“One day I am going to build a castle and live by the sea.” Those were Dawn Snell’s words when she was a young child growing up in northern Alberta. Long winter evenings on the farm were spent reading, and fairy tales were Dawn’s favorite. Decades later, she was to live her own fairy tale as she moved to Chemainus, British Columbia, and bought the property upon which Castle Cove Inn now sits. For nearly thirty years, Dawn enjoyed the beauty and majesty of her ocean paradise and shared it with others who stayed at her idyllic inn. She has since sold the property and retired to Palm Springs with her husband, Randy Holt [living happily ever after, she says, in their castle in the desert]. The regal home on Vancouver Island is still being run as an inn.
I had the pleasure, several times, of staying at Castle Cove Inn on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada. I met the original owner, Dawn Snell, whose dreams and passion combined to create her castle by the sea—which she shared for many years with visitors from around the world. The idea for my novel, Time Again, was born in the summer of 2016 during one of those enjoyable stays. The women portrayed in the book as “caretakers” of that beautiful place in many ways pay homage to Dawn, whose kind heart, tenacity, and entrepreneurial spirit touched me. I wanted to write a story that heralds those qualities in women. I dedicate this book to Dawn and to women everywhere who believe in the power of their dreams.
—Jeane Watier
Dawn Snell and Jeane Watier
Castle Cove Inn
Chemainus, British Columbia, Canada
