Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

As a teenager in Southern California, one of my favorite summer past times was getting a tan. My friend and I would catch a ride with her sister to her sister's work early in the morning. She worked close to the beach. Then we'd hop on a bus for the rest of the trip. We'd get there so early in the morning, the fog hadn't burned off yet, but that was okay because we'd be able to pick out the ultimate spot on the still empty expanse of sand. While the seagulls cried and the waves shushed in and out, we'd get to work forming our beach beds for the day. The first bed, we scooped out a deep ditch into the sand where our bottoms would rest, building the sand we removed into a pile of high behind our heads, and a smaller swell under our knees. The second bed would be flat except for a "pillow" made from sand for when it was time to turn over and tan our backs. We slathered on tanning oil, the distinctive coconut scent lifting into the constant wind. We...

Back when we (Mary Waibel, Katie Carroll and I) started hatching this plan for a monthly, themed meme, Mary suggested the theme of change for the month of May. I think the woman is prophetic. Writing is a tough business, but one of the toughest aspects of it for me is the isolation. I have a lot of really great online friends and want them to know how much they mean to me, however, hovering over this keyboard day in and day out and only hearing my own voice while the kids are at school and the husband is at work – well, yeah. Can you say stir crazy? So after four years of pounding this keyboard full time, I decided to get a part-time job. In retail. I haven’t worked retail since I was a young lass, but I was drawn to it now because of the opportunity to interact with people. I craved the chance to say things like, “Hi, how’s your day going?” and receive a smile and response. Heck, even grimaces and complaints would be welcome. I longed for the funny little stories people s...