Mack Nichols has been fishing for salmon his whole life, but Mother Nature (and competing fishermen) are never ending challenges. When his wife leaves his world really turns upside down. From endless maintenance to backstabbing deckhands, Mack’s commercial fishing livelihood is threatened worse than it’s ever been.
Finally escaping a New England upbringing that’s never felt right, Ginny Gilbert lands in Seward, Alaska and gets on ‘The Slime Line’ at a fish processing plant. But her heart yearns for the ocean and the big paychecks everyone says deckhands earn. Catching Mack’s eye, she gets the job, only to nearly lose her life, maybe even ending her Alaska dreams.
Wade Knight has been working with Mack since they were both deckhands for Rory Nichol. The skiff he runs is his home as much as the land he returns to, and anyone who gets in his way gets what they deserve.
Thunder Bay (the Prequel)
Pushing the limits, Mack’s last to deliver his load of salmon as a Kodiak storm races north. Running in front of the weather has always worked out for him—until now.
Slammed by a gale and forced to wait it out, Mack never expected to learn that the past he remembers is not the same one everyone else recalls.
Once home, recently divorced Mack reevaluates his life, getting the advice he needs most from the one source he never expected to hear from again. This short story (a prequel) is free on Apple Books, Amazon, Google Play, and Kobo. (read more…)
Rocky Bay
Facing broken equipment and backstabbing crew is more than enough but Mother Nature throws her hand in too. it’s all Mack can do to stay alive.
College student Ginny travels all the way from Vermont and finally arrives in the state she’s dreamed of all her life. Hired by Mack, she faces life-threatening challenges that send her home to Vermont, never expecting to return.
Res Bay
Pete Nichols took last year off at his wife’s insistence, for their family’s sake. With his twins now in college, everything seems to be costing twice what he’d planned and the fishing industry is going through an upheaval. Great. Just what he needs, more pressure.
Justin Nichols is known as ‘the quiet twin’. When he steps in to take on the second most aggressive job on his dad’s boat everyone’s shocked. But that’s just the beginning of the changes he has in mind… (read more…)
K Bay
Driven to fish for a living almost a thousand miles from his home bay, Mack is back in K Bay for another salmon season and he’s dreading every minute of it. After going head to head against ‘ramrod Hurley’ he’s on high alert twenty-four seven. When he’s forced to call his ex-wife for her help, everything gets sticky.
Secretly eager to return to K Bay for it’s natural beauty, Ginny never expected that her friendship with a crewman would deepen as they worked together. Now she has to choose: go back to college in Vermont or stay in Alaska and cast her net for a new path in life. (read more…)
Windy Bay
Last year’s hatchery virus made wild salmon worth their weight in gold. Now every fisherman with a boat is seeking the motherlode off the coast of Alaska.
When Mack and Pete see the flood of boats they’re afraid they won’t be catching anything this season and it takes all their experience to make things work.
Faced with a family crisis, Justin is forced to step up to the wheel. That means he also has to deal with his argumentative twin brother Case, who reluctantly returns to the family fishing business.
Ginny has put her friend from college off one too many times, but the wild world of commercial fishing and life in Alaska still has her debating her future. Faced with tragedy in Windy Bay, she finally finds the answers she’s been looking for. (read more…)
Taylor Bay
Home from the season-from-hell, the seiners face even more difficulties. Mack’s got his hands full, and a houseful, and nothing’s going the way he’d planned.
Justin hoped that Ginny’s decision to stay in Alaska meant they’d finally get to know each other better but when Dylan shows up everything he’s hoped for takes a nosedive.
Ginny’s on her own—again. Why, oh why, does everyone leave her hanging, changing her world with a few words and quick walk in the opposite direction. Sick of it, she decides it’s time to make things happen the way she wants. (read more…)
Aialik Bay
Justin’s taken over the Calypso but he’s not sure his heart’s still in seining. Maybe it’s time to try something new? Between family and crew, it’s a world of change for the Nichols family as another season begins, opening commercial fishing areas that have been closed for too many years.
Aialik Bay picks up where Taylor Bay ends, following the seiners through the next year of life and commercial fishing along the north coast of the Gulf of Alaska.
Still at the helm of the Calypso, Justin can’t get Ginny to switch boats or tell him why she won’t. With his twin refusing to come back as skiffman, he’s down a crewman in a year where no one seems to fit.
Case is done commercial fishing and he can’t say it often enough. Flying in the sky above the boats is where he wants to be but it’s his connections that keep him airborne.
Pete’s work is satisfying, he’s got a knack he never knew was there. If he could only get his personal life to run as smoothly. (read more…)
Aurora Bay
As Chelsea and Case struggle to rebuild their fractured friendship, tensions rise, not only between them but also with Case’s twin brother, Justin, whose protective instincts toward Chelsea lead to a dangerous game of jealousy.
And now Case really has to decide what direction his life’s going to take. (read more…)
Secret Bay (coming soon!)
Secret Bay follows the families, boats, and crew through another year of life in southcentral Alaska!
Meet The Skippers, Crew, and Family:
Mack Nichols has been fishing his whole life but never has he faced the unpredictable challenges that hit him now. From on the water to in his home, he’s navigating dangerous swirls trying to maintain the life he loves.
Ginny has been in love with Alaska since she was a child. Traveling across the country to follow her dream, she ends up on Mack’s boat only to discover that real life is much harsher than the ‘reality’ shows she’s loved.
Wade, Mack’s longstanding skiffman, wishes his relationships were as stable as his job. Mack’s new deckhand Viv isn’t making things any easier for him and his wife is even worse. Caught in a trap of his own making, he’s force to ask for help and doesn’t like the advice Mack gives him.
Viv accepted a job on Mack’s boat seemingly out of the blue, but she finds an unexpected connection when she hears about the seiner’s recent challenges. What’s she going to do now that she knows their secrets?
Pete might be Mack’s older brother, but that doesn’t mean he’s the leader. Struggling at home, he’s more than willing to let Mack take the lead while fishing. It takes Pete years to find his path after his world falls apart but one thing’s clear – his kids have always been his life. But where does that leave him when his twins find their own relationships?
Justin, Pete’s oldest twin, has to tell his parents that four years of college are three too many for him. He’s ready to work at the one thing he knows best: commercial fishing and he knows who he wants with him on deck.
Case, Justin’s handsome and popular twin, has no intention of following the family fishing business and he’s not shy about saying so, no matter who it hurts.
Hattie and Mack were married for almost twenty years. Living in a small town means they can’t avoid hearing about what the other one is doing–not that either one wants to know. As their lives continue to force them to deal with each other, each one need to decide: are they really done with each other?
Gabe has a different perspective than his father Fred. His passion is sustainability and he’ll work ’till he drops for the changes needed to protect the bays and the salmon he loves.
Fred is a traditionalist to the core and he always comes out fighting for what he believes in. Right now, he believes in helping himself and making sure everyone else stays out of his way and out of his bay. He’ll stop at nothing to keep the status quo, and that includes sinking the Nichols brothers–both thorns in his side.
Chelsea has lived across the creek from the twins for most of her life. She loves them both, but will always feel closest to Case because of the secrets they share. But when Case ignores her–again–she decides she’s had enough and takes off on her own adventure.