That summer in Ocean City, Maryland… What if starting over meant facing everything you thought you’d left behind?

In Ocean City, the summer sun doesn’t just shine, it sparkles with potential. Sunrises over the waves, sunsets melting into the bay. The Boardwalk buzzes with energy. Ice cream melts too fast. Strangers meet. Hearts break and mend. And under the two watchful eyes of a pair of oddball seagulls, anything can happen. During a summer like this one, the possibilities feel limitless.

Just a few blocks from the crashing waves and soft sand, on a quiet little bayside street, three lives are about to tangle in ways that will change them forever.

Rachel "Ray" Anders is a cybersecurity analyst specializing in election security, working behind the scenes to help protect the integrity of the voting process. After losing so much during the pandemic, she retreats to her grandparents’ old beach house on Seagull Street, hoping to disappear for a while. No connections. No noise. Just her dog Charlie, the water, her thoughts, and the steady comfort of birds overhead.

Then Olivia McNalley moves in next door.

A fast-talking, big-hearted third-grade teacher turned summer waitress, Olivia is rebuilding after a divorce that left her shaken and watchful. Her ex-husband didn’t just change, he radicalized. Pulled deep into online forums and grievance-fueled “patriot” fantasies, he became someone Olivia no longer recognized... or felt safe around. Ocean City is supposed to be her reset. What she doesn’t expect is an instant, easy friendship with Ray, or the realization that home might be something she can choose for herself.

Enter Evan Michaels: an Eastern Shore native, marketing manager by day, surfer by weekend, and friend-to-all by default. Newly single and learning to redefine his own story, Evan sees what others don’t: the way Ray flinches when someone gets too close, and how Olivia’s bright smile hides something darker.

Then things start to unravel.

Catfishing. Theft. A Boardwalk tram hijacking. And threats that hit far too close to home. As the summer heats up, so does the tension, and the past each of them thought they’d left behind begins creeping back like the next high tide.

In a summer of second chances, can three unlikely allies rewrite their stories… or will everything they’ve built wash away before Labor Day?

Told like a diary of summer 2023, with warmth, wit, and a touch of suspense, Welcome to Seagull Street is a slice-of-life beach read where romance, mystery, and unexpected friendship collide. Set against the backdrop of Ocean City, Maryland, it’s a story of fresh starts, personal resilience, and deep-rooted social issues that shape our everyday lives. Through it all, two peculiar seagulls—one with a missing foot, the other with a beak that curves just so—keep silent watch from the rooftops, witnesses to every twist, turn, and truth revealed.

Featuring original cover art by Ocean City’s own Marc Emond, editorial cartoonist and creator of Stinky Beach Studio.