Oak Island NC - North Carolina Beaches: Beach Vacation and Relocation Planning Guide to Oak Island NC and Caswell Beach, NC » Cool Stuff

Insider’s Guide: NC South Coast

gary — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:52:42 +0000

Save $6.00 off! If you want to know what the locals know, the Insider’s Guide is for you.

Written by longtime locals and true insiders who offer personal and practical perspectives that readers trust.

The Insider’s Guide to NC’s Southern Coast & Wilmington takes you to the clean, quiet, family oriented beaches of North Carolina’s Southern Coast and introduces you to the intriguing city of Wilmington, including the historic downtown riverfront.

Regular Cover Price: ~~$15.95~~

On Sale:

$9.95 Buy it at http://Islands-Art.com

The Nine Irony By Tom Rieber

gary — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:15:19 +0000

The Nine Irony, the latest in the Nick Thomas Mysteries series by Local Author Tom Rieber is now available online.

Nick Thomas is a little bit of all of us; believable, lovable, tough when need be and sensitive. He is a man who got a second chance at life after hitting bottom and turned his life around.

And life was good, that is until one fateful day the walls of his life came crashing down and he finds himself framed and wanted for the murder of his estranged ex-wife.

Nick has no choice but to go underground and try and find the real killer before the police find him. The Nine Irony is also a romantic story about a beautiful and trusting love between Nick and his soul-mate Chris who helps him through this fast paced ordeal.
Pick up your autographed copy and join Tom’s loyal fans. You won’t be disappointed!

Buy It Here! $14.95

The Coastal Art of Miller Pope

Kim — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:26:56 +0000

Local Artist and author Miller Pope is making high quality Giclée prints of his original artwork available for sale on Islands-Art.com!

While priced as low as $8.00, all prints are titled digitally and reproduced as high quality Giclées.

A light gray mat is also printed around the white area. All prints fit standard frame sizes found everywhere. Pricing is by frame size.

To view all of Miller’s prints and/or purchase these prints click here!

The first series Miller has released are nature and beach scenes.

Other series (to be released) include prints of his illustrations from his four pirate books and a selection of his retro/vintage art from the 19950s and 1960s.

Miller was recently the subject of a feature article in the January issue of Our State Magazine.

Miller Pope was born in South Carolina but spent most of his career during the “golden age of illustration” in the New York advertising and publishing arenas, after getting his start on the Marine Corps’ legendary Leatherneck magazine.

Miller studied figure drawing at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., at the Art Students League in New York City.

His works have appeared on novel covers and in major magazines. He was elected to the Society of Illustrators in 1957.

With his wife, Helen, he moved south in the 1970s and worked to develop The Winds Resort Beach Club and Sea Trail Plantation on the Southeastern North Carolina coast.

To view all of Miller Pope’s prints and/or purchase these prints click here!

Looking for a Beach Book?

Kim — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:29:39 +0000

Heading to beach and looking for a great summer read?

Check out Islands-Art.com for some unique books by nationally renowned local authors and artists.

The works of the writers include romance Novels, Mysteries, History and fun. All have ties to this very special place along NC’s Coast.

Jacqueline DeGroot Romance Novels

Islands Art brings you novels by renowned local Romance Novelist Jacqueline DeGroot.

Jacqueline’s books take place right here on the beaches of Sunset Beach and Ocean Isle – with many local landmarks as back drops.

Sit in your beach chair and lose yourself in a Jacqueline DeGroot Romance Novel!
Click Here To preview 8 of Jacqueline DeGroot’s best:
Jacqueline DeGroot Romance Novels

Tom Rieber’s “The Nine Irony”

For men there’s the latest in the Nick Thomas Mystery Series “The Nine Irony” by local author Tom Rieber. A powerful. suspense driven thriller!

Nick Thomas is a little bit of all of us; believable, lovable, tough when need be and sensitive. He is a man who got a second chance at life after hitting bottom and turned his life around. And life was good, that is until one fateful day the walls of his life came crashing down and he finds himself framed and wanted for the murder of his estranged ex-wife.

Nick has no choice but to go underground and try and find the real killer before the police find him.

Click here to preview:
Tom Rieber’s “The Nine Irony” – A Nick Thomas Mystery

Miller Pope’s Book Of Pirates

For kids of all ages there is Miller Pope’s series of Pirate Books. Richly illustrated in full color and historically accurate, Miller’s pirate series are engrossing and entertaining. With nearly 150 original illustrations, this volume is sure to please and inform pirate fans of all ages.

• Race for Riches: a history of the origins of piracy
• Greed and Gold: a pirate’s life aboard ship and in battle
• Tools of the Trade: weapons, vessels, and pirate culture
• Rogues and Raiders: profiles of pirates through history
• Other Pirates, Other Times: the past and future of piracy
• A Roster of Infamy: a list of pirates and their vessels

Click here to preview:
Miller Pope’s Series of Pirate Books

Tales OF The Silver Coast

Hard Cover or Soft Cover Edition – A Secret History Of Brunswick County – From the earliest days of European exploration to the golf courses and beach resorts in this fascinating and fast-growing region, Brunswick County has attracted settlers, invaders, and visitors of all descriptions.

In these pages you’ll read about Steve Bonnet, the “Gentleman Pirate,” who hid his ships in Brunswick’s moss-draped creeks but unfortunately underestimated the ebbing tide; “Mrs. Calabash,” who’s said to have lent her name to the famous sign-off for Jimmy Durante’s classic radio shows; and Topsy the Elephant, who swam for the Brunswick riverbank after breaking loose from circus handlers in the 1920s.

Click here to preview:
Tales OF The Silver Coast

The History Of Ocean Isle Beach

Written to preserve and bring to life the history, character, and charm of Ocean Isle Beach is for people of all ages to enjoy the rich history of this area, from the lives of Cape Fear Indians to the explorations of Verrazano.

This book illustrates and describes the exploits of Ocean Isle Beach pirates, the rise of large plantations, our Revolutionary War fighters, the salt mills, the dueling matches, the Civil War wrecks, the Prohibition years of Ocean Isle Beach liquor smuggling, the 1920’s Ocean Isle Beach dance hall, the World War II shipwrecks here, the hard work of Mr. Odell Williamson (founder of Ocean Isle Beach), and the town’s public servant individuals today.

Click here to preview:

The History Of Ocean Isle Beach

Sunset Beach – A History

A full history of Sunset Beach NC with stories from many of the “old timers” who were eye witnesses to events. Some are funny, some are shocking – all are fascinating. No true Sunset Beach Lover should be without this book!

This is the second collaboration between Author/ Illustrator Miller Pope and celebrated novelist Jacqueline DeGroot. World renowned nature photographer Ken Buckner’s photos are used through out the book in addition to the photographs and illustrations of Miller Pope.

Click here to preview:
Sunset Beach – A History

Local Author Releases Book

Kim — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:44:20 +0000

Local author Tom Rieber has a new book out just in time for the holidays. If you’re looking for a great murder-mystery, suspense novel for a gift or for yourself, this is it!

The Devil’s Parody is the second book in the Nick Thomas Mystery series. The first novel in the series The Nine Irony was published in 2009 and brought to life a cast of colorful characters that take you on a ride to remember.

The Devil’s Parody asks the question How Far Would You Go For $5,000,000.00? Lured by a five million dollar prize, six consummate gamblers; three men and three women, are trapped by their own greed and find themselves playing against each other for their lives in a deadly game of chance.

The Devil’s Parody is a gripping thriller that pits Nick against recluse sociopath, Sebastian Black, in the remote woods of Vermont where he is conducting a deadly experiment into the gambler’s mind. Are there lines they wouldn’t cross?

Tom Rieber’s third novel in the Nick Thomas Series, Backfire, is a thriller, set in Sunset Beach, North Carolina is already under pen.

$14.99 Devil’s Parody – Nick Thomas Mystery by Tom Rieber

Buy it now at Islands-Art.com

Miller Pope’s Vintage/Retro Art

Kim — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:29:04 +0000

Local Artist and author Miller Pope is making high quality Giclée prints of his original artwork available for sale on Islands-Art.com!

While priced as low as $8.00, all prints are titled digitally and reproduced as high quality Giclées.

A light gray mat is also printed around the white area. All prints fit standard frame sizes found everywhere. Pricing is by frame size.

To view all of Miller’s prints and/or purchase these prints click here!

The first series Miller has released were nature and beach scenes.

Other series now released include prints of his illustrations from his four pirate books and a selection of his retro/vintage art from the 19950s and 1960s.

Miller was recently the subject of a feature article in the January issue of Our State Magazine.

Miller studied figure drawing at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., at the Art Students League in New York City.

His works have appeared on novel covers and in major magazines. He was elected to the Society of Illustrators in 1957.

With his wife, Helen, he moved south in the 1970s and worked to develop The Winds Resort Beach Club and Sea Trail Plantation on the Southeastern North Carolina coast.

To view all of Miller Pope’s prints and/or purchase these prints click here!

Local Artist Featured On TV

Kim — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:31:56 +0000

Once a real New York Madman, Miller Pope has subscribed to a slower paced life after settling in Ocean Isle Beach. He worked in the advertising business when it was in its hay day, long before photoshop. His illustrations depict a time of detectives, mobsters, guns, mystery and true romance; a doe-eyed heroine with a gun hidden in her purse. His drawings are reminiscent of a simpler time we sometimes long for, when men wore suits and women dressed to the nines.

He retired from the fast-paced New York life and moved to coastal Ocean Isle Beach where he opened The Winds Resort. He loves the coastal life but he still takes time to do his art, his life’s passion.

WRAL.com out of Raleigh has featured the advertising guru in an episode of The Tarheel Traveler, check out his interview on the link below and find out what it was like to be a real madman.

Tales of the Silver Coast – A Secret History Of Brunswick County

By Miller Pope – From the earliest days of European exploration to the golf courses and beach resorts in this fascinating and fast-growing region, Brunswick County has attracted settlers, invaders, and visitors of all descriptions.

In these pages you’ll read about Steve Bonnet, the “Gentleman Pirate,” who hid his ships in Brunswick’s moss-draped creeks but unfortunately underestimated the ebbing tide; Coast Guard mounted on horse-back patrolling Ocean Isle’s beaches hunting for spies landed by German submarines; “Mrs. Calabash,” who’s said to have lent her name to the famous sign-off for Jimmy Durante’s classic radio shows; and Topsy the Elephant, who swam for the Brunswick riverbank after breaking loose from circus handlers in the 1920s.

Follow the struggles and victories that shaped Brunswick County, from the first contact of Europeans with native Americans, to successive administrations of the Lords Proprietors, the royal governors, the British crown, and the leaders of a new nation—many at whom hailed from this small but influential corner of North Carolina. Discover Brunswick’s rich Civil War history, scenic roadways and waterways and current-day towns and townships.

Tales of the Silver Coast, recounts the tales of privateers and plantation owners, politicians and Prohibition rum-runners and the many colorful people and diverse places of southeastern North Carolina.

Hard Cover $14.95

Local Writer/Artist Featured!

gary — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:06:11 +0000

Local writer and artist Miller Pope has been busy writing and illustrating eight books over the last several years including a series of pirate books, local history books, a book on illustration techniques as well as a memoir entitled “Confessions of a Mad Man”.

The January 2011 issue of Our State Magazine includes a 4 page color article about Miller in their People section and features a number of his vintage illustrations.

All of miller’s books as well as prints of some of his most popular paintings and illustrations are available for sale online at his website: http://MillerPope.com as well as on: http://Islands-Art.com

The Life and Art of Miller Pope
By Vicky Eckenrode
Photography by Allison Breiner Potter
The desire to take a risk is in almost all of us. The willingness to follow through is in only a few. Miller Pope made decisions overnight and never regretted one, and in the process created a life full of rewards.

Small moments shaped Miller Pope.

There were twists of fate, like when he slipped a party invite under the apartment door of the girls living upstairs. That was how he met Helen, who would become his wife of more than 50 years.

There were snap decisions, like when a friend suggested they move to New York City. He was only 19 then, but making moves for a long, successful career.

“I make up my mind instantly. I’m not one of those people who deliberate,” Pope says.

With all the quick changes and new ventures, one thing was constant — his love of drawing.

It started with paper-bag doodles, as a kid growing up in the wake of the Great Depression, and carried through to wartime illustrations in the United States Marine Corps, then to national ads during the Mad Men era, and it continues today in the books he churns out about southeastern North Carolina.

Pope, who lives in Shallotte, has spent decades creating characters out of pen strokes, and at 81, has no plans of stopping.

“I think happy human beings have to be doing something. I think the worst thing in the world is boredom,” he says, sipping iced tea at The Winds Resort Beach Club. Pope and his wife built the resort after moving to Ocean Isle Beach 40 years ago. “There were many forks in the road. What would have happened if I had taken even one fork different?”

Starting early
Pope, born in 1929 in South Carolina, grew up there in Greenville and the Tennessee mountains. He started in the art business as a first grader, when he’d pay five cents for a composition book, fill it with comics, and sell it to a classmate to make enough money for another blank composition book.

He fixated on drawing comics instead of paying attention in class.

A teen during World War II, Pope was his high school newspaper’s cartoonist and got a job as an assistant window decorator for a local department store. He started on his career path early, becoming the store’s advertising manager at 16.

He joined the Marines at 17, the youngest allowed with parental permission.

After Pope finished basic training and a brief stint as head orderly for a commandant, someone passed his drawings to the editors at the Leatherneck, the Marine Corps magazine that dates back to 1917.

Pope moved to Washington, D.C., and drew illustrations for the rest of his two years in the Marines.
Scraping by
After serving, Pope was ready for the advertising industry. He was working as a freelance illustrator back in Greenville, South Carolina, when his friend called and suggested he make the move to the big time.

In New York City, he continued freelance work illustrating advertisements and art for magazine stories, but starting out was rough.

“I was a little fish in a big pond,” he says. “I damn near starved for a while.”

On the night of the big party, the one he unknowingly invited Helen to, the only light in his apartment was candlelight. He had cut the electricity because he had to move after his roommate skipped out on the rent.

Despite being broke, Pope was steadfast. He remained a freelance illustrator, not hitching himself to one agency. Eventually, he built up clients and hired an art rep to help sell his work. His illustrations appeared in magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post and Reader’s Digest, along with novel covers and textbooks.

The mid-20th century was a heyday for advertising illustrations. Postwar consumerism spread, and in the years before photography dominated ads, drawings of peppy girls and sleek Cadillacs filled magazine pages.

“In those days, all the big agencies were on Madison Avenue,” says Pope, who became the youngest member elected to the Society of Illustrators. “It was a golden age of advertising — at least it certainly was for me. It was for illustrators. There were some illustrators who were almost as popular as movie stars.”

Unwilling to become complacent, Pope jumped into other projects. He started an advertising agency with two friends, a paint-by-number greeting card kit, and a company that consolidated design and visual work for book publishers. It was a busy time, full of cocktail hours and business ventures.

“This is where I want to be”
During his early years in New York City, he spent much of his time with Helen, a copywriter from a well-off New York family.

“Helen was a socialite; her family was in the right clubs,” Pope says. “I was a starving artist. There was something about the bohemian life that really appealed to her. We were about as different as two people could be.”

They married young and spent the next half-century together. Helen died in 2003 after a prolonged battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

It was Helen’s idea to move to North Carolina. It was 1969. They’d spent a couple of decades living in New York and Connecticut with their two children, when they took a trip to a family reunion at the beach. Ankle-deep in the water, Helen declared she wanted to move to Ocean Isle Beach, which at the time was little more than a remote stretch of sand.

“Miller, this is where I want to be,” she told him.

The Pope family bought property that year and moved south six years later, after they’d built four units on it to rent out when they weren’t there. They dubbed it The Four Winds, the first of several Winds properties that led to the current hotel resort.

Ocean Isle Beach was a far different place then than the collage of million-dollar beach homes and businesses that make up the town today.

“I’m leaving this party life and going to an island that has probably a dozen houses on it,” Pope recalls. “There were interesting people from other places. We’d meet people from all over. It was a very happy existence.”

After they moved to Ocean Isle Beach, the couple became increasingly involved in the community.

“Helen became the fiercest North Carolina partisan you’d ever met,” he says of his wife, who hailed from Scarsdale, New York. “She loved North Carolina, the people. She loved the beach.”

Helen came up with the moniker South Brunswick Islands to market the area, and they helped start the South Brunswick Islands Chamber of Commerce.

The couple met with state tourism officials and pushed to get the road to Ocean Isle Beach included on the state’s official road map. They organized golf trips for New York illustrators and cartoonists, constantly promoting the area.

“Nobody had ever heard about this part of North Carolina. It was unknown,” says Pope, who was still doing freelance illustrations at the time.

He bought into a land deal with friends for 700 acres of dense woods along the Intracoastal Waterway around Sunset Beach. He had 24 hours to make the decision, and he had never even seen the property. But that, too, panned out, evolving into the sprawling Sea Trail Golf Resort and Convention Center.

A little luck
Today, Pope’s children run The Winds, while Pope narrows his attention down to just the projects he finds most interesting.

Right now, that means pouring creative energy into writing and illustrating books.

In 2009, he wrote an autobiography, Confessions of a Madman, chronicling his life from Appalachian Tennessee to Madison Avenue to coastal North Carolina.

A modest man who no longer cares about chasing money or accolades, Pope says he wrote the book simply because he wanted to.

“I just wanted my grandchildren to know what an unusual life I had,” he says of his autobiography. “There’s a novel in every person. Everybody has a story. I’m not unique in that.”

Pope recently finished writing his first fiction book — a crime novel called The Haunted Lighthouse Murders that appeals to his love of old film-noir movies and detective stories.

“I hope it’s got some Raymond Chandler in it,” he says. “I don’t know if anybody’s going to be interested in it. If I wasn’t creating something, I’d go crazy. I’m happiest when I’m drawing, but now I find writing creative.”

Jacqueline DeGroot, a writer in Sunset Beach and one of Pope’s closest friends, has collaborated on several books with him. One of the most interesting things about Pope’s work is that it continues to evolve, she says.

Pope, never satisfied settling on one medium for his illustrations, now does much of his drawing on his computer.

“He is constantly teaching himself,” says DeGroot, who has known Pope since the mid-1970s. “He has learned unbelievably complicated software just by doing or using it. He didn’t read manuals. He didn’t go to a seminar. He’s like a kid with a toy when something new comes out. He paints beautifully on the computer.”

In recent years, Pope has worked on a handful of books on topics ranging from local history to pirates, and he has several more ideas pending.

“I’m into producing books, even if nobody reads them,” he says. “I have found what I love to do. I could never fully retire. I’ve been extraordinarily lucky. I was lucky in meeting Helen. When you look back in a long life, you think about the turns in the road, all the little things that could have happened and by chance — it’s all luck. That, and I’ve never been afraid to try something.”

Visit

Visit millerpope.com to learn more about Miller Pope’s books and illustrations and view a gallery of his work.

Vicky Eckenrode lives in Wilmington, where she writes for the StarNews.

Islands-Art.com – is a new e-commerce website featuring books, photography and other works by artists and writers of the islands of Coastal Carolina.

The coastal islands of the area have long been a magnet to artists and writers who discover the beauty and romance of the area and decide to put down roots.

Islands Art features Giclée Prints by nationally renowned local nature photographer and artist, Ken Buckner, the books of Miller Pope (founder of The Winds Resort and Sea Trail Golf Resort), mystery novelist Tom Rieber and renowned local Romance Novelists Jacqueline DeGroot and Peggy Grich.

Also The History of Ocean Isle Beach book and Audio Driving Tour 2 CD Set by local authors Fred R David and Vern J. Bender

Visitors to the site can learn about these artists and writers and purchase their works along with T-shirts and other apparel featuring their works of art.

The site has just been launched and offers dozens of books and prints. New works will be added going forward as the site expands!

Click here to take a look: http://www.islands-art.com

Islands-Art.com

gary — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:03:15 +0000

Islands-Art.com is a new e-commerce website featuring books, photography and other works by artists and writers of the islands of Coastal Carolina.

The coastal islands of the area have long been a magnet to artists and writers who discover the beauty and romance of the area and decide to put down roots.

Also The History of Ocean Isle Beach book and Audio Driving Tour 2 CD Set by local authors Fred R David and Vern J. Bender

Visitors to the site can learn about these artists and writers and purchase their works along with T-shirts and other apparel featuring their works of art.

The site has just been launched and offers dozens of books and prints. New works will be added going forward as the site expands!

Click here to take a look: http://www.islands-art.com

Rescued Pelicans Released

Kim — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:42:59 +0000

With families, including children, looking on two pelicans injured by frostbite and rescued were released on Saturday on the dock at Sharky’s Waterfront Restaurant on Ocean Isle Beach.

According to Janie Withers of Paws-Ability, a nonprofit group that provides financial support for assorted animal causes in Brunswick County, this winter has been very harsh for dogs and cats living outside as well as the shore birds with many actually having had frostbite on their feet this year.

The two pelicans were treated and recuperated at the Sea Biscuit Wildlife Shelter on nearby Oak Island, NC.

Sea Biscuit manager Mary Allen Rogers let Paws-Ability be part of the pelicans’ release.

In 2010, Paws-Ability raised and donated funds to help build a roof over a portion of the wildlife shelter for the protection of the birds in its care. Withers described it as an emergency situation that Paws-Ability was able to help with after Sea Biscuit had run out of funds.

Withers said the occasion offered a good science lesson as well as an opportunity to “gently pet” the birds before they are let go.

Those in attendance also had a chance to learn about the Sea Biscuit Wildlife Shelter and what it does for injured birds in our area.

Rogers stated that rescuers like to release birds in the same area where they were found, because they’re social and so they can “flock together.”

If you are interested in donating to Paws-Ability, or just want to learn more click here: http://www.paws-ability.org