Beach Bumming a New Book

I needed to get away. Someplace without distractions. Where I could be alone with my thoughts and my notes. A personal retreat to work on the new novel. And reconnect with the ocean and the beach.

So I took off in a rented all-wheel-drive SUV and made the six-hour trip to Cape Hatteras on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Cape Hatteras in the winter is wonderful. Hardly any tourists (unlike in summer, when it’s packed with them). Only the locals, the beach, and me and my whiteboard.

Each day was a dream. Staying in an Outer Banks Motel cottage right on the beach, I’d wake up and open the door to the rising sun glinting off the surf in front of me. After coffee and a lean breakfast, I’d go exploring or get in my daily exercise. Running on the sand, hiking over dunes, or braving the 48-degree (9 C) water for a short swim were all put to good use.

Explorations included taking the Hatteras Inlet ferry to the even-more-isolated Ocracoke island nearby.

Afternoons (or mornings, as the urge hit) were for working on my book concepts or writing down details about my surroundings. Although this is not the setting of my next novel, there’s always something to be learned from paying close attention to nature.

I usually ended up working into the night, too. And always taking breaks to step outside on the deck to register the sounds, smells, and sights of the ocean, and in this case, to look up at the full Super Moon.

After five days, I headed back. To my wife. To my house. To my normal life. And with a whiteboard and notebook filled with ideas for my new book. I can’t give away any more details about that now, but you’ll be hearing from me.

The beach bumming had done its job.