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positive light. We love it here and knew getting our personal respect and a ection for our home onto paper was important.PC Living: Whose idea was it to write this book?Emily: Christina’s. She then mentioned it to Melissa. I had returned to Port St. Joe, after spending four years working in a corporate job in Atlanta. I was working for Melissa at her store, Joseph’s Cottage. One day she mentioned that she and Christina had been talking about this project and they wondered if I would be interested, too. As I look back on it now, even just the thought of moving home, amazes me. Whatwere the odds of nding something that became a true passion? I think it was just meant to be. There was a synchronicity throughout the whole experience.Christina: I had always wantedto live at the beach and, over theyears, often visited Seaside with mydaughters. From there I began doingmore and more day trips, exploringthis area. I kept venturing eastward,driving through miles and miles oftall pine trees. I would stop to takephotos because, as an artist, I wasbuilding up an inventory of images Iwanted to paint. Once in Carrabelle,I took a photograph of the park there. I happened to show it, along with some other photos, to Melissa. She said, “Oh, yeah! My family has been going there for years.” And I would talk to people on my travels. They were so friendly and I would ask them, “Why are you here?” And they shared their stories with such love and appreciation. I remember talking with Ms. Dorothy at Outzs’ Too, an oyster bar in Newport near Wakulla Springs, and eating smoked mullet dip. It occurred to the three of us that people love this area in a way that we wanted others to understand and appreciate. This book is our way of sharing their stories and our own.PC Living: Not only is the book’s content fascinating, the book is visually appealing. You all came to this project with three distinctly di erent perspectives. How did that work out as the project moved forward?Emily: We are three passionate and creative women of di erent ages. There were days we worked together as a team and some days we worked alone. And our age di erences were essential to the book; we put our heads together from three very di erent places and created something that spans generations.Melissa: We had a vision from the beginning. It was a huge and thoughtful process to really convey, to reallybring out the essence of this entire area. Being able to bring in Emily, who grew up here in a family in the shing industry going back generations, brought an invaluable perspective. I was born in the 60s, and grew up going to the coast at St. Marks and Panacea where my grandfather had a sh camp. In the 70s and 80s we would go to Panama City Beach, but it was this area that kept drawing me back.PC Living: Speaking of vision, the images in the book, old photographs, and letters and family recipes, have a distinctly vintage look to them. How did that come about?Emily: We wanted the photographs to elevate the book, to stand the test of time, so we knew photography was important. And we had been looking for just the right photographer. My sister happened to be visiting from Jacksonville along with her friend, Lean Timms. Lean is a travel and lifestyle photographer originally from Australia. We took her boating on St. Joseph Bay. One thingled to another and we asked her if she would be interested in taking on a big project and just see what would happen. She was immediately enthusiastic about what we were trying to accomplish. Over the course of a year, we spent about seven weeks working together. The three of us had the creative eye;www.PanamaCityLiving.com • January - February 2017 • 21