Origins Part One

Have you ever wondered where the ideas for the stories came from for By The Bay?  Did it stem from something that happened to our authors or was it just a creative idea?

Well wonder no more!  Our wonderful author, Jenny Sparks, came up with a great idea.  Why not share how we came up with our stories.  

So, over the course of the next month we will share our authors thoughts with you.

I hope you enjoy!



Millie's Missing Key by Jenny Sparks

Millie's Missing Key was not my first idea for a story. I  had begun with a love story that featured an older man whose wife is living with dementia telling a young woman about how he and his wife met and fell in love in old Ocean View. I reached a point in that story where I could not figure out how to write it the way I wanted to. All of a sudden the deadline was looming and I didn’t have anything to turn in. I sat at my computer scratching my 5 month old golden doodle's head trying to come up with an idea. (Yes, Millie is real. And she now has a little sister named Twyla.) I decided to write about Millie since she had completely taken over my life. The original draft was written in about forty-five minutes. For the record all of the dogs in the story are real dogs that live or lived in East Beach. The only fictional dog is the mean poodle. Now, I need to come up with a second story that includes Twyla in the escapades.

I Have A Dress by Karen Harris  

I Have A Dress is nearly autobiographical.  In order to set my story in East Beach, I created a reunion held at the Bay Front Club.  The photo, and the story behind it, are real.  My husband and I were blind dates for the Navy Ball in San Francisco, set up by my pal, and Clay's flat-mate, who were dating.  My dearest friend and roommate Cindy, did play Fairy Godmother to my Cinderella, and did take our picture within moments of our meeting.  While some details may not be completely accurate, they are true as far as I remember them.  Several years ago, I wrote the first draft as a story for our children to have. When the Guild decided to compile an anthology, I thought this might be just the tale to include, knowing romantic tales are fun to read on the beach.

Plein Mysterious by Gina Warren Buzby

I had written the story,  "Plein Mysterious",  one day after painting "en plein air" in the Norfolk Botanical Gardens.  I developed it further to take place in East Beach after hearing about the anthology.  I had also painted on location in the neighborhood as well.  It was fun to then build my protagonist character as single person who lives in one of the carriage houses.  The artistic talent / knowledge is taken from my experiences as an artist and I distinctly drew from some of my own history as a single woman  in the dating world for many years.

I am working on a sequel!

Check back in a few days to read more!