"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!

The Treefrogs Are Back

photo by JD Wilson

I wish that I had a better, more scientific understanding of nature, but my understanding is more artistic and intuitive than knowledgeable.  

That said, last year, our first summer on the sound, we had hundreds of tree frogs with their cute sticky legs and pulsing translucent chests, arranged like stickers on our glass doors.  This year, not so many until just recently.  The odd thing is that the frogs aren't lime green this year, not most of them.  They are more eggplant and brown, and there are definitely fewer of them.

I was on my way to work today and three had hitched a ride on my car.  Not wanting to strand them off the 158 Bypass, I stopped in a greener area and unloaded my little hitchhikers.  I wish that I knew more about these "suckers".  They are one of my favorite things about summer on the sound.

If you know anything, please share.  My fear is that they've changed color because of pesticides.  I also fear that pesticides are why there are fewer of them.

The photograph is from the Green Treefrog Website:  http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/anurans/Hylcin/Hyl_cin.html


XO
michele

Three Random Sick (in the surfing way) Publicly Funded Places in Dare County

These are three of my favorite things about Dare County, and they all happen to be publicly funded!  (And they are all within eyeshot of where the Wright Brothers took flight in 1903--and within view of the memorial that stands as testament to their achievement in flight.)


Number One:  Dare County Parks and Recreation:  Small town living OBX style means affordable

after-school and recreation for Dare County residents.  Locals can experience everything from soccer, tea party manners' socials, cheering camp, archery, tennis, football, baseball skills, surfing, arts and crafts, golf, volleyball, French, gymnastics, Modern Art, Mosaics, Etiquette, Toddler Camp (How to be a toddler), fishing, and more! 

Last summer, my son and I took archery together.  I was the oldest participant, the only participant above the age of 16 (other than the instructor), and it was a blast.  I had never taken archery before.  Earlier this year, I took tennis lessons.  I had never played tennis!  Parks and Recreation is phenomenal!  

Number Two:  Conveniently located on the same street, Dare County Water and Desalination Department.  On a thin peninsula, Dare County desalinates (takes the salt out of the brackish water), making the cost of drinking water affordable to its residents.  More importantly, unlike many public utilities' departments, I've never had to wait in line!  Water is billed quarterly, every three months!  They have cute little collapsible cups for free!  There are two nice ladies who work there!

Number Three: Smack dab between the Water Department and Parks and Recreation is the Dare County Public Library.  I love this place.  I met one of my OBX friends there last summer.  I always

see people I know there.  And, this is going to blow your mind: Last month, I thought that I had returned a book, and I told the librarians.  They made a note in the computer.  Yesterday, I found it.  When I returned it today, I said, "How much do I owe?"  It was my mistake...  "Nothing," she said (because I thought I'd returned it).  Huh?  Where does this kind of thing happen?  Who doesn't want to take your money?  How nice is that?  Children can also opt to read their library fines away!

At the thrift store where I volunteer, there is a framed portrait of

Andy Griffith behind the register.  He spent the better part of his years right here.  When he died this past year, I was brought to tears by the local radio station's tribute to him.  In so many ways, this is Mayberry.    

OBX Traffic Report for Memorial Day Weekend, 2013

Now here this:

There's precious cargo in these parts!

On Wednesday, a woman drove 50 mph through a red light on the 158 bypass.  After doing so, she slammed on brakes on the other side of the light.  I guess it was an after-thought/realization that she might've killed someone since she didn't stop.  Or maybe she was trying to kill someone by slamming on her brakes in the middle of a four-lane highway.  It's hard to say.  But she then proceeded to make a U-turn from the middle turning lane.  

Three drivers swerved from the right lane into the middle turning lane cutting me off.  

These incidences all happened in a two-mile span of the 158 bypass.  

BE ALERT.  If you know the side streets, take them, but drive the 25 mph speed limit and watch out

OBX Children at Play: OBX 

for children and pets.

Do not text.

Do not try and multi-task while driving.  

If you miss your turn into Spanky's or Barefoot Bernie's or wherever the hell you're going, you can turn around.  (PLEASE do not make a U-turn in the middle of the bypass.)  

Please figure out your destination before driving aimlessly up and down the bypass.  It is a highway after all.  There are other drivers on the road.  

Every year, people are killed on the bypass: they die on foot, on bike, and in cars.  Let's all be aware, awake, and cautious!

OBX Recommendations

Roofer: Outer Banks Roofing.  (We just had a new roof put on.)  These guys were nice, fast, and cleaned up every scrap.  They put down tarps and moved our possessions rather than letting anything get smashed.  Awesome job.  Really good if you're looking for someone who doesn't leave a big mess behind.  The roof looks great.  The estimate and contract were detail oriented.  VERY professional.

Landscaping:
Outer Banks Landscaping; Owner Rick Cohen.  Great guy.  Amazing vision.  Detail oriented.  Good soil.  Smart dude, and he's pretty cute too.    

The baby duck likes our doggie dock

The male mallard is brightly colored, while his wife has a beautiful blue marking on her side.  The couple's one surviving duckling likes to hang out around our dock.  

The father calls to the mother and the baby, and for the most part, they seem to follow his orders.  He does have the best colors.  There were four ducklings, but then there was one.  I'm not sure what happened to the other babies, but the ospreys that fly overhead, their wings marked like piano keys, seem like a likely foe.  

The black helicopters have been flying low across the sky.  There are occasional booms, some kind of military testing.

The green tree frogs have returned.  

My tomatoes already have blooms and my seedlings are perking up.  Every evening, we sit on the balcony and watch the sun set.  It's lovely.

Recommendations:  1. Don't eat duck.
2.  Eat at the Kill Devil Grill.  It is a locals' favorite.  EVERYTHING is seriously delicious.  The staff is awesome to locals and tourists alike.  The bartenders are cool cats.  The old diner car that fronts the building was brought to Kill Devil Hills by the owners of Millie's Restaurant.  There used to be a Millies Too! I'm not sure why, but it wasn't around very long.  (I don't know anything about the workings of the restaurant business).  At one time, the old diner car was a Mexican eatery on Jefferson Davis Highway in Chesterfield, VA.  The restoration job is amazing.  

Who's Hot for Teacher?

Teaching is NOTHING like this.

It ought to be Teacher Appreciation week every week, but as it now stands, it's this week, May 6th through 10th!  That said, I'll state the obvious.  Teachers make ridiculously low wages.  I speak from experience.  I taught middle and high school for eight years.  I passed all those national and state tests, and I had my master's degree in my specialty area.   My husband, who has a bachelor's degree and works in the corporate world, kept getting pay raises.  I did not.


What did I get?  
1.  Less autonomy.  I had to have my lesson plans approved.  
2.  Less creative input.  I eventually memorized every eighth grade standard of learning because I was required to write it on the board with the day's "schedule."  
3.  A time clock.  Punch in and punch out.  
4.  Teacher work days, days I needed to grade, but was required to

Can you imagine teaching in heels?

attend seminars that had nothing to do with my job.  
5.  Distrust from my superiors, who would take a child's word over mine, and who would make me keep a child who was disrupting my class right there in the classroom with the rest of my students.  
6.  Longer school calendars for the same pay.
7.  The expectation that I should work LONG after the school day had ended.
8.  A growing wage gap between myself and my peers.
9.  More tests to administer.  More accountability.  Less input.
10.  Burned out.  I left teaching to pursue my dream of writing.

This is what we want.

When I first went back to school to get my MFA in creative writing, I remember taking night classes and grading my students' essays on my fifteen minute break during my 7 to 9:40 class.  I was never without a stack of papers in my hands.  I graded papers on weekends.  I remember one weekend, laying on the beach in Nags Head and a gust of wind blew my students' papers across the sand.  I scurried after them.  Fortunately, so did the other folks on the

beach.  We gathered up the moist sandy pages.  If it were a work of fiction, I might toss them to the wind.  I don't know, but as it was, I worried about how those stapled sheets of paper looked and how I'd explain handing them back in that condition.  "Ms. Young has a life outside of school?"  They'd be confused.  

I couldn't buy beer or wine at the grocery store without getting odd

looks.  I was a teacher.  I was held to a higher moral code but once again, paid a pittance for my efforts.  

I LOVED my students.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have lasted as long as I did.  

Teachers are college-educated state and private employees who spend the greater part of their days with our children.  And you know, as well as I do, our children are wonderful and special, and our teachers, whose classrooms are too crowded and who are underpaid, who have to deal on a daily basis with discipline issues and oftentimes stressed parents, need a little love.

Yes, they only have this one week, and NO, it's not enough... so, as this year winds to a close, do something thoughtful and kind for your child's teacher or for a teacher friend.  

Say THANK YOU.    

Brew Pub Recommendation

The Brewing Station, mp 8.5 just past the Wright Brother's Memorial on the sound side of the Bypass.  Not only is the beer brewed on site, but the brewery is the east coast's first wind-powered brewery!  The Pub has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, AND the building is a work-of-art.  Make sure to look up when you get inside, and check out the pirate ship in the enclosed outside area, complete with corn hole and stage.  This is a local and tourists' favorite.  You will DEFINITELY be back for more..