A Maryland native, now living in the Middle East, author Kim Kash has a serious soft spot for Ocean City. In fact, her love for OCMD is a love so true that she decided to write a fiction book featuring our beloved town. “I started perusing online and saw almost no fiction books written in or about Ocean City. I thought to myself, what a great opportunity I have here,” said Kash of the Ocean City Lowdown a new fiction book based on life in Ocean City.
The book follows Jamie August, a reporter turned accidental detective in Ocean City during the long, quiet winter months. “I’m a mystery junkie,” said Kash. The idea for the book was first brought to light in 2008. Shortly after, Kash moved to the Middle East when her husband was offered a job he couldn’t refuse. “The book was sort of put on the back burner, moving across the world was definitely first priority there for a while,” said Kash. After getting settled down in her new home and getting over the initial culture shock, Kash got back to work writing about her small state half a world away. “I’m originally from Greenbelt, MD right outside of DC but we would vacation every summer in Ocean City, it was such a special place to me and I have the fondest memories,” remembers Kash. She wrote an Ocean City Travel Guide prior to Ocean City Lowdown and spent countless hours studying and researching the area. “I feel like my idea of Ocean City is blown up because it was only a vacation place for me, I never lived there so when we would visit it was like I was escaping real life.”
The move to the Middle East provided Kash with the push she needed to get started writing about her beloved home state of Maryland. “I didn’t appreciate how beautiful Maryland was until I moved away. I miss the green, the food- most definitely the seafood, and the people,” said Kash. “What better way to write a book about the place you love when you are so far from it missing it like crazy, I love the Middle East but I miss the states.” Kash has not failed to see the irony in writing about her favorite resort town from across the world. “It’s just funny to me because I’m writing about women in bikinis at Seacrets when outside my window I’m living in a place where women can’t show anything but their faces,” said Kash. Kash was quick to note that she appreciates everything that the Middle East has taught her. “It’s really opened my eyes to seeing things in a whole new light but what surprised me the most is that people are the same everywhere, even people with different backgrounds and religions,” said Kash. “They appreciate the basic things and they love their families.”
Kash has high expectations for the book (As do we!). Her main priority is getting the feeling right. “I want people to read the book and get the feeling that I got whenever we’d come over the Route 50 bridge,” said Kash. “I want to capture the spirit of Ocean City, the sentimental feeling people have for it.”
Currently, Kash is working on a sequel to Ocean City Lowdown, which will be set in the prime time of summer, evoking an entirely different atmosphere then the first book. The book is available through a variety of outlets making it easy for anyone to read- audio, for your kindle, and now recently in paperback.
