In the Author Spotlight ...
Kay P. Salter, author of
Twelfth Summer, Thirteenth Summer,
and Fourteenth Summer

 

In the summer of 2003, Kay P. Salter felt a sense of urgency to begin writing thoughts and remembrances from her childhood. "I wanted young people today to be acquainted with the values by which we lived and the respect we were expected to show others," she says. Gradually, notes scribbled in long hand in a composition book began to take form and the Sarah Bowers series of books were born.

The Sarah Bowen Series, Twelfth Summer, Thirteenth Summer, and Fourteenth Summer, are set in the 1940’s, when Kay was a child. "The characters in the Sarah Bowers series of historical fiction were fictitious," she says. "However, they were based on real people I remembered from my childhood." In time, Kay breathed life into characters. "The characters evolved quite naturally as the books, chapter by chapter came into being."

"The protagonist, Sarah Bowers’ character, is based upon my grand daughter’s own sweet nature and physical characteristics," she explains. "The same is true for Sarah’s younger brother, Joshua, and Laney, a war orphan. Some of the happenings in the books were real, some not so real. I draw my stories from a town rich in history in, which I have spent the past 72 years collecting."

Kay regularly visit all middle schools in my county and surrounding counties encouraging students to write." I am a retired teacher of thirty-six years and feel at home with an audience of eighty or more," she says. "Local book stores invite me to sign books on a regular basis." She has also enjoyed many speaking engagements with professional groups such as hospital volunteers and book clubs.

Kay's greatest desire is to see the entire Sarah Bowers series in print. "This dream eclipses all thoughts of another book at this time," she explains. "I feel BookMasters is the vehicle to make my dream become a reality."

In her spare time, Kay teaches Sunday school at St. Paul's Episcopal church and makes quilts for orphans in Romania. She and her husband, Jimmy enjoy fishing and swimming in the clear waters off the North Carolina coast. "My husband and I live in the country with cats, dogs, wild critters from the swamp next door and a pond with fat catfish," she says. "Feral cats think our barn is the neighborhood birthing center." They have two children and three grand children.