The Lost Dream of the Sugar Sand

School is out and the sweet breath of the summer of 1970 drifts through the borough of Mays Landing, yet sixteen year old Eric Turner is hurting. He skips dinner and grumbles past the neighbors' neatly trimmed homes having just learned his father has abandoned their long-shared dream of fixing up their idle trawler to run charter tours. Instead, his dad wants to sell the boat to finance college - a future Eric furiously rejects.

Eric explodes at his parents, then argues with his girlfriend, Tina - who breaks up with him, leaving him with words that will haunt him the rest of his life. A brooding Eric runs away to the boat, then later, driving home through the Pine Barrens in the rain, discovers a fatal car accident that shatters his young life.

Years later, having restored the boat, now christened the Lost Dream, an aging passenger ferry he pilots through the salt marsh backwaters of the southern Jersey shore, a tormented Eric leads a life of guilt and penance while enduring what remains of his childhood dream - alone.

Yet Catherine Sorrell, a gracious but apprehensive manager of a popular seaside café and gift shop in Cape May - who has a troubling weakness for lonely men, and who has also suffered a terrible loss - is implored by her feisty employee, Shelly, a young Irish girl over on summer work visa, to offer Eric the gift of another chance at life and love.

Eric struggles to return Catherine's affections, unable to overcome his guilt and the fateful relationship with his teenage sweetheart. In the midst of his turmoil, Eric discovers Jesse, a secretive stowaway boy who holds the key to Eric's self-imposed prison and the love that would set him free.

The Lost Dream of the Sugar Sand is a story of anger, loss, guilt, and redemption that intertwines and unites Eric with many compelling characters in a love story filled with poignant and tender moments as it winds its way through the unexpected turns of life all the way to its surprise ending.