THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TRIANGLE: Guest Blogger Marilyn Baron

Hi Everyone! Please welcome back my special friend Marilyn Baron who has a new book debuting with the WILD ROSE PRESS this August and a lot of cool information about the Bermuda Triangle. I hope you enjoy her blog post today as I share the Veranda with her. 

Author Marilyn Baron

The Truth About The Triangle

By Marilyn Baron

People can’t seem to stop talking about The Bermuda Triangle, but not many people are aware of the other things Bermuda has to talk about. I’ve spent many wonderful vacations in Bermuda, which is why I chose Bermuda for the setting of my new novel, Under the Moon Gate and the prequel Destiny: A Bermuda Love Story.  The place is almost a central character in the book. So, courtesy of the Bermuda Department of Tourism, I thought you might find these little known facts about Bermuda interesting.

1. Bermuda is NOT in The Bahamas. Contrary to popular belief, Bermuda is not in The Bahamas. It’s located 650 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. and is less than a three-hour flight from Atlanta. It stretches for 21 miles along turquoise waters and is surrounded by a 200-square-mile coral reef plateau.
2. Pink sand beaches. Bermuda’s signature pink sand comes from a combination of crushed coral, calcium carbonate, and foraminifera. There’s a picture on my Web site.    
3. Bermuda is the oldest British colony.
4. Visitors cannot rent cars in Bermuda. Tourists can rent motor scooters, but if you’re not careful you’ll get a bad case of road rash. 
5. Bermuda does have its own currency, but Bermuda dollars are only usable on your Bermuda vacation, so it’s a non-exportable currency. Bermuda dollars are pegged to the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 exchange rate.
6. If golf is your game…Bermuda is home to more golf courses per square mile than anywhere in the world.
7. Love-Love. Thank you Bermuda for introducing tennis to America. 
8. Bermuda has a rich literary heritage. Bermuda has attracted and inspired Mark Twain, Noel Coward, James Thurber, Eugene O’Neill and John Lennon. Before publishing The Secret Garden in 1911, Frances Hodgson Burnett stayed at the Princess Hotel, giving rise to the rumor that the secret garden was located somewhere in Bermuda. William Shakespeare’s The Tempest was inspired by a shipwreck that occurred near St. George in 1609, the year before he wrote the play. That shipwreck was also the inspiration for my book Destiny: A Bermuda Love Story, which will be released in September. Michael Douglas, one of my favorite actors, and his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, have a home in Bermuda. In fact, he is a shareholder and board member of Ariel Sands, a resort on Bermuda’s South Shore, whose property has been in his mother’s family since the 1840s.
9. Bermuda Shorts. Bermuda shorts, made of Irish Linen, are an acceptable part of the everyday wardrobe in Bermuda and are worn by most businessmen. 
10. Bermuda remains the world’s number one wreck diving destination.

Moon Gate Pendant

Best buys in Bermuda include Bermuda cedar, Bermuda Longtail Jewelry, Bermuda Moon Gate Jewelry and Bermuda Rum Cakes.

If you haven’t been there already, I hope you get a chance to go one day. But reading my book is the next best thing to being there.

Here’s a blurb about Under the Moon Gate, a romantic thriller set in contemporary and WW II Bermuda, now out in e-book form from The Wild Rose Press at AMAZON. The book will be available in print format August 9.

Dashing sea captain Nathaniel Morgan sails into the life of prim and proper Bermuda heiress Patience Whitestone and threatens to expose her family secrets—ruinous secrets she wasn’t aware of. The two are immediately at odds when Nathaniel moors his vessel in front of her estate and refuses to leave until he finds the cache of Swiss gold he’s convinced was buried somewhere on the property during World War II. Can Patience save herself and her family’s reputation when she finds herself reluctantly drawn to this determined “pirate”? Or will someone from the past make good on his threat to destroy them both? Their fate is inextricably linked to Nazi plots and to the beautiful moon gates of Bermuda in this compelling tale of love and intrigue.

Now the prequel to Under the Moon Gate, Destiny: A Bermuda Love Story, a historical, was just released on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Bermuda-Love-Story-ebook/dp/B00D0RABAY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369666497&sr=8-1&keywords=Destiny%3A+A+Bermuda+Love+Story 

Here's the blurb: 

Destiny: A Bermuda Love Story

Prequel to UNDER THE MOON GATE

The relationship of star-crossed lovers Elizabeth Sutton and Edward Morgan founders off the coast of Bermuda with the shipwreck of the Sea Venture in the seventeenth century. Edward is seduced by the captain’s daughter and trapped into an unhappy marriage, but he and his new wife continue the voyage to Virginia to rescue the starving Jamestown Colony.

Elizabeth, still in England and pregnant with Edward’s child, receives Edward’s letters telling of the shipwreck but knows nothing of his marriage. When her child is old enough, Elizabeth follows Edward as far as Bermuda. Will he return and will the lovers be reunited, or will their eternally entwined souls search forever to fulfill their destiny?

If you want to read more about my other books and stories, please visit my new Web site at http://www.marilynbaron.com/.