I am so excited about the third and final novel in the Sandhill Island series, Smugglers of Sandhill Island. The edits are final, and the beautiful cover is complete. I am waiting for a release date. You’ll be the first to know when I learn that exciting news. Then we’ll party! I’ve loved getting to know the residents of Sandhill Island and they have become good friends. No, more like family. I wish them well and know they will have more adventures.

Dani Brown grew up poor and hard working. Her brother, Cody, only grew up poor. Always wanting the easy way out, Cody ran drugs and lived his life on handouts. When they were young, Dani and Cody were inseparable, now Dani only sees him if he’s desperate. The drugs he samples and sells have started to rot his brain.

This time, Cody owes some big money, and the only person he knows to help him is his sister. When the cartel realizes she owns a boat that could run even more drugs for them, she is torn between saving her brother and living her life. The final Sandhill Island story pits sister against brother in a life-or-death struggle.

 Cody has been kidnapped by the cartel and when the cigar boat they are piloting blows up, he is the only survivor—floating alone on the ocean miles from shore.

He remembered very little about the blast. But he remembered surfacing finally. Saltwater makes a body buoyant—another lesson from Dani—and she was right. He was lying on his back and breathing and that was everything. His ears rang and he might never hear again and the skin on his face, neck, and hands burned like fire in the salty water. He felt the bandage that had covered his neck flopping in the waves, and he thought of blood in the water. Sharks were attracted to blood. But the wound had begun to heal in the last few days. Then why did it burn like fire in the salt water? He must be bleeding again from his neck and maybe his face and hands. He didn’t need to attract any predators. Sharks were the last thing he needed tonight. Those things terrified him. Having lived next to the ocean all his life, he had never gotten used to them. He knew they were out there, and he knew they were continuous eating machines. He didn’t want to become someone’s dinner.

He stared into the night sky barely conscious but breathing. He was in the middle of the ocean without a boat or any means of flotation. He finally had that night alone on the ocean he’d dreamed about.

When something large bumped him from underneath.

Smugglers of Sandhill Island will be released soon, and I hope you love it as much as I do.

What are you reading, writing, or creating this week?