"Here comes the sun, and I say, it's all right!!!!!!!!!"

The tourists are back, and this year with their arrival, I have also received my FIRST PASS Pages for my novel, ABOVE US ONLY SKY.

This is the final step before the book goes to print for the first time for the Advanced Reader copies, also known as galleys.  These first soft printings will be sent to independent booksellers and other important folk in the book industry.  We'll also be hoping to garner reviews from other novelists and reviewers.

I still do not have a set publication date, but we should have galleys soon, and I am looking forward to enjoying this summer.  Relaxing, working on something new!!!

This is my third year living at the beach.
I have finally become a "summer loving" girl.  When I write

ISBN #

on the beach, I am really focused, my mind is clear (unless some asshole is blaring a boom box or climbing on a sand dune or flicking cigarette butts on the sand).  But when it's good and clean and pure, it's phenomenal.  I guess that "clean" is the word.  I can focus.  Clear my cluttered mind.  Ahhhh.

READ MORE ABOUT Above Us Only Sky at www.micheleyoungstone.com

The Tourists Are Gone (mostly). The symbiotic relationship of a tourist destination.

That is my handsome son catching a small ride on Labor Day afternoon.

I was so excited, anticipating an uncrowded beach on Monday afternoon, as most of the kiddies have to go back to school the day after Labor Day, and boy oh boy, I was not disappointed.

I ran down to the water screaming, "I got my beach back!"

I like living in a tourist destination because if it weren't for the tourists driving to the Outer Banks from locales as far away as Kansas, we'd have no economy.  All summer, I meet visitors from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia (of course), Ohio and even New Mexico.    I've met tourists from France and other European countries.  It's amazing how far people travel to experience where I get to live!

Those of us who live in the OBX have a symbiotic relationship with the tourists.  We need them to come here and spend their hard earned dollars, and they need us to cook their food, take them deep-sea fishing, ring their groceries, and clean their hotel rooms.  

Today, most of the tourists are gone.  The beaches that were five families deep from dune to wave, are crowded with sand and birds.  It is incredible!