Fact and fictions

Gunning, 58, traces her roots back 300 years in this town. “The Cape literally is a part of me,’’ she says, having been barely a month old when she spent her first summer here. In 1977, she moved here from Providence.

As she stands on the flats in late June, she thinks back to the mid- to late 1700s.

“I can picture this beach just covered with these whales. The cry was up. Everybody rushes to the beach, gets into their boats, and drives them in purposely. In those days, it was heaven. They’d just sit there and hack up the blubber, load it into the barrels,’’ she says.

Brewster is the setting for Gunning’s “Widow’s War,’’ published in 2006; “Bound,’’ published last year; and, in part, “The Seeming Truth,’’ due out next year. All three books are set in the 18th century.

“Widow’s War’’ begins as the main character, Lyddie Berry, hears a shout, “Blackfish in the bay!’’

Writes Gunning of Berry’s view from a hill above the beach: “She leaned into the wind and soon had a clear view of the beach, blackened as far as her eye could see, by the whales, driven ashore by the men’s oars beating against the water. It was a rich sight.’’

Her characters walk around Brewster. We climb into Gunning’s silver Honda CR-V to get to our next destination: Hopkins House Bakery, the setting for the home of character Betsey Hopkins, Berry’s cousin. The house is now a bakery and gift shop.

Mary Beth Baxter, who runs the gift shop while her daughter runs the bakery, greets us as we enter. She chats about the history of the house while she threads wire into signs made of old window shutters, souvenirs for the shop. Baxter says she discovered that it was always known as the Hopkins house because members of that family lived here for at least 200 years.