Book signing at New Jersey Maritime Museum will highlight several authors’ works

A gathering of local authors to promote their various books will put local shipwrecks, fictional Jersey Shore murders, former news stories and more in the spotlight at the New Jersey Maritime Museum, located at 528 Dock Rd. in Beach Haven, on Sunday, Aug. 2, from 2 to 5 p.m. The free event will also include beer, wine and assorted snacks.

Photo via New Jersey Maritime Museum
Co-authors Deborah Whitcraft and
Gretchen Coyle hang outside the museum.

Brant Beach resident Carole Bradshaw, also known as “The Anchor Lady,” will be publicizing her first book, Fortuna, which tells the story of the Italian bark that ran aground in Ship Bottom in January 1910.

“The book introduces the captain and his family, traces their journey from Sicily to the shipwreck in Ship Bottom, my subsequent discovery of the anchor 73 years later, and the search for answers to many lingering questions,” Bradshaw said.

Margaret Buchholz, former owner and publisher of The Beachcomber, published on Long Beach Island, will promote her newest book, Long Beach Island Reader. The book highlights over 60 of the publication’s featured observations, essays and literary stories that have captured the essence of the 18-mile island.

“The anthology offers an all-encompassing perspective of Long Beach Island – the real LBI we love and hold in our collective memories,” said Buchholz. “…Those activities may be a little different in different eras, but the experiences (and feelings) are much the same today.”

(Buchholz also will appear on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at the Long Beach Island branch of the Ocean County Library, 217 South Central Ave., Surf City, at 10 a.m.; and Thursday, Aug. 6, at the High Point Firehouse, West 80th Street in Harvey Cedars, at 7:30 p.m.)

Co-authors Gretchen Coyle and Deborah Whitcraft will publicize their latest book, Tucker’s Island, which is due out Aug. 10. The pictorial book is devoted solely to the history of the 8-mile-long island formerly located between the Beach Haven and Little Egg inlets.

“It’s neat to look at life in a whole different era,” Whitcraft said. “It gives readers an insight into a different lifestyle and a different time. It’s just something that they will never experience.”

Tim Dring, a retired commander of the U.S. Naval Reserve, will present his latest book, The Deadly Shipwrecks of the Powhattan & New Era on the Jersey Shore, which he co-authored. The story chronicles two “horrendous” shipwrecks that took place on the New Jersey coast between Sandy Hook and Little Egg Inlet in 1854.

“This book pulls together for the first time all of the available historical information and facts regarding these shipwreck disasters, and provides an in-depth analysis of the accidents and their likely causes,” said Dring.

Leslee Ganss, design director at Down The Shore Publishing and former art director at The SandPaper, will be signing copies of Too Many Summers, which is a new collection of her “witty, often laugh-out-loud cartoons” that appeared weekly in The SandPaper over the last 20 years.

“It’s a chunky little book, chock-full of fun (320 illustrations) for the whole family, and featuring a foreword by (SandPaper Publisher) Curt Travers,” Ganss noted.

Thomas Reeder, who grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia, will advertise his first foray into fiction with Poetic Justice, which was inspired in part by his love of LBI.

The story is “a ‘Noir’ Jersey murder mystery set in mid-1930s Beach Haven that harkens back to the glory days of hard-boiled detective stories,” said Reeder.

For more information about the event, call the Maritime Museum at 609-492-0202.

— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.