Sea Glass: Some connections are carried by the tide

Sea Glass Cover © 2026 Lori Joseph

According to a recent Pew Research Center Report on Spirituality in America, about 25% of Americans admit to carrying a lucky charm, with the majority of those believing such objects hold spiritual or magical energy. In her first novella, Sea Glass: Some connections are carried by the tide, poet and writer Lori Joseph weaves a contemporary story of magical connections narrated by a piece of sea glass that was taken from a white sandy beach in Ogunquit, Maine, to the brown grasslands of Sidney, Nebraska, and, miraculously, back again.

Thanks to Joseph’s storytelling skill, it is not necessary to be one of the nearly 87 million Americans who already believe in such things to be engrossed in this fascinating tale of two women: middle-aged Sophie Holloway, and coming-of-age Willa Jessop, who, for very different reasons, choose to set out on separate journeys of self-discovery and renewal.

Sea Glass begins the story by introducing a troubled and distracted Sophie who is at work in her kitchen. “Lost in thought and heartbroken, Sophie is at the sink with suds up to her elbows. The house is quieter now that the kids have moved on with their lives. Sophie’s husband is consumed with his work. We’ve been living on the plains for several years, and I can’t remember the last time Sophie held or touched me.” Sophie, we discover, is leaving her prairie home of many years and heading east to start her life over. That she leaves behind her long-time talisman, Sea Glass, is the catalyst for the rest of Joseph’s delightful tale.

With Sea Glass: Some connections are carried by the tide, Lori Joseph delivers just enough mystery, adventure, soul-searching, plot twists, and romance to remind readers that, as the author writes in her book’s preface: “Inherent or not, sometimes we need a talisman to hold onto when we follow our intuition and believe in the unknown.”

More about Lori Joseph and her work @ lorijoseph.com