Me, Susan Hill Long, Augusta Scattergood, Barbara O’Connor (notice the southerners looking especially charming)

A year (or so– time flies), three amazing women gathered at the Larson beach house near the Canadian border. Augusta and Barbara and I knew each other; Susan and I knew each other. But none of us had been roomies before.

It worked out smashingly.

Not only did we laugh, eat well, collect beach treasures and get a lot of work done, we bonded over one particular image.

Someone (my lips are sealed) used a particularly unwieldy metaphor (or simile; I can’t recall) involving butterflies.

As part of an evening’s critique session (there may have been wine involved) three other someones pointed out the hiccup and a resolution was quickly found.

After our week together, we sadly parted company and returned to our respective homes. Somehow, and quite serendipitously, the three other someones also found ways to incorporate butterflies into their manuscripts.

And wouldn’t you know it? Each of those four manuscripts found a publishing home! And even more amazing, all four books come out in 2016. Yes, and all with butterfly references.

Thus, we dubbed ourselves the Butterfly Sisters.

photo courtesy Katy Van Aken

And, as Paul Harvey used to say, and now you know the rest of the story.