Story by JEFFREY POWELL
Have you every passed by a country road and wondered where it went? Miramar Beach author Foster Sanders has and the experience inspired him to write a novel titled Almost to Destin.
As a young man Sanders regularly drove from Baton Rouge, La., to his farm in Amite County, Miss. Along the way he noticed a sign for Ebenezer Baptist Church which pointed down a lonely dirt road. Sanders wondered to himself, who and what is down that road? What are the people and their lives like? Years later he would explore those question when he sat down to write his book.
“Life is so unpredictable and precarious. Life has a lot to do with happenstance,” said Sanders. “Every day you have the opportunity to take a new direction in life. I always wondered what would happen if I went down that road.”
Sanders first came to the Florida Panhandle in the early 1980s when he bought a home in Fort Walton Beach. Since that time he has lived in several locations in both Okaloosa and Walton County. He has become especially enamored with the Choctawhatchee River basin and the wildlife it supports. Sanders has incorporated his love for the area and several local characters into his fictional work.
“I have placed a lot of local characters and local Walton County references into the book.” he said. “I also mention the Choctawhatchee River which I believe is the pearl of the Panhandle. The life it supports is very unique. All of the animals and wildlife fascinate me.”
Sanders calls Almost to Destin a romantic novel and has used his many years of experience as an attorney to lace the novel with intrigue and mystery. This is his first book but has writing experience as a columnist with a newspaper in Baton Rouge.
“This work fulfills my wish to write a book, said Sanders. “I wanted to write a meaningful book that explores life’s real issues.”
Almost to Destin can be purchased at Amazon books or almosttodestin.com.
