St. Pete Beach and Sun Island Sayonara

It’s been a crazy busy week, but crazy in a good way. I’ll be packing up and leaving the Sun Island Motel in St. Pete Beach tomorrow, heading back into downtown St. Petersburg for my new Uptown St. Pete digs pretty much for the month of February.

I’ve enjoyed my visit in Sunset Beach. I’ve learned to navigate around South Pasadena and Gulfport, FL without GPS. I like some parts of this area, especially around swell Treasure Island. I’ve given myself permission to look at condos in the area. Yes, I love downtown St. Pete and all of its buzz, but housing prices are through the roof. There are new downtown developments on the horizon, but we’re looking at a 2-year build window before they’ll be ready to occupy. This area, South Pasadena is halfway between the million-dollar Gulf side beach homes and the downtown St. Pete high-rises. These condos, amenities, and price points are still within the realm of actuality.

In addition to my creative work, I’ve been writing feature articles for St. Pete’s Northeast Journal. My upcoming story is about Coffee Pot Bayou and its manatee population. I needed to visit the St. Pete Museum of History to research Crescent Lake, and not only did I turn up a dugout canoe workmen found buried in the mud; the museum also had a purported copy of William Shakespeare’s death mask hanging on the wall. Why was The Bard of Avon there? Who knows? I’ve come to learn that living in Florida you take some oddities as a given.

And since my writing life is my Vaga Bond focus, I wanted to post pictures of the Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime’s first in-person post-COVID author book signing event at the Barbara S. Ponce Pinellas Park Library.

Our panel shared insights into “Coastal Crime: There’s Something in the Water.” You can see from the smiles we had a great time, hanging out together and meeting new readers. Best of all, my NOLA Mystery LOVE POWER sold out.