Winter Journals — Robert Schwartz

My Island Beach: II. Winter Journals is the second manuscript in the My Island Beach Series tracing the unique and sometimes bizarre experiences of Katy Brace. Like the first, this manuscript was discovered sealed up in the fireplace of an old shore house; apparently the very house described in the first manuscript. Disconcertingly, the author of the first manuscript, Robert E. Salter, is introduced and described in some detail in the content of this second manuscript!

After a turbulent summer with her Grandfather on the Jersey Shore, Katy travels to the heart of the Midwest and reports for her first year of University. On the plane she has her first glimpse of the journal that her grandfather Philip provided upon her departure. It's an ancient and fragile document, written in a now extinct patois of old French. The revelations provided by the eventual translation of this journal are one of the major arcs of this manuscript.

The other major theme is the continuing series of strange events thrust upon this young woman who craves anonymity over celebrity. Its starts with a mean-spirited prank by Katy's suite mates and ends with a life-threatening experience; a seemingly endless array of sometimes disturbing incidents and escapades ensue between these two key occurrences.

In the end, Katy has to discover some way to confront these strange events that seem so outside of her control. Her solution: a journal of her own to sort through her tumultuous life.