A summer festival gone awry - Dean L. Hovey

 I sat, fingers poised over the keyboard, ready to write the next Whistling Pines cozy,  but nothing came to mind. NOTHING. My perceptive wife looked at me and asked, "What's wrong?" I explained my dilemma and she thought for about two seconds and said, "You've never written about a Two Harbors summer festival."

Moments later she'd found a Two Harbors website featuring a pirate ship with Scantily clad wenches lining the deck and beefy pirates hanging from the sails. The text below listed an upcoming date, a weekend of activities, and a list of bands performing. There were contests, foods, liquor, and a clothing-optional sailboat cruise.

I froze, perhaps literally. "Um, dear," I said. "We live near Lake Superior, and sticking even a toe in the water at any time of year is painful. The deep waters of the Lake Superior never rise more than a degree or two above freezing in the height of summer, and sunbathing cruises seem...wrong." We rechecked the date of the festival. It was set for June, still part of the possible snow season in northern Minnesota, and early enough in the year that it would be foolish to assume there wouldn't be ice fishermen walking on the lake rather than sailboats full of sunbathers. It was then we realized she was looked at the website for Two Harbors on Catalina Island.

Ideas flew around my head like billiard balls. We're all coming out of Covid isolation and people are looking for things to do. Tourists will search for Two Harbors summer festivals and would find this interesting site. Missing the small detail of the California area code as we had, they'll be making motel and campground reservations in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Calls will be made to the local chamber of commerce requesting information. Wanting to capitalize on the tourism surge, the chamber of commerce, fraternal organizations, and churches will put together their own Buccaneer Days festival for the same dates.

I started writing. Peter Rogers, my protagonist who is the recreation director of Whistling Pines senior residence, sets up activities to mirror the town's plans. He puts together pirate and wench costume contests, a pirate sing along, and more. 

At this point I paused, struggling to think of other possible festival activities. I contacted my tuba playing Two Harbors consultant. His wife answered the phone, I outlined my book to her and asked if I could consult with Brian. "Oh, yes, please. I'll get him from the tubararium." Moments last Brian was on the phone. "What's a tubararium, Brian?" I asked. He explained that it was his soundproof room where he practiced playing his tuba. He's designed it to keep the neighbors from complaining to the police.

After explaining my lack of activities, he started firing off ideas. "The city band does concerts in the park, the Sons of Norway have a summer picnic including a lutefisk dinner, the Rotary club has a fundraising pancake breakfast. You can gather them all into one big festival. There have been rumors about the Sons of Norway planning a lutefisk tossing contest, but they've always backed off when someone points out it might be illegal for lutefisk bits to wash into the lake."

I laughed, included the lutefisk toss to the list, then fired off an email to my other consultants requesting other ideas for the festival. Within a day I had dozens of other ideas, and encouragement to include a naturist cruise, promoted by the Whistling Pines residents. I wrote a pirate-themed murder, added a Lake Superior regatta, and wrote until my fingers bled (figuratively speaking).

The eBook version of Whistling Pirates is available for pre-order ahead of the May 1 release.