This past week, I have been watching doggies with my friend, E.O. Connors, so my apologies because this newsletter is a tad late. I have been enjoying the thunder, the rain, and the humidity. So have the dogs, who require prescription medication once that rumbling starts.
My friend and I get together often (like in Connecticut and Florida) to write our books. Tbh, sometimes, the only time I do any fictional writing. These trips involve a lot of coffee and the beach. Because I like the beach. I also like coffee. The beach and coffee together are perfect.
We decided to go to a beach about halfway between Surf City, NC and North Topsail, NC, which was approximately 40 minutes away. And despite checking the weather before we went to assure us that the rain and thunder would not be near us, it rained. Sometimes, poured.
You probably cannot see in the picture above because of the wording, so I will show you what we saw once we arrived on the beach:
Do you see that dark spot underneath the clouds, kind of in the center of the picture? Yeah, that's rain. We could see the rain coming. To us. Right where we were headed.
Y'all (that's my attempt to be southern) ... we walked directly into the rain. I rationalized, though, that getting wet was what one is supposed to do at the beach. And it was warm, so it wasn't like we were wet, cold, and miserable.
We were not to be deterred! We ended up walking a mile, which in my mind was about 40 miles because I really had to use the bathroom. (Coincidentally, E.O. writes a very funny Substack called Where's the Bathroom?)
But NC was super nice and provided us these wonderful bathrooms and free parking.
We also found this bizarro house-like structure. It looked like it might have been part of a pier at some point. Just look at those storm clouds!
This is what we were walking toward.
It was a perfect day at the beach.
The Promos
This week, I'm featuring The Path of Silence by Edith A. Petrick. Officer Meg Stanton's day include a dire need for a large coffee (I can totally relate!), some parenting squabbles ... and yeah, a dead body on the hood of her partner's car.
Happenings
I'd feature the doggies that we are watching, but today's newsletter is already fairly image heavy. I took a pause this week writing any additional legal-ish ... because I've been walking in the rain on the beach. Fortunately, it did not thunder when we were on the beach. But it did call for thunder. Don't be on the beach if you hear thunder. Electricty + water = bad.