Podcast 8-17-2025

Oyster Harbors Cape Cod 1929

Hi everyone and welcome to my podcast. My name is Sharon Anderson, and I am the founder of the Cape Cod Writers’ Studio.

Today’s podcast is about my newest book, Oyster Harbors Cape Cod 1929.

I’m jumping the gun here a little because this book is my last one so far. My original plan was to tell you about them in chronological order, but plans do change. 

As promised, there is a dead body in this one. Actually, he becomes an important character in the story. Chuck, the young photographer from Harvard is on the beach this particular morning taking pictures of the sunrise and boat activity and stumbles upon the body. Oh well!  The body is wearing a heavy knit sweater common to our fishermen only there is a (bullet) hole over his heart.

He runs to tell Toni, his newly appointed journalist and brings her down to see the body. The story evolves from there. The police ignore the “two college students”, and their boss and senior editor of the Barnstable Patriot, Mr. Crocker, tells them to not get involved. He assigns someone else to write the obit. Finding dead bodies washed up on shore were not an every-day occurrence, but the two carry on their own investigation in secret placing them in mortal danger. No one would listen to them until Toni’s Father intervenes and enlists the help of Deputy Sheriff James Woodward.  

Deputy Sheriff Woodward was a real person in the Airport book,  so I borrowed him. Robert, Toni’s brother and their father are setting up an airport in Hyannis. Yes, I borrowed that one, too. Part of this story is based on actual events. I liberally stole characters from that book to write this novel.  Robertson Ayling was a real person. Amelia Earhart is also real to both the book and the airport. She was on the board of directors for the Hyannis Airport (True fact) and becomes Toni’s idol as Toni wants her pilot’s license, too.  After all, her brother had his didn’t he?.

The brother in the novel, Robert, is based on young Robertson Ayling who manages the airport for 2 years. (True story). In real life he is found dead from a boating accident in February 1930. Story is he and his friend were out shooting ducks when their boat overturned. Because they were dressed in heavy winter clothing, they could not survive in the frigid waters.  Sound fishy? There are many who think so but are very closed-mouth about it. In one interview in 1968 I found a gentleman who’s sister dated Ayling. He alluded to the fact that Robertson tangled with the wrong rumrunner/bootlegger. My next book will enlarge on that because it is, after all,  Historical FICTION.

Women, in that time period were pushing the boundaries of Woman’s Rights. The Suffragette Movement in England was permeating even the quiet of the Cape. 

Toni was a recent graduate of Vassar, a liberal College for Women. Many well-known celebrities were educated there. Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, Ann Hathaway to name a few you may recognize so her desires were far beyond the polo matches and garden parties and the NOCD’s of her set. I even made her mother a novelist of dubious fame as she writes and publishes under a pen name. A few of her “set” knew her secret, and her husband did not acknowledge her novels publicly. No one knows what he acknowledges privately.  That is a secret between them. They do, however recognize Chuck as a possible bridegroom. Her parents were always match-making, much to Toni’s chagrin.  You see, Chuck was an Eliot of the Boston Eliots.  So his lineage was acceptable even though they were “New Money”. The snobbery and class distinction even among that social set was so obvious. I even added a part where Chuck is snubbed by his own Harvard classmates because they were “Old Money” and he was “New Money” Even though Chuck’s grandfather was president of Harvard, the prejudice still existed.  (True fact).

Joe Kennedy was not a resident of Oyster Harbors because of his religious choices. He was Irish Catholic, no matter how much money he had. So he built his own legacy in Hyannis Port. Amazing, isn’t it? Sounds like a series… 

The term NOCD was used discreetly, meaning Not Our Class Dear. It was a covert way to classify someone among the social sets.  

The difference between old and new money? Old money was the term used to denote family money, which was added to generationally, between families and the family lineage or background. Marriages were not based on love. but were transactions between families to match lineage and wealth. It did not matter if the recipients disliked one another. Loveless marriages were the way it was done and the two (male and female) involved were not considered. If they complained, they were told to “do their duty” and “get on with it”!

How did these “loveless marriages” work?

The husband had his “work” and his “club” and sometimes his “mistress”.

The wife had her circle of friends.  She played bridge, hosted dinners, held afternoon tea parties and volunteered for charities. Many travelled (in our region) between Boston and New York by train or she took a cruise to Europe to shop in Paris. After she produced an heir, she was free to develop her own life. Even take on a lover if she was terribly discreet. Children? They were ushered off to private boarding schools. Please remember, this is the 1920’s. Things were changing, but in many instances, these were the underlying rules. If it sounds Victorian, you would be correct, although Queen Victoria died in 1901, the social guidelines were still in effect. Edward VII became king until 1910, when he abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson a twice divorced woman so shocking and created a rift in British Aristocracy. 

Victorian mores held for years and didn’t change until Queen Elizabeth’s reign when divorce was recognized but not usually sanctioned.

In my novel, there were household servants, a butler and a cook with daily help. Many houses in Oyster Harbors offered employment to domestic help and there were staffing for the enormous hotel/clubhouse as well as staff to attend to the golf course and the stables for the horses. 

In the original plan by Forris Norris, an entrepreneur and visionary, there was a polo field and stables as well as tennis courts. More importantly there was a golf course designed by a well-known architect, Donald Ross. The entire complex Oyster Harbors, Inc., was designed by the Olmstead Brothers who also designed Central Park in New York and our own Back Bay Fens in Boston. 

In 1929 Oyster Harbors, Inc. was established and the residents and families were invited to join. The concept was a residential park for residents and guests. That changed in 1968 when it became a private Club for residents only. (Again true fact) 

The novel’s plot or story takes many twists and turns. The Canadian sailors become Toni’s rescuers and protectors. She eventually meets Chuck’s Mater and Pater. You really need to read that episode because I wrote it tongue-in-cheek.

The chapter or event that I enjoyed writing the most was the chase and capture of the “bad guys”.  Sometimes in writing a story, you as the writer have set up these characters and situations and you arrive at a “now what?”  How do you extricate your protagonist from the mess you have dropped them in? In my book, Stones and Bones, my first and possibly only Sci-Fi novel, I send the protagonist and her friend out into space in separate garbage insinkaries  and have to somehow rescue them before they explode. Dammit, why did I do that? It was another “Now What?” moment.  Fantastic as it may sound, I can guarantee Agatha or Stephen K ran into these same situations. 

My “bad guys” sometimes are not too smart.. I like it that way because I feel bad guys are only mis-guided good guys…. The chase in this story is unique and the capture surprising.  After all that “back story” I hope I gave you an authors’ view into my personal writing studio. 

I invite you to my book launch and presentation on Saturday, August 23 at 2:00 in the Osterville Village Library. Perhaps I may be fortunate to meet you in person. Wouldn’t that be Loverly? 

Until then, 

Hugs

My technical information.

 This podcast and all of my podcasts are still created on Spreaker which is part of IHeart Radio and is sent to Spotify for podcasters.

You can find us on Spotify, Anchor.fm, Apple podcasts, iHeart Podcasts, Google Play and Amazon Radio. 

Our musical theme was purchased from Ponds5, and I do love the theme. Today it is “The Entertainer” written in 1904.

 You can contact me at sdanderson.books@gmail.com

My personal website where all my book are stored is new. BookBub has offered a website for author’s, and they do all the work. It was great. Here is my new link:

www.sdandersonbooks.com   simple and the same as my e-mail address except there is no dot before books…..

Have I forgotten anything?

Yes, I thank you for listening to my podcasts. Please pass the link around if you think someone else might like to listen.  So far there is no murder or dead bodies, yet.  I promise there will be so stay tuned. Ooops I have to change that because we did have one today.

Hugs to you and yours. Thanks again for listening.