Continental

 

Continental Mark.IV

When I mention elderly attorney Conrad Summerlin—grandfather of Jam and Jelly—driving an ‘ancient Continental,’ this 1959 Mark IV is pretty much the sort of car I had in mind. Conrad makes a brief in-person appearance in ‘One Christmas in the Sun’ but is mentioned here and there in both Sun novels. I remember just such a car in the early 60s in Naples, stopping to pick up a student at St Ann School (which both Joey and the Summerlin kids are supposed to have attended).

Trains

 

Naples train

The photo is of a passenger train rolling into (or maybe out of) Naples, sometime in the last century. Train service continued into Naples into the early Eighties (but never went much beyond it). There were definitely passenger trains still pulling into Naples at the start of 1969, when I have James Summerlin board one to carry him back to college after Christmas vacation. That, of course, happens in ‘One Christmas in the Sun.’ James is just quirky enough to take the slow way from Naples to Boston. The train depot (and, to some extent, the tracks) does show up from time to time in both my Women in the Sun novels. It was very much of a landmark and now serves as a museum (or something of that sort).

Generic Girl

Ronnie Deerfield was intended from the start to be Generic Girl, a young every-woman without any particularly notable personality traits, unlike her best friends, Joey and Kris. Inevitably, she has grown into something more over the pages of my two Women in the Sun novels; she may remain less colorful but there is plenty going on internally!

Of the trio, she has explored the most, grown the most. Yet her future remains the most open, the most undetermined. Ronnie still has no clear vision for her life. She has not found her passion. She is groping toward what will be, unwilling to commit. That is, perhaps, a good thing.

A good thing for her. Ms. Deerfield has more growth ahead of her—as do her friends, to be sure. I hope to look in on them in the summer of 1969 and see how that goes.

The PIer, 1968

 

view of the Naples Pier, 1968

The Naples pier in the Summer of 1968—the time and place of my novel ‘One Summer in the Sun.’ My characters would have been bicycling right along these streets. Maybe if we look closely we’ll see one! Okay, maybe not. In theory, the fictional Sumerlin house where the kids spend so much time would be a bit off the right-hand side of the picture. Unfortunately, the celebrated pier banyan tree does not show here, but it is one the street that ends at the pier.

The Old Hotel

 

the old Naples Hotel

 
The old Naples Hotel as it was, standing near the pier and what is now the swanky Third Street shopping district in Naples Florida. It had been a landmark since the late Nineteenth Century but was well past its prime when I lived there as a youngster. The place was closed down and demolished decades ago. A new Naples Hotel, looking rather like the original, is now rising in much the same spot. I doubt it will attract quite the same sort of clientele as the old one.

The Hotel has appeared in my Women in the Sun novels, set in the late Sixties, but only in passing, not as a setting for any of the action. It was an object of nostalgia already in 1968. But I remember walking past it on my way to the pier in the evenings, with guests sitting on their screened porches, the scent of citronella wafting into the dusk. That will never come back, whatever they build.

The Summerlin House

One of the frequently used settings in both my Women in the Sun novels is the Summerlin House (aka the Salas House). This is a completely fictional building on the Naples beach, a little north of the pier. I don’t specify exactly how far north but we can assume two to four blocks; of course, there is no such real house at any of those locations (though one may find similar houses along the beach).

The house was—or so my protagonists understand—built in the late Twenties. That makes sense but if it was a few years later, it’s not going to hurt anything. The Salas family, wealthy Cubans, purchased the place in the Forties. When Maria Salas’s husband passed, she inherited and a little later married local lawyer Preston Summerlin. Hence the Summerlin House name.

All that matters to our story is that the Summerlin twins, Angelica and James—know as Jelly and Jam—make our ‘triumvirate’ of young women welcome there. Outside more than in; it becomes a site for goofing off when they want to go to the beach and more than one summer party is held on the spacious lawn. Fairly spacious, that is. Beachfront property is dear and folks are not likely to waste a lot of space on grass.

Nor is the house itself that large. Two stories, stucco over block, tile roof—very ‘Spanish.’ Remodeled from time to time, of course, since its original construction. It’s the sort of house that’s likely to get torn down and replaced these days, with the land under it being more valuable than the house itself.

We have drawn up a house plan. Very useful in helping to visualize the story! I think it is a pretty accurate rendition of what I had in mind. The Summerlin House will most definitely appear in future novels of my trio, though I suspect it will become less central to their lives.

For now (i.e. the late Sixties) it remains a place they will still be able to get together with their friends, beneath the tall coconut palms and hibiscus, and forget the tumultuous outside world for a little while.

the Summerlin House

 

Pen Name

Sienna Santerre is (or should be) pretty obviously a pen name. I purposely chose something that sounded a bit made-up and created a fictional character to be Sienna Santerre.

Why use a pen name at all? In part, to distance the ‘real’ me (who may be just as fictional when it comes down to it) from the subject matter of my books. That real me did graduate from Naples High in 1968. I did go through those times. I did know the kids that inspired some of my characters and would just as soon—if by chance they read my books and recognized something of themselves—they didn’t link any of it to me. Not that I've actually hidden my real name.

And not that I would fear an angry mob of codgers coming for my blood. Still, it freed me up, some, to write what I wanted, without any caution.

I’ll admit the name choice was perhaps inspired,  a little, by Elena Ferrante. After all, we both write about Naples, even if one sets her stories in Naples, Italy, and the other in Naples, Florida! To be sure, Santerre is a French name, not an Italian one.

Yes, we both write our fiction around a core of female friendship but there is not much resemblance beyond that. My characters live in a very different world, reflecting the culture and politics of the late Sixties. And, of course, they date surfers.

My second Women in the Sun novel came out on August 6, 2022. There may well be more in the series in time; I certainly didn’t wrap everything up with ‘One Christmas in the Sun,’ although it wouldn’t hurt a thing if I stopped there. I have ideas and notes and all of that, to be sure. We’ll just have to see—yeah, me too. I like to surprise myself.

Note: what with SS being a pen name, I am also turning out stories under other names, so I'm not malingering!