I started researching tide pools after I decided my story "Best Laid Plans" might take place in one. The very first google hit on "tide pools" included this quote:

"It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again."
John Steinbeck, from The Log from the Sea of Cortez.

So my research on "Best Laid Plans" led me directly to the author of Of Mice and Men.

Turns out he wrote about tide pools in Cannery Row too.

I finished Cannery Row yesterday. Loved it. This morning I woke up and looked at Yahoo headlines on my way to the weather report, and found a story about how John Steinbeck's son Thomas is working on his first novel at 61, after publishing a book of short stories at 57, his first book.

I'm having, like, this Steinbeck synchronicity thing.