Who knew Havilland Shores was so sexy?

A local author received a book deal for a romance series based, in part, on her time operating a restaurant in Havilland Shores.

McBride’s Gem — the first of four novels in Roxanne Sackville’s Pale Bay Treasures series — hits bookshelves in the US and Canada on Friday.

Sackville, who wrote the series under the pen name Roxy Matthews, began writing the first novel while she and her husband operated Roxie’s Lakeside Grill in Havilland Shores.

For years, Sackville honed her craft by writing novels, short stories and was a one-time columnist on SooToday.

She used the feedback received from writing contest entries and from her editors to constantly improve her skills.

In 2010, the author won a short story contest, which the author said cemented her resolve to continue writing.

“That taught me that I had something. The passion was there, the imagination was there,” said Sackville.

She kept plugging away.

“I worked and worked and worked until I made it. I figured one day it was going to happen,” said Sackville.

She learned to self-edit her work, but said the biggest difference between self-publishing her books and having been picked up by an established publisher is the guidance she received from their editors, said the author.

“We all think when we self-publish that we know what we’re doing. It’s not until you accept the fact you don’t that you can learn to fix it,” said Sackville.

About 100 query letters were sent to prospective publishers by Sackville before she landed the deal with Destiny Whispers Publishing, based in Tucson, Arizona.

“I told my husband, if it doesn’t work, this is the last one I am going to send it to. If I get rejected I’m just going to start all over again,” said Sackville.

Not only was the publisher interested in the novel, they requested she expand it from one book to four in total.

“She connected me about four days after the application and said she absolutely loved it. She wanted to see what else I had and in no time I ended up having the contract deal,” said Sackville.

The series takes place in Pale Bay in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a fictional setting loosely based on Havilland Shores.

“It’s mostly a small little community with people who have lived there forever next to a lake,” said Sackville.

Each book in the series will follow a different couple, the first features a feisty young woman wearing business attire who runs into a smart, tough-guy and Sackville said the two eventually fall in love.

A lot of the characters will carry forward in the series, said Sackville.

“They all kind of inter-weave into each other’s story lines. So, as each book goes along you’re seeing these characters keep coming back. It isn’t until you reach the fourth book that you realize the significance between all of these characters,” she said.

When writing the characters, Sackville said she observed the speech and mannerisms of the people who came through the restaurant’s doors and incorporated some of it in her stories to breathe life into the characters.

“Sitting back and seeing it all, you pick up on things. You pick up on the characteristics and the movements and the funny little quirks. It helped me make my characters have their own quirks and make them real,” said Sackville.

Some of her old regular customers are now her biggest supporters, said Sackville.

The publisher did request one change in the novel — the addition of a sex scene.

“My plan hadn’t been to have one, it was always the ‘almost there’ but never actually doing it, but my publisher was like, ‘no, they have to do it,’” said Sackville.

She hopes everyone from 18 to nursing home age will enjoy the novel and Sackville noted some romance authors have large male followings.

“Once they get into the world, I don’t think it will matter how old they are or what their sex is — I’m hoping they enjoy it as much as I did,” said Sackville

McBride’s Gem will be released Friday, but Sackville suspects it will not hit local shelves until next week.

Sackville said so far, Shoppers Drug Mart, The Rad Zone and Coles in the Station Mall have told her they will stock the book and the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library is expected to order ‘a few copies’.    

The book is already available as an eBook on Amazon.com and Sackville said sales so far have been encouraging.

She hopes online sales are a good sign, because she doesn’t plan on stopping after the Pale Bay series has ended.

“My biggest dream right now is to see if I can pull off a movie deal. It’s a big dream, it’s a very high star in the sky, but I have gotten this far with perseverance and determination — there’s nothing to stop me until I can do it. I’m going to try.”