Oh yikes! Summer’s going fast! A former co-worker once said, ‘It’s the 4th of July, and pffft. Summer’s over.’ Please, say it isn’t so! I’ve got to get moving on my ‘savor it while it lasts’ list! More paddling, more gazing at our lake, more meals with fresh sweet corn and tomatoes, Swiss chard, peppers, and cucumbers from my garden.

Have I mentioned my vegetable garden? We’re surrounded by black walnut trees, which seriously derailed my early gardening success. Did you know they’re toxic to most veggie plants? I learned this the hard way. So, long ago I became a container gardener. But not just any container. I use Earthboxes, and do they ever produce results for me. The boxes are about one foot deep, one foot wide, and two feet long. Fertilized soil sits on a grid above a water reservoir, and I make slits in a plastic cover as I plant seedlings. The cover means no weeds, and that I need to keep the reservoir full by watering every day. In exchange, I get fresh vegetables by stepping out onto my deck. Swiss chard for my morning smoothie, two kinds of peppers for salads with enough to freeze for soup all winter, and beautiful tomatoes.

Gardening on my deck limits interference from deer. Alas, not so with squirrel and chipmunk marauders who bring out my nasty side. I’d happily share a tomato or two, but the rotten critters prefer to sample a bite here, a bite there, until they’ve ruined multiples of the tomatoes a single day before they’re ready for me to pick. Grrr! I have less than kind words with the devil beasts if ever I see them even looking at the deck.

Varmints aside, my veg garden and the other flowering plants on my deck are a summer source of joy, along with those deliciously long summer evenings, the ease of shorts and flip-flops, enjoying a cool beverage by the lake, and so much more.

Making Stuff

Summer’s a great time for me to try new skills and boost inventory for FlairWearableArts.etsy.com. Here are a few things I’ve been playing with.

Felted Ice-dyed Cheesecloth:
1 day to dye, 2 to felt, what fun!Sweet fresh blooms now dot the reds and purples on red silk In case you’re not the summer lover I am, a cozy wool with fall leaves.Making Stuff Up

More revision progress! I’m up to Chapter 17! Brie has survived her first week at MontDu Winery. It’s not been easy for her, but she’s got two new reasons to think moving to the Finger Lakes might not be such a terrible idea – Perry’s White Lightning ice scream, and a fantastic fish and onion dinner from a place you might recognize if you’ve ever been there. (And if you’ve not been to Doug’s in Skaneateles, you really should!) Brie’s currently laying ghosts, but as we all know, ghosts don’t give up easily. Zack, who before Chapter 17 has been brusque, all-business, and rude, seems now to have a kinder side, but who knows what will happen next? Oh right. That would be me. And you too – eventually. I foresee at least another set of revisions after this one where my focus is on making what happens feel real and alive for the reader. Next set? I’ll have to sharpen my machete to pare the page count so paperback readers will be able to pick the book up! Are you impatient to see the final book? Me too! Which is why I need to celebrate progress whenever I get the chance!

Reading What Other Authors Make Up

I liked Sockett’s debut novel The Help. Her next book, seventeen (!) years later? I loved it! I devoured its 640 pages in the course of three or four days. Great characters – a precocious child, an old maid, a vindictive wife, a desperate mother, women getting by in a time and place that was not at all kind to women. Scratch ‘getting by.’ These women seized and wielded their power despite the obstacles conspiring to keep them caged. How they do it makes for a darned good story. It’s by turns heart-rending, poignant, and downright funny. And so very southern. I found it delightful with a capital D. Worth waiting seventeen years for!

Here’s a tale about rich people behaving badly in an ultra-exclusive Florida enclave told from the POV of a second wife trying to find her place with the snotty upper crust. When Nora’s husband goes missing, she’s the obvious suspect, and her only hope is to track down the real story behind his disappearance. It’s a well-told story I liked. If you’re more fascinated by the idle wealthy than I, you might love it and the sequel that follows.

Does the cover suggest this story’s about a child? It’s not. Naomi’s a twenty-something woman living in Tokyo when she learns that the father she’s never known has left her a house and land in Nebraska – if she re-locates and lives there for a year. Naomi agrees and culture shock ensues. There’s a Hallmark-esque romance, a plot by greedy relatives trying to pry Naomi from the legacy she’s been left, and lots of classic small-town characters. But to me, the most interesting aspect of this story is the culture shock. Naomi who’s half Japanese and has never been to the US learns a lot to adapt to her new temporary life – and opened my eyes to differences between life in Japan and life in rural America that I’d not before considered.

Starting with a familiar meet-cute I’ve enjoyed before, this has other standard rom-com flavor. She sells a typewriter to an antique dealer, leaving a letter for the new owner. He’s gifted the typewriter and writes her back. They continue corresponding, revealing their true selves and spinning fantasies of more. Though they’ve agreed to remain anonymous, she risks showing herself, and he fears she’ll only see his celebrity when she learns he’s a famous heart-throb actor. But he can’t resist meeting her – while still hiding that he’s the person behind their correspondence. Think You’ve Got Mail, Daddy Long-Legs, The Potato-Peel Pie Literary Society, and my own match.com success with the written word and my guy twenty-five years ago. I’m a sucker for a write first, meet later romance.

Did I read this already? Or did the story just feel familiar because I read the first two in this trilogy and the third was so classic Nora Roberts? I don’t know, and in the end, didn’t much care because it was still fun to hang out with Nora’s characters. They’re well-rounded people who work hard, think creatively, and value family and friends. I’d enjoy being part of their circle. I’ll pass on the scary ‘must defeat evil or die’ quests she devises for them to conquer, thank you very much, but the parties, the happy-hour wine overlooking a gorgeous view, the cozy dinners among friends? Sign me up. Are her stories formulaic? Absolutely. And high-quality dark chocolate candy I do dearly enjoy.

Denny has an IQ of 72 due to oxygen deprivation at birth, but he gets along just fine – until his Nana-Jo tells him to figure things out for himself. Then life goes sideways for Denny. A misadventure with a goose named Tom Hanks, a bank robbery in which he accidentally abetted the robber, an arrest as he attempted to turn in a sled full of guns to the sheriff, and the discovery of a murder weapon among those guns. Denny was hard to resist, even as I wished his story would move faster. But he would not be rushed or diverted from relating events in the excrutiating literal detail that defined him, no matter how much it might frustrate his family, friends, and me.

I loved listening to these two companion stories from TJ Klune! The first volume starts depicting the drab life of Linus Baker until an assignment from Extremely Upper Management to inspect the orphanage on Marsayus Island bursts with color and the most fantastic collection of misfit magical children you’d ever hope to meet. In the care of mysterious Arthur Parnasus, these kids are odd, potentially lethal, funny, and marvelously appealing. Can Linus bear to return to drab after being drenched in color? In volume two, Arthur must confront the Government Committee of Utmost Importance to protect the children’s island refuge. It’s a darker tale – a war between bigotry and acceptance laced with magic. Klune’s messages about inclusion and standing up for those who might be powerless to stand on their own are delivered with humor, but the agenda is clear. And deadly serious as Klune emphatically outlines in his author note at the conclusion of volume two. But he was wise to have his magical kids deliver the agenda in these stories. I was convince and thoroughly charmed.

Ashford attempts to deliver an anti-bigotry message too, but less successfully in my opinion. At issue are Italian POWs working on a WWII farm in Cornwall and the diary Violet finds that recounts the anti-Catholic sentiments and persecutions of the 1600s. The two stories parallel each other in a way I thought was bluntly drawn. I found the emotional tone too overwrought for my taste too. Is it me, or has the diary trope been overused of late? I wondered too, at Ashford’s use American terms for flashight and sweater in a story about the WWII British home front. But I did get the book for free, so that’s something.

I actually read Theo a while ago in preparation for our book club and put off reviewing it till out meeting this month. Though it seems like not a lot happens in this story, I liked it well enough. A wealthy man visits a small city and uses his money to do good. Okay. Then I re-read a few chapters at beginning and end and noticed foreshadowing I’d missed the first time. Huh. As I listened to the author and my friends discuss Theo, saw still more in this relatively simple story – more nuance, more depth, more good-heartedness. I think this is a book that benefits from more than one read through and discussion. I was also inspired by how the book came to be written, self-published, and then picked up and widely distributed by a traditional publisher. Wow! So such miracles can happen.

July ends today! Boo Hoo! But as July 31 was the day my father was born, it’s also a day I celebrate. I’m his youngest daughter, and he was the youngest son of the youngest son and the youngest daughter. Because Pop was born, I also got to be born, and lived in the house where both he and his father were born. Reason enough to celebrate, I think. And, I will continue to celebrate both my good fortune and summer. I hope you also find plenty to celebrate in the coming month. Till next time, look for news of my exploits by clicking at the usual places.

And in case you encounter a beach and need a book to read while you’re there, here you go! May sunshine and gentle breezes be yours in August!