Happy Summer Everyone! (Except those in the other hemisphere). What kinds of fun things do you do in the summer? Go to the beach? Garden? Pick raspberries and make jam? Write novels?
I don't write in the summer. I don't need to. You see, I live in Seattle and when the rains come and stay for eight months I need something to keep me from upping my dose of crazy medicine to survive the grey winter. But when the sunshine and warm weather arrives, I head outside. I can't even see the computer screen outside so writing takes a back seat in the summer. Imagine a 12 passenger van and writing is in the last row. Kids are in the first row. I have two of those and although the 17-year-old boy doesn't need much, I remain available to make him food, talk to him when he wanders through the kitchen on his way to the refrigerator, watch World Cup games with him. The twelve-year-old girl needs more of me when school is not in session. I'm like Julie on The Love Boat, organizing activities, keeping the fun coming until Labor Day and the onset of school allows me some rest. 
This summer so far we've been boating/tubing, camping for 3 days with her friends, horseback riding, picked berries/made jam, Fourth of July picnic with fireworks, movies, hiking, bike riding, and today we are going mini golfing with her bestie. 
Raspberry Picking in Carnation WA
Flying Horseshoe Ranch
The Seattle Space Needle -- complete with lunch at the top!
All this to keep her off the laptop for at least 8 hours a day. The Zoo, the lake, street fairs, concerts...
I don't have time or the mind control and imagination to write when the weather is nice. All my brain cells are going into how to make summer the best months of the whole year for my family.
Even the dogs get more of me than writing in the warm months. I just made them a sand pit in the backyard because they love the beach so. The pit is beside their plastic pool that I spray daily to keep algae from forming.
Summer is the time when I yearn to write, chomping at the gate like a racehorse, waiting for September when I'll burst through and start writing again. This denial I put myself through makes me hungry to fashion a story, put words to paper, live inside my head for a few weeks, months. But summer is not for writing over here. I barely touch the keys in July and August. Tell myself to stay away from the computer. No siree. You won't see me on the computer. Well maybe in the early morning hours when everyone is sleeping in, I'll sneak in a few words.
How about you? Do you write in the summer?
Kim Hornsby is the Bestselling Author of THE DREAM JUMPER'S PROMISE voted Top Pick in Chanticleer Review's Paranormal Awards for Mystery/Thriller.
Hey Kim! If I didn't write in the summer months, I wouldn't write at all. My weather situation is opposite yours...maybe only two to three months of cold weather. But I admire you reasoning for keeping your summers free for your children. Mine are all out of the house with kids of their own.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Kids first, right? Thanks Lori.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
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