Fall Progress...

I can't believe it's time to update my blog once again. I can't believe that people actually write in their blogs more than once a month and manage to write anything else at all. Of course, I also can't believe it's fall. And almost Halloween. I can't believe summer is over or that somewhere, people are already thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. I can't believe I am not one of them. For the first decade of my adult life, I prided myself on being the one who was planning where the family would come together for Christmas next year and the next. I was planning vacations three years out, arranging Halloween costumes in August and completing my Christmas shopping well before roasting a Thanksgiving turkey. Okay, truth-be-told, I don't cook. So, I was completing it well before watching someone else roast a Thanksgiving turkey. But, still...

I spent this weekend trying to sit back and look around at things changing. I cut back rose bushes and put the lawn mower away (well, my husband did). We went to a farm and got pumpkins and apples and made applesauce (well, my husband did). I got to do dishes. But, there is something about the fall that seems to make me slow down just a little bit. Maybe it's the way the days are growing shorter so I'm a little less apt to plan nightly activities. Maybe it's the way the leaves are starting to drift from the trees and remind me that nature is slowing down, too. Maybe it's the fact that there aren't visitors in the house every weekend, that we're not rushing around to go camping, swimming, hiking, whatever. We're sitting more. We're even looking at the fireplace, heads tilted just slightly, wondering if it's time to light the first blaze.

And, somehow, this time of year also makes me look forward. Perhaps, again, because I can find the time to see beyond this week or next weekend. The Rookie Club is in copy editing. The art department is slaving away on the perfect cover design. The bound galleys are being sent to some wonderfully talented authors who have volunteer to read it and maybe offer a quote. Soon, we'll be nailing down a release date and I'll be talking about print runs and touring. I plan to make my first stop at my favorite mystery bookstore, Once Upon A Crime, in Minneapolis, MN. That will be sometime in June, so keep an eye out. The other thing this time of year means for me is that the draft of the next book, the follow-up to The Rookie Club, is almost done. Another milestone reached.

Sometimes the cloudy days and the rain make me long for summer, but today, thinking on all that's happened and happening, lingering a moment longer than usual, I am enjoying fall.

I hope you are, too....