The wild raspberries are ripe, the deer passing through my yard sport lovely red coats, and the lightning bugs are out. It’s summertime! I’m busy drafting the sixth book in my Lady Violet Mysteries series (look for publication of the whole series by the end of the year). I’m also percolating the third Mischief in Mayfair tale, revising Never a Duke (waves to the Wentworths), and hatching up a pair of novellas to published with author Erica Ridley next spring (something about bachelors at the beach?).
Busy, busy, busy, but also happy to be busy. Other matters on the agenda in upcoming weeks: Some socializing with friends I haven’t seen since Before. Progress with the never ending battle to Get this House Organized, and the start of an audio project that should see the more recent True Gents available in that format over the course of the next year (starting with Worth: Lord of Reckoning).
I also want to use the next few weeks to find some new places to go for my walks. Places I have not discovered in thirty years of living hereabouts. I want to ponder a new series, or a series that builds on a family I’ve already introduced. Hamish MacHugh’s siblings, perhaps? The enormous family that Lady Jenny Windham married into… I’m not sure, but I need to welcome the question into my imagination and see what germinates.
Meanwhile, I’m having great fun binging Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily Mystery series.
All of which is to say… See you in early August. I’m putting the blog on summer hiatus until then, and will send out a newsletter when I’m back on the job. Miss Delightful, book two in the Mischief in Mayfair series, is slated to go on sale in the web store August 24, and I must assemble my trusty team of ARC readers in anticipation of that date.
So what are your summer plans? Staycation? Connect with family? 1-800-Junk-Be-Gone? Maybe some reading??? What mischief will you get up to this summer? Do tell! This week’s donation goes to Heifer International, one of my fave charities because I can specify vegetarian projects, and projects that benefit women.
In reply to your query about what I’m doing this summer: YES! Yes, we are doing another Stay-cation.Yes, probably connecting with some family. Yes, JUNK BE GONE! And a Big Yeppers to some reading. Include some gardening in the mix, and we’re going to have a great summer.
Most importantly, all my singers have been vaccinated so we are going to FINALLY SING TOGETHER IN PERSON! We have two dates toward the end of July blocked out and once we decide which date is best for all of us IT’S A GO! Yippee!
See you in August and hope you have a lovely restful time until we see other again!
New gutters are up just in time to prove their worth as the first tropical storm of the hurricane season pulls rain across. Waiting for the estimate on porch screening & contemplating a stand alone freezer so I can put up more fresh produce from the locals while it’s in season rather than pay for foreign mush to get imported from the other side of creation. (California oranges to Florida is an exponentially worse insult than coals to Newcastle.)
At the moment I am feeling like a fish in a fish bowl.We have a team of young fit painter/builders giving our block of apartments a fresh new coat.She will look lovely and smart in her new colors.But at the moment they are sanding down and repairing my tall lounge windows so I must rise early,must get dressed and look decent.Summer will be taken over by this maintenance so it means a different routine.No lazy mornings still in my pyjamas!!!I shall go for walks and enjoy being out in the fresh air.Enjoy the next few weeks Grace and I hope you achieve all your targets.It sounds very busy to me.Have a good one.Until August be happy and productive Keep safe keep discovering new trails and most of all be at peace with yourself. m
Ooo! Having painters/builders hanging outside of your windows sounds like a lovely TV program to me! ;p
It’s good to hear you be so energized and happy. I’m impressed and thrilled by all the books that you are planning.
As for me, I hope to retire sometime between November and January, depending when I finish this last dratted project. So, I’m looking forward to that but not planning much else. I’m not sure about travel due to the new Delta Covid variation but I’m always happy just to be home with my family and pets (when they aren’t on my last nerve). I’m looking forward to retirement when I will have much more unscheduled time. That is luxury.
Love Heifer International!
I am not a hot weather person. I much prefer temps below 60, but I do love my flowers. Last year I put in a cottage garden outside my bay window and it’s awesome because I can see it perfectly from that window. Daisies are all coming to bloom and they’re such happy flowers that sometimes I just sit by the window and enjoy the moment. The lavender really took off this year and I can’t get enough of that glorious fragrance!
We have already been reconnecting with family and I do have those nagging household projects to conquer. It’s hard to believe it will be July in 2 weeks.
Happy summer to all!
This summer…
I am going to work on Laci’s championship title. I am taking her to handling classes once a week. Walking Greg and working on his obedience title. I would love to achieve both goals.
I need to clean out the garage and basement. More purging. I have made an effort with both of these projects so I am confident I can accomplish these tasks.
Reading and writing reviews…need to get caught up. I have a plan !!
And I need to create a new routine. My corgi Rose passed last week. She was 14 years and 8 months old. We have had a morning and evening routine for as long as I remember. And she was my WFH companion for the past year. I miss her quiet presence and big brown eyes.
Need to continue my walking and weight loss program too.
I think I need to get my head in the game.
I am getting a second email address so I will sign up for your newsletter..haven’t received it in awhile.
Take care and have a wonderful summer.
Rose will always leave a corgi sized hole in your heart. The routine will come. Condolences.
So sorry to hear about Rose.
Nothing special planned except continuing my decluttering project (I’ve got a bag and a box ready to be picked up tomorrow morning so I’m feeling productive) and reading, of course. Otherwise, I expect my executor duties to be done very soon except for doing my late Mom’s taxes next year, so no excuses not to work on getting rid of stuff I haven’t used in years, don’t plan to use, and/or don’t need to use ever again (I got rid of about 10-15 dresses that are too big for me now in this donation bundle).
Great idea to donate to Heifer International! Have a wonderful time until we “see” you again (I will miss your weekly essays even though I don’t comment every time).
After last summer got cancelled due to Covid, I am looking forward to having friends and family visiting for pool parties once again. We just love to have guests and missed that most of all during the pandemic, even more than we missed being able to shop for our own groceries or aimlessly browse our favorite stores, or go to tag sales on the spur of the moment. In between planning parties and feeding guests, I do plan to continue some projects I began during quarantine: building a dollhouse from a kit I bought 35 years ago when my daughter was 3 (silly me, I really though I would have time to assemble hundreds of tiny pieces while raising two kids under 5!), writing and designing my third cookbook, and also trying to fit in extra exercise combined with good eating habits to continue the weight loss journey I began in January (22 lbs. down, 10 to go!). All in all I just plan to revel in the “normal-ness” of the summer! Have a wonderful summer everyone!!! “See” you in September…
I love your continued donations- brava, Grace!
I have plans to see my whole family this summer, which I am very excited by. Everyone is now vaccinated, so plans to sally forth are being made. We’re getting together for a belated covid funeral, unfortunately, but to get together again is a blessing I have been waiting for for some time.
Hi Make Kay –
Yes, me too.
I am glad our respective families are able to get together now and celebrate our loved ones.
I send my thoughts your way.
My plan is to get to scanning some family photos that were entrusted to me. It’s been two years and I’m quite overdue on my deadline. I think I got over-confident when I said “yes” to it… but, now I must step up to the plate! 😀 It will be fun to do once I get a “set-up’ set up. 🙂
The Heifer International sounds like a great charity!! Thank you for donating to them. 😀
I want to go shopping.
I hate shopping. We need “stuff.” Well, probably not… but have become accustomed to shoes that fit, certain brands of foodstuffs, store shelves with choices.
We ordered a kitchen sink this winter rather than make do with what was available. The freight was more than the sink.
So, if any of you come across a dumpy country hick in a large city mall with a shopping cart of shoes, men’s dress shirts and Tillamook cheese, that will be me.
Best wishes for a peaceful, healing summer.
Enjoy your summer break from the blog, Grace! We are doing something totally different this summer. We are leaving the heat of Texas to go up to the Tetons area of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montanta. Of course this summer seems to be heading to be one of the hottests ones in recent history up there.