I’m Dayna and I live on an island off the coast of Portsmouth, NH with my husband, author JD Barker, and my littlest love. Through my upstairs windows I can see the water, watch the tugs guiding great ships into port. Through glass rectangles in my ceiling I can see the sky, the light of the turning New England seasons.
I wake at 5 each morning, take my coffee to my starfish chair, and until 8 (sometimes sooner and sometimes later) I am an author. I have a very patient literary agent who says things like “trust your process” and who generously encourages my slow determination to have it all, to be Mother and Author and do both well and in concurrence even if this makes for slow revisions.
We bought our dream house in May of 2019, all windows and skylights, gardens and shingles, green and orange, shag and leak. We got here a month later and have been tearing it apart and putting it back together ever since. Living in tiny corners, protected by draped and stapled plastic. Spending as many days escaping outside as weather permitted.
And now it is finally a home. We are choosing furniture. Arranging seashells and flowers. Hanging photos. Breathing salt and ocean, exploring our secret gardens.
Welcome to the island. I’m so happy to see you.
