Stalked

Have you ever been stalked? I had a stalker when I was a young woman, before stalkers became such a commonly known thing. I lived in a small community on the Maine coast at the time, a town where everyone knew everyone else. Like many coastal towns, the population swelled in the summer months when the tourists arrived to play and eat fresh Maine seafood.

I didn’t know I had a stalker at first, not until a friend who worked in the local bank branch told me Norman (not his real name) had been asking if she knew me and could she tell him where I lived. She foolishly thought it was romantic, but because Norman was a few decades older than me, she didn’t share my information. Fortunately for me, because at the time I lived in a tent in the woods, a vulnerable situation.

I worked in a local shop with regular hours and Norman soon discovered where to find me. He’d follow me around the town and wait for me in strategic places, places he knew I’d pass during the course of my day.

One of these spots was the town’s small post office. The post office sat across the road from the water, with no other buildings along that stretch. I used to walk it nearly every day to visit a friend. I didn’t own a car or even a bicycle at the time and walked everywhere. One day the postmaster came out to greet me and handed me a folder. In it was an 8”x10” photograph of me walking past the post office, with the ocean behind me.

The postmaster told me Norman had taken the photo and wanted me to have it. He’d inscribed it with a dedication, but not signed it. According to the postmaster, Norman had been taking pictures of me for weeks. It creeped me out. I left the town shortly after that.

I drew on that experience for Stalked in Paradise, the first book in my Destination Death series. Things worked out all right for me, but my heroine has a much more difficult time of it. I promise it all works out in the end!

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