The Topsail Accord — J.T. Kalnay

Wealthy divorcee Dr. Shannon Patrick meets a local, Joe, while walking on North Topsail Beach. Shannon, a geologist, has recently discovered oil and natural gas in the Marcellus Shale under Ohio. While the newfound wealth has provided her undreamt of new opportunities, including her new beach house in North Carolina, Shannon is still trying to understand her divorce. She feels alone, even though she has the love and support of her very close family. Joe is a North Topsail local who has walked and run on North Topsail Beach nearly every morning for the past two decades, ever since the loss of his only child to Leukemia, and his wife's subsequent grief-propelled suicide. Shannon and Joe meet and carefully work towards a relationship that they can define and survive. The rules they implement come to be known as "The Topsail Accord." Follow along as Shannon discovers how, if at all, she can let someone love her again, and as Joe reawakens to the possibility that there is someone who he can love. Set on North Topsail Beach, North Carolina, in Playa Jaco, Costa Rica, and in Cleveland, Ohio, The Topsail Accord examines whether bounded lives defined by agreed upon intersections can be complete lives, or whether the rules they hope will protect them block perhaps their last chance at love.