I’m writing this pretty late, as usual. But this time around, I’m writing it the night before I head off for a little R&R. I’m flying down to Virginia to stay with my sister Stephanie and her husband Luis for a few days. They’ve rented a house near the beach and when they invited me to come on down, I couldn’t resist.

It’s going to be a working vacation, which is rare for me. Usually I like to leave my computer at home and really just kick back. But since I’m pushing toward a fall wrap-up for my YA novel, I’ve decided to combine business and pleasure. Having Steph, my own personal editor, around is a real plus and I’m hoping to take advantage of it.

But don’t get me wrong! I plan to “freelax” a lot, too. I’m looking forward to picking up a few magazines at the airport and getting in some serious beach reading as well. I have my eye on a book called Folly Beach, a novel by Dorothea Benton Frank that sort of loosely revolves around a trip to South Carolina during which the Gershwin brothers were writing the fabulous Porgy and Bess. Sounds like fun: not too heavy and vaguely historical, but with a little Southern spice thrown in.

I’m really looking forward to this trip. It will be great to see Steph and Luis — and their little furry, four-footed shadow, Lucky. But it will also be great to get a change of scene, to see some place I’ve never been, and to sit by the ocean and just listen to the waves. There’s something about water and words, isn’t there? they just go together, like lemonade and sunshine. Seashore, here I come!