When the Season Ends
A MACKINAC ISLAND NOVEL
Wife, mother, friend . . .
Who are you, really?
What if slipping away was easier than you thought?
Olivia Nash didn’t plan to disappear. But with her son at camp, her husband immersed in a global merger, and no one really paying attention to her whereabouts, stepping out of her life feels... all too easy.
On an enchanting Michigan island from her past, Olivia builds a parallel life—working at an elegant hotel restaurant, renovating a neglected cottage, and forming unexpected connections with some island residents: a guarded college student, a wise and kind bookseller, a temperamental chef, and a mysterious correspondent known only as Frankie. With this new-found family, she rediscovers long-buried parts of herself.
Slipping away is one thing. Slipping back—into the life she left behind—might not be so simple.
The author
Stacy Windahl holds degrees in economics and business administration from Kenyon College and Baldwin Wallace University. She spent a season studying the art of gracious hospitality on Mackinac Island—no degree earned, but a lifelong love acquired.
For 25 years, she’s worked as a marketing communications writer for both nonprofits and corporations. She coauthored Beyond the Castle (Zondervan, 2017) with former Disney executive Jody Dreyer, exploring the magic of working for The Walt Disney Company.
Stacy loves entertaining, travel (including a year of study in St. Andrews, Scotland), a hot cup of coffee, and a good story—believing everyone has one worth telling. She lives in Bay Village, Ohio, with her husband, Jeff, and their dog, Winnie, close to their grown children.
Wonderous reviews
Love for the book
“If you love Elin Hilderbrand novels and Mackinac Island, you'll love When the Season Ends. The story and characters are compelling, and you'll find yourself caring for each one. When the story—and the season—ended, I wanted more!”
Tamara Tomac
Manager, The Island Bookstore, Mackinac Island
"Through crystal clear prose sprinkled with quietly sharp observations about modern womanhood, Windahl tells an instantly relatable story, lovingly set on the shores of Mackinac Island's lush blue water. I loved discovering Olivia's journey right alongside her."
Jeff Graham
Award-winning writer/director of Always, Lola
“When the Season Ends touches on so many thoughts, feelings, and situations that arise as mothers move into new stages of life. The characters may be fictional, but the landscape is as real as it gets.”
Jodi Bird
Literary destination influencer, Bountiful Blessings Travel
“A wonderful, engaging story about a woman finding her way back to herself, set against the backdrop of beautiful Mackinac Island. I was deeply connected to the main character and am hoping for another book to find out what happens next! If you love Mackinac Island and just a good story, I highly recommend!”
Sharon Hegarty
Mackinac Island summer resident
"Stacy skillfully draws the reader into the life of a woman who aches for renewed purpose. The story is peppered with interesting characters, each with a surprising story of their own.
You will likely find yourself planning a trip to this idyllic island. I myself have put visiting the island at the top of my bucket list!
When the Season Ends is a perfect book club choice."
Marilyn
Goodreads Reviewer
"I finished reading When the Season Ends at 5.30 am this morning. Such a wonderful read with enthralling characters and a plot that keeps twisting and turning. And what a cracking line,
"Call me Frankie".
I must admit, I found the last quarter of the book difficult to read.
I had to keep wiping away tears ....
The wit, aphorisms, literary quotes and phrasing such as "the smile saw its shadow and vanished" - I loved them all. Oh, and the advice for life, such as "Shit happens and sometimes miracles do, too." All superbly captured and placed."
John Barrington
Mackinac Island Guest, Australia
Windahl Explores Womanhood, Humanity, and Purpose with Debut Mackinac Island Novel
Stacy Windahl’s debut title, When the Season Ends—A Mackinac Island Novel, pre-released on the Island earlier this month. Windahl spent an influential season of her own life working on Mackinac Island in 1983. While the experience was a brief moment in her personal history, it was something she has carried with her ever since. When the Season Ends is not a memoir, but is inspired by the Island’s lasting impact. It is Windahl’s solo title, as she co-authored Beyond the Castle: A Guide to Discovering Your Happily Ever After with Jody Dreyer in 2017.
Windahl, a writer and author, graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in economics. “I was an econ major and jobs were not plentiful in 1983, years ago. So, a friend of mine had been a nanny for the former owners of the (Hotel) Iroquois’ grandchildren. She told me about the Iroquois and I applied to wait tables …” Windahl said. “And as a waitress, we got a bonus if we stayed until the season ended. And so the book is inspired by those memories, but fictionalized completely.”
Author Stacy Windahl and artist Noel Skiba pose with copies of When the Season Ends at the open house Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Josephine Anderson/Town Crier)
“It’s really a story about a woman, midlife, in transition, ”Windahl said. “Her husband is out of the country on a merger assignment. Her son is at an internship at a Michigan camp, and honestly, they think she’s gonna be at home all summer in Chicago, doing whatever she does in Chicago, and they didn’t seem to notice that maybe she didn’t want to stay there.”
Instead, Windahl described, the woman slips away to Mackinac Island, with her friends and family none the wiser. She takes the opportunity to reinvent herself and, as the title teases, must answer if she can go back to the life she left behind once the season ends?
“That’s the question. The real question, what the book is really about is, do we all have a purpose in every season of our life?”Windahl said. “Because we are, as humans, in transition throughout our lives. The question is, does our purpose end with a change in our role in life? Or are we always discovering a new purpose?”
Windahl sat down to chat with readers and sign copies of her book at an open house Thursday, June 5, and Friday, June 6. The open houses took place at cover artist Noel Skiba’s studio across from Watercolor Cafe on both days, and the Island Bookstore on Saturday. Windahl credited her husband, Jeff Windahl, for his encouragement, support, and role in making the publication possible.“My darling husband was like, ‘Okay, take a year. Do not say yes to big paid jobs and get the book done. Just write the book,’”Windahl said. “So I was like, ‘Alright.’”
Stacy Windahl signs copies of her debut novel, When the Seasn Ends at the open house Thursday, June 5, 2025. (Josephine Anderson/Town Crier)
Her time as a waitress taught her about serving others, Windahl said, in a way that inspired her to write.“We set tables, and you can make people feel welcome and valued, or you can kind of toss them off. But I think at places like this, and the best places I’ve ever had dinner —at a friends’or any other place —it’s because people really wanted me to be at the table, had a place for me at the table, and wanted to really know what was going on with me. I just think a sacred privilege to do that.”
Windahl described this setting of the table as a sacred practice, and hospitality as an art, which she was inspired to write about after her time at Hotel Iroquois. “Set a table” being in air-quotes, Windahl specified. In a philosophical way, she explained, both parties set tables for commemorations, celebration and conversation and revelation. A spot for life to happen and for it to matter, regardless of location. “It’s an art form, and the Iroquois did it beautifully. And that’s why I was inspired to write it, because I felt like I learned so much about what it is to care for people in my home from how we served people at the table.”
She noted that this act of serving falls especially on women.“I think —despite cultural norms right now, in the 2020s —that women, very often, have a responsibility for hospitality and nourishing friends and family, much like the Carriage House at the Iroquois does,”Windahl said. “And I would say every night the Iroquois and women set a table.”
Tamra Tomac prepares copies of Stacy Windahl's When the Season Ends to be sold at the Island Bookstore, Thursday June 5, 2025. (Josephine Anderson/Town Crier)
After, Windahl recalled walking into Skiba’s studio during a trip to the island with her husband and a copy of her manuscript. “(I) told her what I was working on,” Windahl said. “I had my manuscript at the time, site-checking, and (Skiba) said, ‘Well, I should do the cover art.’I was like, ‘You should.’ “We went from saying ‘Hi,’ on the street to taking pictures then, at the Iroquois,” Skiba recalled. “And then we came back here and kind of laid out what (Stacy and Jeff Windahl) wanted to see.”
Skiba described working with Windahl to create a vision for the piece and how they wanted the image to capture the scene from spring to fall. “The lilacs are on the back cover, and it’s all these seasons,” Skiba said. “And then in the middle, you’ll see the lilacs change to leaves. And then on the right side of the book, it changes to falling leaves, and oranges and reds. “Jeff worked with Noel to get the size right, and she’s been an incredible encourager all the way,” Windahl said. “So has Tamara Tomacat the Island Bookstore…she read the manuscript when we were in town.”
Currently, Windahl’s novel is available only through Noel Skiba’s studio or at The Island Bookstore. It is also available for pre-order before it becomes widely released September 4, 2025, after which it will be available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever books are sold.
Aerial view of Mackinac Island
An snapshot of Mackinac Island
Beauty that speaks in waves and wildflowers
Travel to the island that time forgot with this beautiful playlist curated by Stacy, to track the arc of Olivia's story.
A Guide to Discovering Your Happily Every After
Beyond the Castle
A note from Stacy:
I buckled up for the ride of a lifetime in the co-writing of Beyond the Castle with my sister-friend, Jody Jean Dreyer. Jody knows the who’s who among Disney legends. The stories in Beyond the Castle gathered from her 30-year career at The Walt Disney Company are full of whimsy and wisdom. (And, by the way, so is Jody.)
This book, released by Zondervan in the fall of 2017, invites you inside the castles of Disney and beyond. Jody’s stories from more than three decades and twenty-two positions at Disney will help you in your own adventure, and the journey that really matters--to the source of delight, surprise and lasting goodness where happily ever after becomes truth and not just fairy tale.
You can purchase Beyond the Castle wherever books are sold.