Lazy Hazy Days…

I’m off for a few days of adventuring. A friend and I are headed to the Berkshires, a lovely mountainous area in the western part of Massachusetts. This is one of my favorite places and where I plan to retire. How odd, to be thinking in those terms. It was only a moment ago I was making clover flower crowns in Illinois, and now, I am thinking of raising bees and welcoming grandchildren, but that is the way of things. We blink, and the world spins again, Maid to Woman to … well the traditional word is ‘Crone’ but I think ‘Wise Woman’ is more appropriate.

This summer has been busier, and I look forward to an August where I purposely guard my schedule. I will accept fewer invitations, slow down my pace and take time to enjoy my home and my time with me. That doesn’t mean I won’t still be busy. There’s that weekend I’ll be hiking in the Catskills and the Saturday I compete with my company’s dragon boat team. But, there will be fewer dinners with friends and impromptu vineyard visits. Time to return to sitting on my back deck listening to the calls of birds and taking the time to write.

Thank you, my readers, and thank you to my Ms Buffy, who pulls the scales from thorny word passages and makes all things smooth.

Chapter 10 – Sun’s Place

 

Laissez les Bon Temps…

An apt title for both the chapter and the activities lined up for today.

All my best to you and yours, Hope the season is treating you well, and hope you enjoy this next step in how the Northman family comes together.

Thank you, Ms Buffy. Like me, you are running hard and fast for a hot season! Congrats, Gyllene (Harlow). Looks like you had a great time at that book conference.

All my best –

Chapter 9 – Laissez les Bon Temps

Blessed Rain…

It’s raining, it’s raining! July has been dry and hot here at my home. The plants droop and I fill my water basin every day for the birds and dragon flies that are finding my flowers. It’s raining!

All my carefully laid plans – hiking and gardening, picking raspberries and visiting, are set aside. I have my excuse to stay inside, writing, playing with mead and staying in pajamas until noon.

But first, let me release this next chapter. I know it’s a slow start, but please indulge me a bit longer. These people have changed since we’ve last seen them, and I want what comes to be understood.

My thanks to Ms Buffy. I’ve worked your editing skills quite a bit lately, and I am grateful for your time.

My best to everyone. If you’re looking for me today, I’ll be inside, drinking coffee and writing about vampires.

Chapter 8 – Light Floats

It’s Vineyard Season…

I moved to Connecticut many years ago, half a lifetime. It seemed a place of lost identity, and for me, that suited my wish for exile and hiding. I found work and eventually romance of a kind. I settled here, anxious to give my sons the kind of stable home I never knew, but always I felt this place was missing what I’d found in other places – an identify of its own.

Connecticut is a crisscross of highways, train tracks, and anemic cities, all aimed at giving people a way to go to other places. It sits almost equidistant between New York and Boston. It offers a straight shot to Vermont and, to a lesser extent, New Hampshire. People here traditionally talk of traveling to find their weekend. It’s been rare to hear people discuss this state as a place they purposely chose for enjoyment. Until now.

Climate change has shifted the temperatures here. Our season is now thirty days longer and the snows have moved to Spring. The storms, when they come, are violent but short-lived, and the vines flourish. There are over forty vineyards operating in Connecticut. They host tastings and music, and their venues are varied. You find traditional New England farmyards and patios set under trees that remind me of France and Tuscany.

For the first time I can recall, people talk of this state as a place worth being, and not just as a pass-through to where they wish to be.

I hope you enjoy the chapter today. Like myself, Sookie is finding those things and people that make her more at home in her surroundings.

Congratulations, Harlow Layne, on your original writing debut. Thank you, Ms Buffy, for your edits and comments. Thinking about you and wishing I could take you with me on my quest for a truly good Connecticut red wine.

All my best for your Sunday.

Chapter 7 – Into the Breach

What’s Lost….

I had a few readers ask, “Where’s Sookie?” In this chapter we catch up with our favorite couple. Of course, there’s vampire politics, and the return of someone from their past.

Best of Sundays, and for those stuck in the weather heat box (like me), stay cool!

Thanks Ms Buffy. As always, your patient word juggling smooths my more choppy moments. And thank you, Ms Harlow Lane, for your lovely art. So exciting, seeing your first book cover! Congratulations!

Chapter 6 – What’s Lost is Found