Three Days

....until I send the dissertation off, and rather than blogging here, I've been writing. I'm going to send off what I have of the dissertation on Friday, so this will be short, but I just wanted to give you an update!

Meanwhile, the novel's pace is picking up, and while the chapters cover a dizzying array of things lately, I am trying to keep the fallen/broken house theme constant to help balance the story.  In one of the chapters I wrote days ago, my protagonist and her family drive to the beach to get away from the pressures and responsibilities that wait for them at home and while the parents talk, my protagonist and her sister build houses in the sand.

Here's a quick peek into the end of that chapter here:

We build until the sun starts to set, and the tide comes in. As Momma and Daddy pack up our things, my sister and I watch the waves come, roll past the walls we built, cover our houses made of sand until soon, everything is underwater, and the sand looks as if we never came.