summer

Back To School Thoughts

by Kristen James

I’m starting to wonder if I jinxed summer! I blogged about the season and then, when my kids went back to school, it suddenly got cool here. We’ve had three days of cooler, cloudy weather. Now I’m hoping my garden will mature before the weather really turns to autumn.

School started with a bang. We’re into the full swing of things and even two days into football practice – tackle football even, so I’m a bit nervous. Sometimes I wish they had a “stay little” button so I could catch up and be ready for all this!

My year seems to structure itself around the school year – I set goals starting in fall. Last school year I wrote and published several books, and this summer I focused on freelance writing and spending time with the kids. We had a lot of fun, and of course the summer went by all too quickly. In August, I got to watch one of my novels, A Cowboy For Christmas, spike up the rankings in Kindle and continue to climb. It’s been a fun and amazing to experience. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in September. A Cowboy For Christmas will be featured on The Book Junkie Library and I’m also joining a book giveaway with Bees Knees’s Reviews where we’ll give away a few print and Kindle copies of my books.

Enjoy your summer/fall weather!

Update – The Giveaway is up (see next blog post) and my guest blog on Bee’s Knees Reviews, “What The Publishing Revolution Means to Readers”  is up at http://beeskneesreviews.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-publishing-revolution-means-to.html.

 

What’s your favorite part of summer?

by Kristen James

A brilliant orange sunset filled the stormy sky last night as I drove into town, and the air was saturated with the smell of blackberries, sweet grass and rain. The mix of beauty and smells turned my thoughts to all the things I love about summer, especially in August when the garden is producing and blackberries are ripe, but we sometimes get thunderstorms, like last night, that hint at autumn. It’s summer with excitement about back to school and apple pies, hot apple cider and fun fall time activities.

But back to summer… I love swimming in the river in August because the water is at its warmest here. (Which isn’t actually very warm compared to some other states.) I enjoy this time of year when we can throw on shorts and tank tops and not worry about keeping warm or stay dry. Summer is more simple.

I don’t think summer is my writing season, though. There is so much to do outside, and it’s light until 9 in the beginning of summer. It’s time to go out, have friends over, float the river and play outside. We also swim almost every day that it’s over 80 degrees. I have been hard at work with freelance writing through the summer, but I haven’t worked on a novel since spring. However, I wrote Book Promoting 101 and A Miraculous Fate during the last school year and published those two along with More Than Memories. That’s one reason why I look forward to those long winter nights. I’m able to focus and write after putting the kids to bed.

Of course summer also means the kids are home, and I’ve actually been working on a children’s picture book with my middle child. He wanted something to do over the summer and loves art. I printed out a couple of stories I’d written and let him pick one to illustrate. Both my sons are talented at drawing and artwork. I’ve focused my creativity on writing, but I’ve also drawn and painted in the past. He’s finished four pages so far that look very nice! I can’t wait to share with people, but we’re waiting until the book is almost done. We hoped to finish it over the summer, but once again, we had so many fun, outdoor activities! But sometime soon he’ll have his very own published book to take for show-and-tell and send to family.

What is summer to you? Camping and traveling, or parties in the city? Like many people, I cherish family gatherings, special memories with the kids and the special magic of the season.