Spotlight & Giveaway: The Summer Cottage by Viola Shipman

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Viola Shipman to HJ!

From the bestselling author of The Charm Bracelet and The Recipe Box comes the perfect summer escape about the restorative power of family tradition, small-town community and the feel of sand between your toes

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Author Viola Shipman, pen name for author Wade Rouse, has the uncanny ability to write stories that bring forward long-buried memories for readers. It could be said that the author hits on our collective consciousness, especially when it comes to memories of summer cottages, your grandmother’s recipe box or even your families cherished charm bracelet. In Shipman’s latest novel THE SUMMER COTTAGE (on-sale April 23), taking place in Saugatuck, MI, the authors own hometown, Shipman takes readers on another journey through time and memories, reminiscing summers spent at a cherished family cottage. The author ends the novel with his trademark author note, sharing the real-life inspiration behind the novel, his grandparents own magical cottage, which leads into a book club discussion guide. As the author himself shares, “Let’s be honest: a man writing women’s fiction using his grandmother’s name as a pen name sounds like a terrible (idea),” but it works!
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

“There it is!” I said, rolling down the car window and stick¬ing my head out.
Even though I was a grown woman—a married mom now in her thirties—there was nothing like seeing my family’s summer cottage again. I smiled as Creaky Cottage came into view.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

With themes of city vs. country, modernity vs. tradition, and kick-starting a new phase of your life no matter what age, the novel reminds us what values are worth keeping and cherishing, in a world turned upside down.
 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

Watch out for THE HEIRLOOM GARDEN, launching Spring 2020, from Graydon House Books!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: Print copy of THE SUMMER COTTAGE by Viola Shipman

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you love cottages as much as I do? Share your favorite cabin memory below!

 
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Excerpt from The Summer Cottage:

July 2006
“There it is!” I said, rolling down the car window and stick¬ing my head out.
Even though I was a grown woman—a married mom now in her thirties—there was nothing like seeing my family’s summer cottage again. I smiled as Creaky Cottage came into view. It looked as though it had been lifted from a storybook: an old, shingled cottage sitting on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, an American flag flapping in the breeze. The cool wind coming off the lake whistled, the grass on the dunes swayed, the leaves rustled in the aspen trees and the needles of the tall pines surrounding the cottage quivered.
My heart raced, and all the years fell away. I instantly felt as excited as the little girl who knew she’d be spending her entire summer here. I waved at my parents.
“We’re here!” I called. “We’re here!”
I could hear them whooping and hollering from the screened porch. Their happy voices echoed back, envelop¬ing the car.
“Welcome, campers, to Creaky Cottage!”
Our SUV pulled to a stop at the end of the long, gravel drive leading to the summer cottage. My seven-year-old son Evan bounded out of the SUV before it had even come to a complete stop.
“Grandma! Grampa!” he squealed, leaving his car door open and sprinting up the labyrinth of warped, wooden steps to the porch. My mom and dad were rocking on a barn-red glider, but they leaped off it, faces beaming, waving little American flags, “Yankee Doodle” blaring from a vintage stereo. They pulled Evan into their arms and rained his head with kisses.
I laughed and turned to my husband, Nate, who was roll¬ing his eyes.
“Please,” I said softly. “Don’t.”
“We’re not campers,” he admonished in the professorial tone he used to intimidate college freshman. “It’s so juve¬nile, Adeleine.”
“You know they’ve done it forever,” I said, reaching over to pat his arm. “Let’s just have fun. It’s summer. It’s July Fourth vacation. It’s our only time away from all the stress of life.”
Nate didn’t agree or nod, but instead walked around to the trunk to retrieve suitcases.
I hated when he didn’t respond to my comments—which had been more frequent of late—but now wasn’t the time to tell him this. We hadn’t seen my folks since Christmas, and I just wanted our visit to be pleasant.
“Adie Lou,” my mom and dad cooed at the same time as I headed toward them. They pulled me into their arms and hugged me tightly. “Our Yankee Doodle Dandy is home!”
“I love you, too,” I said. And I meant it. My parents were more than a little corny, but I loved them more than anything.
Nate caught up, lugging a big suitcase and an oversize cooler up the steps.
“Jonathan,” Nate said formally to my father, extending his hand, before turning to my mother. “Josephine.”
Everything Nate did was formal. It was one of the first things that attracted me to him in college. He opened doors, and wore sweaters with leather patches on the elbows. He took me to the theater and read books to me. He told me I could be and do anything, and treated me as an equal. He was un¬like any beer-guzzling fraternity boy my sorority sisters typi¬cally dated. And his seriousness and manners gave him an air of authority that made me feel safe, things that now just felt distant and cold.
“Nathaniel,” my dad said just as seriously, before bust¬ing into a laugh. “Smile, Nate! This is Creaky Cottage. Not Cranky Cottage.”
“Yeah, Dad!” Evan added, before turning to his grandpar¬ents and jumping excitedly. “Are we ready?”
Nate smiled, but it came across as more of a smirk.
“Ready for what?” my dad teased, deciding to ignore Na¬te’s response and focus on Evan instead.
“Ready to recite the rules!” Evan said, his eyes as blue and wide as the expanse of Lake Michigan behind him.
“It’s the only time I’ve seen you pay attention to rules,” I teased him.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Adie Lou Kruger’s ex never understood her affection for what her parents called their Cozy Cottage, the charming, ramshackle summer home—complete with its own set of rules for relaxing—that she’s inherited on Lake Michigan. But despite the fact she’s facing a broken marriage and empty nest, and middle age is looming in the distance, memories of happy childhoods on the beach give her reason for hope. She’s determined not to let her husband’s affair with a grad student reduce her to a cliché, or to waste one more minute in a career she doesn’t love, so it becomes clear what Adie Lou must do: rebuild her life and restore her cottage shingle by shingle, on her terms.

But converting the beloved, weather-beaten structure into a bed-and-breakfast isn’t quite the efficient home-reno experience she’s seen on TV. Pushback from Saugatuck’s contentious preservation society, costly surprises and demanding guests were not part of the plan. But as the cottage comes back to life, Adie Lou does, too, finding support in unexpected places and a new love story on the horizon. One cottage rule at a time, Adie Lou reclaims her own strength, history and joy by rediscovering the magic in every sunset and sandcastle.

Book Links: Amazon | B&N |Indie Bound |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Viola Shipman is the pen name for Wade Rouse, a popular, award-winning memoirist. Rouse chose his grandmother’s name, Viola Shipman, to honor the woman whose heirlooms and family stories inspire his writing. Rouse is the author of The Charm Bracelet and The Hope Chest which have been translated into more than a dozen languages and become international bestsellers. He lives in Saugatuck, Michigan and Palm Springs, California, and has written for People, Coastal Living, Good Housekeeping, and Taste of Home, along with other publications, and is a contributor to All Things Considered.
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