On a rather gloomy day recently, I met Honey Perkel at the Firehouse Grill for a conversation about the writing life, her approaches to writing and how she came to be an author. We had only been there for a short while when the day brightened considerably all due to Honeys sunny disposition and great outlook on life. I have a sign up in my office that reads, Youre going to miss this, she says. It reminds me to appreciate all that is around me while its still within my grasp. Those are surely words to live by. Honey could have lost sight of that concept when she lost her son, who died in 2011. She tells that story in Just Breathe A Mothers Story, a poignant book due out late this summer that she wrote with the hope that it will help others cope with such a tragic loss.

Honey Perkel is a born author. She started writing when she was 7 years old and hasnt stopped since. Interestingly, she wasnt a real reader until she was 14. Her mother and grandmother were avid readers and gave her Betty Smiths A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Honey was hooked for life. I didnt know you could get so much enjoyment out of a book, she says. I started reading everything I could and kept writing. Being an only child, I had all the solitude I needed. My mother, grandmother, uncle and I went to Seaside every summer, and I read and wrote to my hearts content.

Honey married her husband, Robert Perkel, in 1973 and continued to write. As a young mother, she graduated from the Institute of Childrens Literature and the Long Ridge Writers Group. Her big dream was to see her novels in print. While she kept writing, she and her husband started a business when he retired in 1999. The couple became owners of The Emerald Rabbit, a gift basket company. For five years, they served more than two dozen hotels in the Portland metro area and countless businesses and personal accounts with beautifully filled baskets created by Honey. Robert did the marketing and delivery. Eventually they sold their company to spend more time at the coast.

Honey had submitted manuscripts through the conventional method without a good result, so after talking to numerous authors who advised her to self-publish, she decided to try that route.

With her third book recently published, she will have sold more than 2,000 books by this fall: a success story for any self-published author. Honeys primary market is the Oregon Coast, with forays into Washington with Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo and Island Books on Mercer Island. The Perkels are now permanent residents on the North Coast; this is where Honey loves to write. Seaside is my paradise, she says. Its the only place I want to write.

I always wanted to write for women, so I honed my skills and started with the first book, which is really my story in many ways, Honey says. A Thousand Summers (the first in a trilogy) is a coming-of-age story about two young girls who share their summers in Seaside, Oregon throughout the 1960s, and the apparition who keeps bringing them back. Forty-three years later, Caroline Lang, wife of a prominent Chicago attorney, begins to have dreams of a small enchanting beach town on the Oregon Coast, a place she has never visited. Encouraged by her best friend, Caroline packs up her two daughters and sets out on an adventure in search of paradise.

Honey introduces a wonderful character, Bernard, in A Thousand Summers, and he also appears in the trilogys following two books, Secrets of the Cove and A Place Called Paradise. He is a guide, a mentor, a friend and he might just be real. To say more would spoil meeting him for the reader. Honeys belief in spirits and apparitions often move her stories along but do not get in the way of keeping them believable. Instead, those encounters keep the stories intimate, personal and captivating.

Honey writes every day. She loves the process and confesses that friends and neighbors often see the lights in her office on far into the night. There is nothing I would rather do, she says. I have problems not writing! Honey has plans to release another novel called The Faithful Daughter. Shes also working on Between Two Shores, another stand-alone novel that requires a research trip to Scotland and Ireland. These books are still in the works, but fans should know they have something to look forward to. Honey has more new ideas for books, is very well-disciplined and sets deadlines for herself. She always writes from an outline and writes as many drafts as it takes to get it right. She has a knowledgeable and trusted friend who critiques her work.

In addition to her writing, Honey does leave her desk long enough to join a knitting group, play Mahjong and lead a writing group at Seaside Public Library. She is also planning to teach a class on self-publishing at Clatsop Community College. Im looking forward to that, says Honey. I used to be so shy I couldnt talk to a group of people, but now I am proud of my books and have wanted this for so long that I am comfortable telling people about the experience and talking about writing. Most of us write because we cannot not write we want to touch the reader.

There is no doubt that Honeys writing has touched many readers and will continue to do so for a long time to come. Her warmth, compassion and passion for writing come through in person and on every page.