By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Elise LeBovit of the Duck Inn has been hosting a Rites of Spring Egg Hunt on Easter for so long she can’t remember when it began.

“I know I have done it at least for the last 20 years,” she said.

Last Sunday afternoon she had a dozen youngsters and a couple of parents over at her house coloring and painting eggs to prepare for the big event.

One of the parents helping out was Shannon Rynd-Ray of Oak Bluffs, now a mother of three.

“I started like so many aspiring writers,” author Susan Wilson said recently in a phone interview with the Gazette. “I pounded out a book that seemed exciting to me. In this case, what else, a pirate story.”

Since then Mrs. Wilson has published six well-received novels, and her newest release, The Dog Who Danced, arrived in stores last month.

Last Wednesday night was a holiday special for fans of the novel Moby-Dick, or any other maritime tale. Nathaniel Philbrick, the Nantucket author of a number of best-selling maritime history books, including In the Heart of the Sea, talked to an audience at the Black Dog Tavern about his most recent work, a 132-page book called Why Read Moby-Dick?, published by Penguin Group.

The night couldn’t have been more appropriate for anyone who has either experienced the epic novel as a reader or watched it on the movie screen.