Yours truly is spinning and spinning and spinning around.

Aurelia looks at me with suspicion. "Are you OK?" she asks.

"It's summer!" I sing.

"And the term summer leads you to appear as blissfully happy as when Exile came out?" she asks.

"Of course," I reply.

Her jaw drops. Why? she is clearly thinking.

Let me enlighten her.


The top ten reasons summer is my favorite time of year:

10. No school! The children are all off swimming, camping, traveling, and running around—doing exactly what they (and their teachers) have been dreaming the children were doing since mid-May.

9. Fresh fruit: watermelon, strawberries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, raspberries—many of which are extremely good with whipped cream on angel food cake.

8. Trips! To the Willamette Writers Conference, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Pacific Coast, and of course . . . bookstores!

7. Time to walk and/or hike every day.

6. Sunshine! Enough daylight so that it is light when I wake up, light while I work, light when I travel, and light when I come home:)

5. Sleep. The complete and utter disappearance of my alarm clock deep in the recesses of my nightstand drawer.

4. Spending all day with my new kitty, Charlotte, and giving her multiple opportunities to fulfill her true destiny as an Adventuress of the Great Outdoors.

3. Time. For family, learning, friends, and of course . . .

2. Writing! All day, every day as long as the characters insist I keep telling their story!

1. Said characters (yes, Aurelia, I'm talking about you) all cease to pester me about how I should be writing more!