Summer

Catalpa Blossoms

Summer is always busier than I expect it to be. June is nearly finished, and I can barely believe May is so far behind us. Part of it is the sheer quantity of social engagements -- Memorial Day kicks things off with a big family picnic, which we followed up with another smaller picnic and then a trip to South Dakota to see more family and friends, and catch a couple of hours of rodeo.

Now Summer Solstice has come and gone and I have a brother to help move, an Outlander binge-watch to host, and I'm staring the 4th of July in the face. I don't know how I got here, or how it's been almost 6 weeks since BY HELEN'S HAND released, and a month since I turned in edits on DAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND YEARS, and I have only one sad sorry paragraph of a short story and the still only hand-written opening scene of my next Amalia Dillin novel to show for it.

Photo ©Gayle Dillin. Please do not reuse without permission.

July, I promise myself, will be the month I buckle down. July will be serious back to work drafting Orc 3 and copy edits and proofs, probably, for my next Amalia Carosella books, and maybe if we're very lucky, glimpses of cover art before August. (I've seen some concepts for DAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND YEARS already and they are beautiful.) July is when I have to quit my dinking and aim for a solid 2K a day, because the Summer Olympics are coming in August...

Summer is always busier than I expect it to be.