I'm thrilled to be part of the launch fun for my pal Gerb's novel, DEATH BY BIKINI!
I can't remember any dangerous summer romances (unless we call love dangerous, which I suppose it always is) and I don't remember ever meeting any mysterious strangers. Maybe I have, but I'm simply too old to remember? But I do have one notable beach story to tell about someone else, a relative. Just to have something to call this person, let's refer to him henceforth as My Brother.
During his college days, My Brother once went on spring break to Bermuda with a bunch of friends. In the evenings, they used to go to a nightclub where open mic was part of the schedule, with audience members getting up to tell jokes. My Brother has always been great at telling jokes and his friends egged him on. My Brother was going to tell a limerick that began, "There once was a girl from Nantucket..." As he was waiting in line to go on stage, another guy was telling a joke having to do with a doughnut. That doughnut must have lodged in My Brother's mind something fierce, because when My Brother stepped up to the mic and began, "There once was a girl from Nantucket," for the first time in his life he got stage fright and the only thing he could think of to say to finish off the limerick was, "so I ate her."
Pandemonium.
Next day on the beach, everywhere My Brother walked, he could hear people whispering behind him, "so I ate her." There was a limbo contest going on and, as My Brother walked next to it, the cheering and the cries of "so I ate her" grew so loud, the accompanying applause qualified him for second place prize in the contest...and he never even had to shimmy under the bar!
So that's my story, or the story of this person we're calling "My Brother," and I'm sticking to it.
Feel free to leave a comment below for a chance to win a signed copy of my own YA novel, SECRETS OF MY SUBURBAN LIFE and visit me anytime at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com.
