AUTHORS INTERVIEWING CHARACTERS: Diane Owens Prettyman, author of Love is for the Birds

LOVE IS FOR THE BIRDS

For fans of Mary Alice Monroe’s The Beach House comes a heartwarming story from women’s fiction author Diane Owens Prettyman about second chances as two people find a pathway out of their grief—directly in the aftermath of a hurricane.

The Texas Gulf: beautiful yet unpredictable.

A beach town destroyed. Her mother’s candy store swept away. This is what Teddy Wainsworth faces when she returns to Bird Isle. Meanwhile, Jack Shaughness, owner of a popular barbecue restaurant chain and widower still grieving the death of his wife, receives permission to cross over to the island with a smoker full of brisket to feed hurricane survivors. Soon after arriving, he meets Teddy and immediately finds himself drawn to her—which makes him feel he is betraying his wife. When the two find a lost dog, Jack convinces Teddy to take it home while they attempt to find the owner, creating a bond that brings them closer.

In the wake of the hurricane, Bird Isle residents fear the Aransas Wildlife Refuge will not be ready for the whooping cranes’ annual migration south. Seeing that Jack has important connections and a love for the island, they enlist him to help restore the habitat of the endangered cranes before they fly to Padre Island for the winter. With their rescued dog always nearby, Teddy and Jack work side by side to rebuild Bird Isle for the return of the whooping cranes. But Jack is harboring a secret that may ruin everything he and Teddy are creating—and he won’t be able to keep that secret forever.

Diane Owens Prettyman recently travelled to Bird Isle to interview Teddy Wainsworth. 

Diane: Teddy, you’ve been in hurricanes before. When you vacated the island before the storm, did you imagine that you would lose every bit of your mother’s shop?

Teddy: I was convinced the damage of the storm was exaggerated. My first return to the island, I had every hope that Sweet Somethings survived. Without my friend Walt, I don’t know what I would have done. I ran into him at the beach. He warned me not to go to my shop. When I insisted, we walked there together. Everything was gone except for this pipe sticking out of the ground. It felt like my mother had died all over again. 

Diane: You lived in Houston before the storm. Why did you decide to return to Bird Isle?

Teddy: After high school, I couldn’t get out of Bird Isle soon enough.  Living on an island can get claustrophobic. Everyone knows who you are and what you do. My mother had friends that worked at the Amos Rehabilitation Keep, and owned the best restaurant in town, I couldn’t go anywhere without being seen. In Houston, I was never seen. At the time, I thought it was a good thing. When I lost my mom, I realized that being seen was a good thing. 

Diane: And, after the storm, when you had lost everything, why did you decide to rebuild? 

Teddy: After the hurricane, I drove to Houston to see my boyfriend. He took me to my favorite restaurant Kim Son. While there, I read the story of the Vietnamese family who opened the restaurant. Kim Su Tran La, her husband, and their seven children fled the communist regime in South Vietnam to Malaysia in 1979. They eventually received approval to join relatives in the United States. The family endured rough seas, and even a pirate attack before arriving in Houston in late 1980. With more than 250 recipes committed to memory, Mama La opened Kim Son.  Reading her story again made me realize that I could rebuild Sweet Somethings. I could keep my mother alive through her recipes. 

Diane: Did Jack figure into your decision?

Teddy: I suppose he did. He was someone who had experienced loss. I sensed he was like me, just going through the motions to get through each day. From the day we met, I felt a spark between us. The spark was like a match that couldn’t quite get enough friction to make a flame. At first, we were like that match. We shared enough friction to keep trying.  

Diane:  Jack started helping with the Wildlife Refuge. How did you feel about that?

Teddy: Daniel never showed an interest in our island. Jack fell in love with it immediately. He helped clean the marshlands for the Whooping Cranes. He helped at the Amos Rehabilitation Keep.  When I was in the marsh with Jack, we read a sign that said: Whooping Cranes mate for life. Jack said, “I would have mated for life, but my wife died.” At that moment, I felt we were kindred spirits. Both of us were suffering from a grief we didn’t know how to handle. 

Diane: Why are Whooping Cranes so important to you and Bird Isle?

Teddy: Aransas Pass Wildlife Refuge is best known as the wintering grounds for the last wild flock of endangered Whooping Cranes. The Cranes represent resilience, loyalty, and love.  Bringing back these Cranes from extinction is a major conservation success story. They are another reminder, like that of the La Family, that there are second chances, but you have to work for them. 

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Diane Owens Prettyman is the author of the romantic adventure story “Thin Places” and the twentieth-century historical novel “Redesigning Emma”. She is also a frequent contributor to the Austin American-Statesman. Her third book “Love is for the Birds”  is out now. This novel combines contemporary romance with eco-fiction for an entertaining beach read set on the Texas Gulf.

Diane stays true to her belief that every story has a happy ending, though perhaps sometimes, maybe even often, one has to wait for the perfect finale. Diane lives just a few hours’ drive from the Texas Gulf. She is an avid boogie boarder and spends her summers in the water. Her husband and two black standard poodles provide her room and board in Austin, Texas.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing