This is it. Every mile closer I get to Rock Point is another mile closer to my dream. Today I move in with Avery, my best friend, in the old house she inherited from her parents. In just a few hours, I’ll be catching up with her about the daily goings-on at her café, the Brew House, and watching the Pacific Ocean crash on the cliffs below.

And tomorrow, I open my kite shop, Strings Attached. Kites might seem like a funny thing for a thirty-year-old woman to be interested in, but I’ve loved them ever since my parents took me and Sunny, my sister, to Rock Point to fly kites along the beach. Watching their forms bob and dive in the wind is meditation. Kites and art. Those have been my obsessions as long as I can remember.

Then I learned that kites can be art. After I graduated from art college, I began playing with shapes and color until I was designing and making my own kites inspired by artists like Van Gogh, Monet, and even Mondrian. Ideas for new kites seem to spring from every cloud or garden or hike in the woods.

Who’s that blasting on their horn in the car behind me? Looks like a carload of frat boys, probably on their way to Cannon Beach to party. No doubt, they saw my “Bowl Naked” bumper sticker, next to the one that reads “Kill Your Television.” Thanks, Mom and Dad. When Dad gave me his Prius so he could return to his beloved VW bus, I was stuck with them.

My ex-hippie parents are the other reason I’m so glad to be moving to Rock Point. I adore them, don’t get me wrong, but I’m a full-grown woman with no need of Mom’s uninvited quinoa casseroles and Dad’s frequent lectures on composting. Mom’s always pushing tinctures on me recommended by her croning circle, and Dad seems never to run out of stories from his Watergate reenactment group. At least I’m not Bear, our family’s Australian shepherd, who gets pressed into service as President Nixon’s cocker spaniel.

When I left Portland this morning, Mom was quiet. That’s so not like her. She stood on the porch hugging herself and shaking her head. “Emmy,” she said, “Can I convince you to stay home? Just another few days? I have a bad feeling about this move.”

I shook off her warning with a laugh. She was known for her “premonitions” and had already warned me that Mercury was in retrograde. “No, Mom, I’m moving. I know you want me to stay close forever, but it’s time to cut the cord.”

She just stood there, staring at me. I hugged her and scratched Bear between the ears, then got into the Prius. “Don’t worry, Mom,” I told her. “What could possibly go wrong?”

You can read more about Emmy in BLOWN AWAY, the first book in the NEW Kite Shop mystery series.

In the all-new Kite Shop Mystery series set in the beachside community of Rock Point, Oregon, kite shop owner Emmy Adler gets swept up in a murder investigation.

Emmy is finally living her dream. She’s moved to the coastal town of Rock Point, Oregon, and is starting a kite business. Strings Attached features her own unique designs, inspired by everything from Picasso to Matisse’s colorful cutouts. Her spirits are soaring sky-high the morning of the grand opening—until she stumbles upon a dead man washed up on the beach.

The body belongs to local chef Miles Logan, and the gash across his chest indicates he’s been murdered. The sheriff suspects Emmy’s best friend, Avery, who used to date the chef. Emmy is sure Avery would never hurt anyone, but her pal doesn’t have an alibi for the night of the murder. With Avery’s freedom and the fate of her kite shop up in the air, Emmy takes it upon herself to follow the string of clues and solve the murder before the real killer takes flight.

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Meet the author
Clover Tate is the pen name of Angela M. Sanders, author of the Joanna Hayworth vintage clothing mysteries and the Booster Club capers. Blown Away is the first novel in a series of Kite Shop mysteries set in the coastal town of Rock Point, Oregon. When Angela isn’t at her laptop, she’s rummaging in thrift shops, lounging with a book and her ex-shelter cats Mae West and Squeaky, and pontificating about how to make the perfect martini. Connect with Angela at www.angelamsanders.com.

All comments are welcomed.

Blown Away is available at retail and online booksellers.