Back, unwillingly!

I've come back from revisions and from a minivacation to the beach.

It's the beach where I grew up and I never thought I'd leave, but my parents split up and my mother felt more comfortable with her family far inland. :-) So, suddenly, I lived in the mountains, which I also love, but the ocean calls me as if my soul comes twisting to shore in each wave.

I walked the beach with my daughter and we found sand dollars, which were scarce even when I still lived there. Bundled up in our meager jackets (we haven't needed coats in about six years) and scarves and gloves, we found clams bubbling in the sand--and we left them alone to bubble in peace. We followed little birdies learning to scavenge in the wavelets. We walked in rivulets formed by the tide coming into tidal beds that high tide formed the night before and the night before and the night before, since--forever. We breathed in the sea air, which is the most elegant perfume to me, but "fishy" to her. I even tasted the water--which tastes the same--salty and lifegiving--after all this time. And then last night, I read an article that says the elegant perfume is due to bacteria in the water. (I'm so Howard Hughes in nature you wouldn't believe it!)

Nevertheless, I'm planning a book set at the beach. Need-more-research-time!