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Romance Writers Weekly

My Favorite Place: Outer Banks of North Carolina aka OBX

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This week’s question for Romance Writers Weekly authors is from A.S. Fenichel.  “Where is your favorite place in the world and why? Share some pictures if you can. Does this place wind up in your books?”

Hope you’ve already visited Jenna Da Sie who is ahead of me on the hop.

Fortunately, my favorite happy place is nearby. Only seventy miles south of home lies the Outer Banks, affectionately known as OBX.  The beautiful and serene string of barrier islands, begins at the southeastern coast of Virginia and and continues along North Carolina. The two hundred miles of islands are linked to multiple Sounds that receive water from the Atlantic.  The Outer Banks has been my vacation spot and weekend getaway since I was a teen.  Although the various small towns have boomed over the last four decades, hosting millions  of visitors a year, the Outer Banks will always be my favorite place in the world as well as my home away from home. With a small lottery win, I’d make it my retirement home!

I based my novel, Hot as Blazes, in the town of Nags Head, where we stay during summer vacation. I love the rangy dunes on the less commercial beaches of the area. From your quiet beach house getaway you can drive five minutes up the road and have a choice of a smorgasbord of restaurants and shopping experiences.

Over the years, we’ve stayed on the same street as have many other families who have become our beach family. The kids have grown up together and I wouldn’t be surprised if the tradition continues when they have families of their own.

My love of the Outer Banks, it has become part of my author brand, prompting my Seaside Heat Romance series. Hope you’ll check out Leslie Hachtel’s  favorite place. Here’s some pics of my favorite place, OBX.

Banx Bound, OBX, Outer Banks

Vacation Destination OBX- Romance Writers Weekly

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RWWLogoVacation destination is the topic of this week’s Romance Writers Weekly blog hop.  Member Kathryn Renard asks us to describe  a vacation destination we’ve been to and would recommend to readers.  I’m all over this as Seaside Heat Romance is my brand.  Beach baby beach baby there in the sand!

Bodie Island Lighthouse
Bodie Island Lighthouse

The Outer Banks of North Carolina is a heavenly sandbar on which I  basically grew up. If those lotto numbers ever hit, I’ll be moving a bit more south.

OBX, as it is affectionate called, is comprised of several small towns. There isn’t a boardwalk but a two-lane beach road known at Route 12. Along the one hundred mile strip that runs from Corolla to Hatteras, you’ll get  variety. Beaches vary from wild and untamed like the most northern beach in Carova and most southern in Hatteras, to the more commercial areas around Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. Then there’s the towns of Duck and Nags Head which have a mix of commercialism and small town atmosphere.

Every year, my family rents a house in south Nags Head. After beachhouseJeannette’s Pier there’s nothing but beach houses until Oregon Inlet.  However in a couple of miles, we can be at the pier, on the road to Manteo or on the bypass heading for some shopping at the outlet mall.  We love being away, from the  hustle and bustle yet having putt putt, go carts and restaurants galore within a five to ten minute drive.

2IMG_4089_2 - CopySurfing is good, fishing is fun, plus there’s a lot history on the Outer Banks.  Virginia Dare was the first English born in the new world. Each summer at Fort Raleigh there’s a reenactment of the first English settlement. The Lost Colony is performed outside at Fort Raleigh to the backdrop of the of the ? Sound.  Pirates such a John Teach, aka Blackbeard, set up bases along the narrow strip of barrier islands. More recently, Orville and Wilbur Wright took first flight in Kitty Hawk.

The Outer Banks is more than a beach resort, it’s a way of life.  SoOBXlanding much so that I wrote a novel to to convey my feelings of home for “The Banx.” In Hot as Blazes, Jo is a small town surfer who had a shot at the big time only to be framed by a lover.  Homesick, she returns to OBX and finds the love.

Here’s a link to more of my OBX pics. Hope you’ve already visited Brenda Margriet and now on to Jenna Da Sie who’s next on the blog hop.  I can’t wait to find out everyone’s vacation destination!