Water meets sky in a symmetrical composition of blue. The intense cerulean aloft fades as it descends toward the sharp-edged horizon — below is an impressionist study comprised of reflected golden sunlight and shimmering continuous motion. The undulating surface mirrors the brilliant sky above and meshes with what lies below the surface, the color shifts from gray to blue to green. The polished cobblestones of muted hues clatter with a joyous laughter within the white-capped ridges that rush forward, as a final stroke onto a windy shore of light-capturing sand. The soft fringe of beach is strewn with prehistoric driftwood bones, and other peculiar artifacts that are brought forth, or reclaimed by the waves. Patience and a practiced eye will catch sight of colored gems hidden amongst the sand, stones, and waves. Broken shards, reshaped by the elements and time, once considered refuse, are now seen as precious and rare to find. Beach glass, sea glass, washed glass, betrayed by its transparent nature, revealed in sunlight among common pebbles, they become treasure found or forever lost, crushed by stones and smoothed by water — they regress into grains of sand, they evolve and return to whence they came.
This piece is from page 1 of my unpublished novel, Washed Glass - eventually, I will get back to this...it is my very first novel from the group of novels that I started in the 1999-2002 period of...creative madness, I suppose you could call it...or obsession. Thinking back, I feel like there are holes in my memory from this time period, like I had been on a bender and had more than one "lost weekend" - at times it was a wonderful existence, other times it was... well, it was unlike anything I ever experienced in my life, so it was a little scary sometimes - disruptive, frustrating, unsettling. It was a process that I was learning - and at times relearning.
Washed Glass is Katharine and Jonathan's story, they've been seen in the background of my other books, as I have created a full community of people who are connected through various relationships...it is a classic boy-meets-girl/boy-loses-girl/ boy-finds-girl...only they keep finding one another in different lifetimes, not just this one...and unfortunately for them, they carry these memories, some are very unpleasant, and as they've become adults they suffer from reoccurring nightmares, are nigh insane from the lack of sleep, and have various personal struggles they are dealing with when they meet again (at last).
The book itself is done. Has been "done" since 2003, which means it has a beginning, an end and a bunch of shit happening in between, but I have yet to return to it for the editorial bloody massacre that it really needs. It's next in line once I finish editing and proofreading Drinking from the Fishbowl... and THAT has been an ongoing marathon that seems to have no end, but now that it seems that I've gotten my head back into it, this one should move along at a steadier pace, reading, editing, revisions, proofreading, and refining one more time...don't get me wrong, I love the process (I'm not complaining) I'm just tellin' you that's all...the writing and the final polish is such a beautiful process to me, I can only say, look at the picture of this beach glass, the stones, the sand...this is it, visually. This is what I'm doing when I'm spending my time...
