by Alicia & Roy Street
We have always loved excursions to the eastern end of Long Island, NY, but these days it isn’t easy to choose which Fork. No, we’re not talking about which fork to use at dinner but which side of the island suits our fancy.
When most people think of Long Island they think of the Hamptons. That Malibu of the east, seashore playground to Manhattan’s rich and famous. That’s the South Fork.
The North Fork, where we’ve set our new series of romantic comedies, is a more rural, downhome place, a collection of farming and fishing villages and quaint towns with a slight New England feel. But the North Fork is also now called the Napa Valley of the east, thanks to the forty-plus vineyards that have sprung up along this narrow strip of land between Long Island Sound and Peconic Bay.
One of the great things about getting lost in a novel is the aftereffect of the feeling as if you’ve just traveled to another place and lived there for a while. To give our Dance ‘n’ Love series readers a broader taste of the North Fork, as well as giving ourselves some artistic freedom, we created a fictional town based on several of NoFo’s real places.
And being a hundred miles out into the Atlantic, the sea-kissed air, the enchanting light— and of course the wine—make it the perfect location for romance.
Casey, our heroine in KISS ME, DANCER, returns to her North Fork roots after her dream of dancing with a professional company fails. Here she struggles to forge a new dream with new meaning through her dance school for the local children.
When she falls for Drew, a hotshot South Fork guy, their tumultuous love affair goes though ups and downs while we follow them to a wine tasting at a local vineyard, a ride on the public merry-go-round, a down-on-the-farm pumpkin festival, and boating under the stars.