by D. G. Driver
They all stared at me hard, including all the guys I didn’t know as well. Someone shouted to the other campers that weren’t at our fire that I was going to tell the story of the rowboat, and all the rest of the campers came running. The pressure was phenomenal.
“Well?” Lamont said, prompting me to start.
And so I did. I recounted the whole story again from how I found the boat to watching it sink just shy of the island’s rocky shore. Then, to fill their curiosity, I told them about watching the spirit rise up out of the boat and fly off into the stars. Yes, I admit I made it sound like I actually saw the ghost of Robert rise up, wink at me, and then blink into oblivion. I thought that was what they wanted, and I was right. When I was done, they all were quiet for a long moment, taking it in. My story wasn’t a scary one like the others, but it was close to home.
“You know what I want to do?” Chris said after a minute. “I know it sounds stupid, but…”
“I want to too,” Lamont said.
All of a sudden, all the guys were on their feet, rushing to their tents to grab their flashlights. Alex tossed one to me.
“What’s going on?” Vivian asked.
“Can’t help it,” Jasper said. “It’s a tradition. We just gotta go see.”
“See what?” she asked.
He didn’t tell her. He just grabbed her hand and plunged into the woods with his girlfriend shrieking about snakes and a dozen guys following them.
I rushed to catch up too but couldn’t get through. “What do you mean? Are you going to look for the boat? It sank! It’s at the bottom of the lake!”
Alex came up next to me. “We know, Dannie. Relax. Let’s just have fun.”
So, we hiked through the woods, laughing about how ridiculous we were all being. Not one camper stayed behind this year, and there wasn’t going to be anything to see.
Only, when we got to where the trees stopped, and the view of the water became clear again, all the guys froze. No one spoke or moved a muscle. I pushed through the crowd to get to the front to see what had made them all stop.
Perched on the rocks at the edge of the water was Uncle Robert’s rowboat.
ACKNOWLEGMENTS
First of all, I’d like to offer thanks and apologies to the people of DeKalb County, Tennessee. Thank you for the beautiful Center Hill Lake and the small town square in Smithville that are the setting for my novel. You’re only forty-five minutes or so from my home, and I’ve enjoyed visiting both of these places and hope to do so many times in the future. I apologize for fictionalizing a few things to make this book work. The lake does have a lot of winding turns in it, but as far as I know, there is not an island where kids would have a campout in the middle of it. The Smithville square would be a mighty difficult bike ride from the lake and not nearly as close and easy as I made it out to be in this story. Also, while there are some rural parts (very country compared to Southern California where I grew up) it is more ‘built up’ and populated than my book would suggest.
I moved from Los Angeles to the Nashville area about fifteen years ago. I wanted to write a story that took place here, in my new home, and expressed a little of what it was like to discover that while the landscape changes from place to place, people are good and decent everywhere. While I miss being near the Pacific Ocean and Disneyland, I truly love being a Tennessean, and I hope this novel acts as a bit of a love letter to this charming southern state, its people, and its ghost stories.
Thank you to Nancy Schumacher and Caroline Andrus, the ladies who run Melange Books/Fire and Ice YA Books. Extra thanks to Caroline for another gorgeous book cover design. Thank you to Heather Maloney for her editing.
I’d like to thank the Fellowship of Fantasy authors, who are so supportive of me, and the members of Clean Indie Reads, who always have tremendous advice. I’m always appreciative of the SCBWI Midsouth chapter. I will add a special shout-out to bestselling young adult author David Arnold (Mosquitoland) who somehow got placed in a critique group with me during one of the yearly conferences. His friendly encouragement after reading the first chapter of Lost on the Water kept me working on it when I was close to giving up. He probably doesn’t know he did this for me.
Thanks to my ARC readers and all those wonderful book bloggers who support my books. I appreciate you more than you could ever know. I owe some gratitude to the people who organize NaNoWriMo (National November Writing Month). Lost on the Water started its life in a frantic race to complete 50,000 words in 30 days back in 2009. I succeeded, however the book you just read has very few words that remain from that original draft.
Most of all, I want to thank my family, especially my husband who has patiently supported me through the many revisions I’ve done over the years. Every time I’d say, “What if Dannie…”, he’d always listen and say in response, “Go for it.” Those are the second-best set of three words he says to me on a regular basis.
About the Author
D. G. Driver is a multi-award winning author of books for teen and tween readers. Lost on the Water is her fifth title with Fire and Ice YA Books. She is a proud member of SCBWI Midsouth and lives near Nashville, Tennessee. She loves hiking but doesn’t get out to the woods as much as she used to, because most of her weekends are spent writing. When she does get out of the house, it’s to go to work, where she is a teacher at an inclusive early childhood development center, or to strut the stage in a local community theater production with one or more members of her talented family.
If you enjoyed this novel, please support her writing career by telling a friend about it, following her on social media, picking up one of her other books, or leaving a review.
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Also by D. G. Driver
Available from Fire & Ice Young Adult Books
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Novellas
Passing Notes
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The Juniper Sawfeather Series
Cry of the Sea
Whisper of the Woods
Echo of the Cliffs
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Juniper Sawfeather Box Set
Read the FREE Juniper Sawfeather short story prequel
“Beneath the Wildflowers”
in Kick Ass Girls of Fire & Ice YA Books
Available from Satin Romance
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“The Ticket to her Heart”, featured in Second Chance for Love: A Romance Anthology