BY PENNY WEBB
Whidbey Life Magazine contributor
Oct. 21, 2013
In her debut novel, “Geoducks are for Lovers,” WLM member Daisy Prescott makes the bold statement that romance is not just for the young. People in their middle years are still falling in love like teenagers, and still ─ gasp! ─ having sex.
“We’re not dead yet!” the author said with a laugh.
Prescott is a self-published author, who spent many happy childhood summers on Whidbey Island and lived in Langley for a year in her 30s. She met her future husband here and has moved to the East Coast for now, but she feels forever an islander. She chose to set her first novel on the island because it is so much a part of her early life and because she loves it.
“I wanted to write a book that would honor Whidbey,” she said.
“And a book that would show that people in their 40s still have a pulse.”
“Geoducks” came into being after Prescott became intrigued by romance fiction.
“I’ve only been reading romance novels for about four years, and I realized that a whole age range was not being represented,” she said.
“I saw a niche that needed filling. I had just watched “Reality Bites” and “The Big Chill” and I thought, ‘I need to write a book about my own generation’s midlife experiences,’” she said. “Sort of like “The Breakfast Club” grown up.”
“Geoducks” begins with a looming 20-year reunion for a group of Evergreen State College friends (the geoduck is the school’s mascot), who have managed to stay pretty close over the years. Divorced food writer Maggie lives on Whidbey Island, and has just gone through the painful process of nursing her mother through her final illness. Maggie is friendly with her hunky next- door-neighbor John, and is content to hole up in the family cabin on Sunlight Beach. She feels supported and safe on the island, and is in no hurry to change her quiet life.
Enter a troupe of her college buddies for the weekend: Her best gay boyfriend, Quinn, the artist; her gal pal Selah, the erotica writer; her married, stable friends Ben and Jo, grateful to be away from their kids for the weekend; and unexpectedly, Gil, her long-lost, best buddy/almost boyfriend from senior year.
The novel is dialogue driven, reading almost like a screenplay.
“Many times I will just hear the dialogue and I start taking notes on the voices in my head!” Prescott said. “It’s like it’s just flowing through me.”
The repartee between the characters feels like you’re listening in on a group of old friends at the next table, who may know each other better than they know themselves. The laughter and banter of inside jokes, and allusions to past mistakes or incidents, made this reader miss my old buddies from my early 20s, before we all bought houses and had kids, and woke up one day and realized we were adults.
These characters are adults with a capital “A.” Divorces, lost loved ones, career detours, financial ruin, kids, heart breaks — they’ve endured all the twists and turns of adult life over the years.
Gun shy of love, Maggie wrestles with her rekindled feelings for Gil, and over the course of the weekend is tortured by her doubts and fears.
“Geoducks is about getting second chances — and not being afraid to take them!” Prescott said.
Speaking of second, next on Prescott’s agenda is a follow up to “Geoducks.”
“My readers really fell in love with Maggie’s neighbor John, so my next novel will be John’s story,” the author said. “John is a born-and-bred islander, so his story will be from quite a different perspective and show a different side of Whidbey,” Prescott added. The book is due out in December.
“Then, I think I’ll do Selah’s story next. I didn’t really set out to write a series, but it’s turning out that way.”
Prescott followed her character Selah’s lead and took a detour into writing erotica herself.
“I thought it would be a fun writing exercise to try my hand at erotica and use Selah’s nom de plume,” she explained.
“The Pink Pearl” is available on Kindle through Amazon, authored by Suzette Marquis, aka Selah Elmore, aka Daisy Prescott.
“One Amazon reviewer wrote: ‘I don’t really see the point…it’s just all about sex.’ And, I was like, ‘Um, yeah! That’s why it’s called erotica!’ Prescott said.”
Prescott plans to make a stop on island during her spring book tour in 2014.
Find “Geoducks are for Lovers” at Moonraker Books in Langley and at Amazon.com.
For more information on Prescott, visit her Whidbey Life Magazine member page here.
(Pictured at top, “Geoducks are for Lovers” on a Kindle. / Jenn Davis Nielsen photo)
Penny Webb is a writer, musician, gardener and mom. She is currently convinced that her new refrigerator is haunted.