Writers need to walk every day – not only for exercise but to clear their heads. (Actually this is true for everybody of course.) Nelson and I walk about three miles every morning on the beach very early and lately the dawn sky has been amazing.

Also amazing are some bits of conversation I overhear, either two people chatting as they pass me or one person on a cell phone, and I type them into my Notes app on my iPhone. Feel free to use them as writing prompts. And if they sound like something you might have said on the beach in Santa Monica early one morning, well, forgive me.

1. (Cell phone) “You know, Mom, you’ve been a worry wart your whole life…so…”  (this comes attached to another note saying “Watermelon, basil, a lot of lime juice – ” which I think had to do with some recipe I was going to make.)

2. “…and she felt slighted because she….”

3. “..the genitalia was unrecognizable…”

4. (Cell phone) “You seem on edge lately…You’ve had enough?…I felt…no, no…not trying to rush you..Yeah, I know…I’m sorry…I’m just trying to get a sense of…”   (I admit – I followed this guy down the beach as I took notes.)

5. (Shouting into a cell phone) “I know! I know! But I don’t have them with me. Five or six….”

6. (Two older guys on their bikes) “I wrote an email which of course I didn’t send…”

7. (Cell phone) “What the fuck? I mean, really – what the fuck?”

Then there was the guy on a bike in black tights and no shirt with the word ‘Courage’ tattooed down his spine.