hume dismisses her warning, to his peril.
When his life-long nemesis, Worth Baker, who has always had his eye on Hume's land as well as his wife, is found dead, all eyes are on Hume. He faces the all-too real possibility of losing his land, his family and even his life. Sitting in a jail cell, uncertain of his own innocence, he finds himself lost and a long way from home.
Recalling the old woman's warning, he is haunted by the possibility that he may have played a part in his own demise."
Curing Time's sequel, "WHERE THE FLOWERS BLOOMED," will be re-released shortly after that. Please check my website for updates.
How to buy the book:
Please click here to learn more about the novel, Madd Inlet, including where to purchase available in both Kindle and paperback editions.
Follow Tim Swink's Author page on Facebook by clicking here.
