For my birthday this year (“prime” refers to my age), my wife and I went to one of our favorite vacation/getaway spots—a rental house in Surfside Beach, TX called Land’s End. It sits behind a grass-covered dune on the Gulf of Mexico and is the setting and inspiration for my recent short story “The House of Sad Sounds,” which can be found in Road Kill: Texas Horror by Texas Writers, Vol. 6. We’ve been there several times over the year (after our previous favorite went off the rental market), but it’s been three years since our last visit. Far too long. Going there again has been one of my persistent fantasies and dreams during the pandemic lockdown, and it was so nice to be able to return. The house is far too big for just the two of us (it would comfortably sleep eight), but the location is perfect and we know where to find everything in it. Other than a trip to California to visit with our daughter and her family a while back, it was our only trip away from home since 2019.
We spent most of our time on the deck facing the gulf, listening to the constant roar of the surf and watching the antics of people visiting the beach. It’s one of those rare beaches where people are allowed to drive their cars along it and park. Parking is now restricted to the dune side of the beach, probably inspired by numerous people who parked on the water side, not realizing how quickly the tide can come in. On a previous visit, we had an entertaining afternoon watching a vehicle get hopelessly stuck in the wet sand only to have the “rescue” vehicle that tried to pull it out get mired in the sand as well. An enterprising local was able to pull them both free eventually.
The main deck is beneath an upper deck perched above the roof. We seldom go up there because there’s no protection from the sun, but it is a nice lookout and it provides shade most of the afternoon for the lower deck. As long as there was an onshore breeze, we weren’t bothered by mosquitos or other annoying flying creatures, too. It was hot and occasionally quite humid, but just being outside in all that fresh air was restorative. The house is also directly across the street from a nice restaurant that has tons of outdoor seating, one of our prerequisites for any dining establishment these days. As soon as we unloaded the car after we arrived last Wednesday afternoon, we went across the street and had a couple of frozen margaritas on their deck. Vacation had begun!
We didn’t do much but relax. Watched no TV; read no news. We went on a walk on Thursday afternoon and were caught in an unexpected rain squall, but it’s the beach—who cares if you get a little wet! The rest of the time we listened to music, played cards, prepared meals, drank wine, read and just chilled. Heavenly. There was an impressive rainstorm on Thursday evening that pelted the house with rain and wind, but we were already tucked up in bed by then so it didn’t bother us at all.
It was fun to watch the families playing on the beach, too. The most entertaining thing was saw was two men and a boy trying to set up a beach canopy. It was an unusual design, one I’ve never seen before. It consists of a hoop that supports one end of the canopy. The other end is supported by the wind—it apparently requires only a 2-4 mph breeze to hold it up, sort of like a windsock. I found the model’s website and it says it takes only a few minutes to set up. These two guys worked at it for well over an hour without any success. There was probably beer involved. The young boy played in the sand while they tried to figure it out. Eventually they gave up, packed it in and left.
Surfside Beach is adjacent to a shipping port (Freeport), so large ships containing LNG (there was an explosion at the LNG terminal a few days after we left), LPG, cars and other sundries are always coming and going. We found a website that gave information about every boat and ship that arrived at the port. We could tell where a ship came from, how long it had taken to get there, what it was carrying, etc. Tugboats and pilot boats were always going back and forth to escort the ships into the port. One of them was called the Poseidon but, so far as we saw, it remained right-side up.
We packed up our things on Sunday morning and headed home (a two-hour drive), giving us time to wipe off the sand, do the laundry, stock up on groceries and get ready for a new week. Can’t wait to go back!
We are still living in a pandemic world. As I mentioned, we only dine at establishments that have outdoor seating. Since we’re currently in a heatwave, with daily temperatures in the high nineties, we often have the patios to ourselves. I turned down a chance to be on a panel at San Diego Comic-Con and won’t be attending NECON this year, either. Still not ready to be indoors among a bunch of unmasked people for prolonged periods. I’m eyeing Bouchercon in September as a possibility, especially since I have a story in this year’s anthology, but I’ve made no definite plans yet.
I’ve got quite a few stories in the queue for the rest of 2022. I just signed a contract for my first appearance in The First Line with a story called “The Unburied Past.” It’s an intriguing concept—every story in a particular issue starts with the same first line. The opening line for the Summer 2022 edition is “Thomas hadn’t expected to be alive when the town’s time capsule was opened.” Funny thing—the story I submitted to them was originally written in 1999 and called “Time Capsule.” It had garnered something like 10 rejections over the years but it was a perfect fit for this market. I had to revise the first line, of course, and the original version was in first person so that necessitated some changes. The editors were really good, too, at picking up on some problematic plotting issues and suggesting improvements in a few places. It’s rare to get that kind of feedback in the short fiction market.
I found this blog post that does a deep dive into the playlists Brian Keene and I provided for each other for our collaboration Dissonant Harmonies. It’s always nice to see someone else’s thoughtful perspectives on a project.
Also debuting in a couple of weeks is Summer Bludgeon: An Unsettling Reads Anthology, which contains my story “Double Play.” It’s a crime story that was inspired in part by a rather unpleasant smell I encountered one hot summer day a few decades ago.
We thoroughly enjoyed 1883, although we found Yellowstone itself to be rather dreary and cut out in the middle of the first episode. I’m all caught up with Stranger Things (which Hank Wagner and I will be writing about for Dead Reckonings) and eagerly awaiting the final two episodes. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is keeping us entertained (the shore leave episode was a delight). We started the second season of Hacks last night, but my wife found Jean Smart’s character to be so unpleasant that we may not continue it. I watched the first episode of the second season of Russian Doll and I’m not sure I was engaged by it, either. I’ll probably try the new season of Borgen before giving it another go. I’m also looking forward to the final episode of Barry.
For movies, we found Lost City to be good, light entertainment. An episode of Strange New Worlds had me thinking about submarine movies, so we watched The Hunt for Red October, which really holds up after 30 years. I’d forgotten Tim Curry was in it. A couple of nights ago, Focus granted us a free screening of Downton Abbey: A New Era, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Definitely a feel-good movie. I’m really surprised that we’d managed to avoid spoilers about one of the more dramatic incidents, and I’m glad we did.
I’m just about finished reading The Talented Mr. Varg by Alexander McCall Smith to my wife. While we were on vacation, I found a copy of Belle Ruin by Martha Grimes on the shelf in our rental house and I read it cover to cover. It’s the third book of a four-book series, so I plan to go back to the first one as my next book to be read to my wife.
