A House on the Beach

The Morris house in ‘The Dictator’s Children’ and the Summerlin/Salas house in the Women in the Sun novels — written as Sienna Santerre — are variations on a theme. They are similar houses in similar locations on the Naples FL beach. They have similarities in their history. Indeed, when I first started on ‘One Summer in the Sun’ I considered making them the same place, tying the two series together. It just didn’t work with the established chronology of the Wilk books nor with the projected date for the ‘Sun’ novel. That is one reason I chose to go with the pen name, to provide some separation.

In both incarnations it is a not overly large two-story ‘cottage’ near the pier, built before WW2. Some of those remain in Naples; some have been demolished to be replaced by more grandiose houses. Even at the time the novels are set, the beachfront property beneath them was more valuable than the homes themselves. Of course, I have drawn up floor plans for both houses. I do that sort of thing for most of my fiction.

‘The Dictator’s Children’ and the two Women in the Sun novels are available at the Arachis Press site (arachispress.com) in print or as free ebooks.