vacation!

trying to hold onto the summer sun!

For the last ten days I've been on vacation! When you are a freelance author, vacations can be infrequent (just like how Libby said). Most of the time, my vacations are a mix of work and fun; places to help inspire my writing or illustrating. However, this vacation was planned for pure enjoyment, relaxation and fun. See:

Doesn't that look like pure fun? It was! Because that's me up there! Really! Here, we'll zoom up:


Because, I spent my vacation on the shores of North Carolina at Okracoke Island and Kitty Hawk and had a fun, fun time swimming, getting tan, looking for sea glass, and eating lots of bad (but delicious) things. We rented a house right on the beach. To live with the ocean as a daily companion was a new and magical experience for me. In the mornings I could watch the sunrise:


and at night I could see the moonlight on the water:


Even when it stormed, it was beautiful. A child was a bit careless with his large, clear beach ball and during a storm it was slowly washed out to sea. It looked like a giant bubble, delicately riding the waves:



There was something bittersweet and poetic about it. In fact, it gave me an idea for a book...ah! For freelance authors, there really is no such thing as a non-working vacation!