Well, technically this is the second day of summer, but who’s counting? :)  I love summer — it’s my favorite season and it’s never long enough. When I was a kid, summer meant no school, camping, playing with my friends until late into the evening, lightning bugs, food on the grill, camp fires, fresh corn on the cob, watermelon, The New York State Fair, beaches, and so many other wonderful things.

Some of these I have brought into adulthood, especially the campfires, which we have in our outdoor fire pit, and food on the grill, and the State Fair.  Much to my hubby’s disappointment, I am happy to leave camping behind, but love beaches. Last night, I was delighted to see the first lightning bugs of the season flickering outside our living room window. New activities that summer brings for me are gardening, enjoying my flowers, and most recently, digging a new vegetable garden and hopefully having fresh veggies come August and Sept. Of course, then summer will be almost over, but we won’t think about that.

One thing I don’t really care for in summer are the extreme thunder and lightning storms that come with the hot weather, though I do enjoy a rainy summer day. My current book, Mine Until Morning, happens during a severe storm moving up the east coast, and due to the June release and our recent weather, the book was well-timed — so many readers have reported reading it during storms! Hopefully they had someone to cozy up with when the lights were out and the thunder was raging. 

Tell me about what you love about summer, and I’ll send three posters a copy of Mine Until Morning, along with some honey dust and solid perfume custom made to match the book. And enjoy every day of summer, as it is way too short.

I can calculate my life in terms of books.  Give me a year, and I’ll tell you what I was reading.  1978? Nancy Drew.  At least the first sixty.  1986?  Wuthering Heights and every Austen and Bronte book I could find.  Then?  On to the highly risqué Lady Chatterley’s Lover.  1991 was the Romantic poets and all the Arthurian literature, spurred by a second reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  But 1993 was the era of romance ushered in by Johanna Lindsey and Elizabeth Lowell.  I was reading dense critical theory too, but it’s the Lowell and the Lindsey that’s most memorable for me.

Anyhow, I can track my reading through the years because it’s an important part of my life- the pastime that’s so much more than a pastime.  When I think of Nancy Drew, I still picture myself in my bedroom, reading with the book way to close to my nose.  I hear the lawn mower outside and smell the cut grass too, because half that summer passed by while I solved intriguing mysteries with Bess, George and my favorite titian-haired heroine.

In fact, summer reading in general is always really memorable for me.  Perhaps it’s because I associate summer with long lazy days where I have more say in how my time is spent.  And most of the time, when I have to pick, I pick a good book.  Also, I think summer reads are memorable because they’re often consumed in big gulps instead of divvied up into chapter-bites over the course of a few nights.  Devouring stories whole is always more fun for me.  I never leave the characters’ world.  Instead, I am along for the ride on page one and by page 500 and The End, it’s almost disconcerting to return to my real life.

I read Harry Potter like this, saving the last few books of the series until a time I could read uninterrupted for days.  They were my treat for one stolen week of the summer where I read day and night.  While Nancy Drew is forever associated with the lawn mower and fresh cut grass, Harry Potter makes me think of my porch swing , my personal Portkey to Hogwarts. 

As of now, I haven’t made any firm plans for what I want to read this summer.   The season remains open, just waiting for the right books between baseball games and picnics. 

***Do you have a memorable summer read?  The summer you read Black Beauty or first discovered a beloved author?  And how about a favorite reading spot?  Did you have a special spot you retreated with your books as a kid?  A spot you hide away with books today?  Chat with me on the boards about your books of summer and I’ll give one random poster a $10. eGift  Card to the bookseller of their choice.

The kitchen thermometer is flirting with 100° F in the shade, so I’m declaring that summer has arrived. Bring on the ice cream! I like ice cream that has stuff in it. Crunchy, gooey stuff. Not so much the fruity stuff, although I love raspberry sherbet. But we’re talking ice cream today. Vanilla is essential for topping pies and making Dr Pepper floats, my deadline fuel, but if I’m eating ice cream by itself, I want nuts, and caramel, and chocolate. My current favorite is Blue Bell Pecan Pralines ‘n Cream. I like Blue Bell, but it’s expensive. On the other hand, I detest the way other brands are downsizing. Or even worse, whipping the product so that air increases the volume and leaves foam when it melts. Blech. So Blue Bell remained the gold (or brown-rimmed) standard for us until my brother-in-law claimed his home-town favorite, Graeters, was better. Impossible. So he ordered it and served it to us. And, well, okay. It was better. But not by much and at $4.99 a pint, now that it’s available locally at Krogers, it’ll remain a holiday treat.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

I’m down to the last few days of a deadline, so I beg Blaze readers tolerance if I recycle an old blog from The Sizzling Pens Blog a couple of years ago (with a few updates) and save my brain power for the book.
This time of year it’s always sad saying goodbye to our favorite TV shows for the summer. But there is a positive side to the TV show hiatus. Think of all that free time I’ll have in the evenings. Maybe I’ll…

1. Write. Since there’ll be nothing to watch on TV, this is a good time to work. Especially since, beginning June 5th, my kids will be home all day, every day, for an entire three months (Ack!) and I certainly won’t get any writing done during the day.
2. Catch up on my reading. My To Be Read pile—ok, PILES–are getting so ridiculously high I’m afraid they might topple over and give me a concussion while I sleep. If I don’t start reading some of them, I might be forced to cull through the stacks and pare them down. And how could I do that?
3. Have meaningful conversations with my kids. Without new episodes of Medium or House to watch, I might talk with my kids. That is, about something other than homework, school projects, upcoming band concerts, volleyball schedules, PTA meetings, or their bad grades. Instead, we can talk about boyfriends, girlfriends, clothes, makeup, skateboarding, video games, movies, malls, and the money they need for all of the above. Um, when does the New Fall Season start again?
4. Ditto for my husband. Hmm, a conversation that is NOT about the kids. What does that leave? I’m not sure I remember how to talk about anything else with the man I’ve been living with for over twenty years. This may require a date night and alcohol. Who knows? Maybe he’ll get lucky.
5. Take a long soak in a Bubble Bath. Which leads to…
6. Paint my nails. I haven’t painted my nails since before I was pregnant with the last kid. How sad is that?
7. Go out to dinner with my girlfriends. Ahhh, more alcohol (D)
8. Have long phone conversation with a friend who lives far away
9. Cook a magnificent gourmet meal. I’ve been dying to try one of Isabel’s yummy recipes.
10. Clean out my office closet. Okay, I’ve gone too far. I’ll NEVER be that desperate!

So, what will YOU do with your lazy, hazy summer evenings?

While visiting a friend-of-my-boyfriend’s house recently, I was presented with a horrifying scenario. It was a warm, sunny day, and the friend in question had a swimming pool and hot tub. I had not come prepared to immerse myself in any body of water, so the wife of the friend immediately coaxed me into a bedroom and began pulling bikinis out of a drawer.

“This one will fit you!” she declared, waving at me with a tiger-print scrap of fabric.

I eyed the swimsuit in question and cringed. Sure, it might fit technically, but it was one of those Euro cut numbers designed to cover approximately 1/8 of the behind.

And I hadn’t even been mentally eased into swimsuit season yet with the obligatory torture trip to a department store dressing room to regard with sober despair the results of a winter spent writing and consuming pastry products.

Before giving me a chance to argue for a bit more modesty, it was decided by the wife that I would indeed put on the tiger-print micro-bikini and present myself to a small crowd of people already waiting by the pool. She hurried me into a bathroom to change, and a few minutes later, I was staring at myself in the mirror, horrified to find that the tiny sides of the bikini bottoms virtually disappeared beneath a newfound set of love handles.

Never one to be called a bad sport though, I pulled my summer dress on again over the offending bikini and headed for the pool, praying I’d have a good excuse not to do the big reveal. The water would be icy, I was sure, and I would be able to lounge poolside with a glass of wine without ever having to show any serious skin.

And no, I didn’t have to get in the pool, but I did take a dip in the hot tub later (shrugging off my dress only when no one was looking, then doing a mad dash into the water), where I sat regarding my newly expanded waist and promising myself I’d run six miles a day for the rest of the spring and summer.

I haven’t quite gotten around to that running-six-miles-a-day resolution. Too many writing deadlines at the moment. In the meantime though, I’d like to suggest to pool owners everywhere, if you’re going to keep extra swimsuits on hand for guests, please, please get the full coverage kind. No bikinis bought while visiting the topless (and apparently virtually bottomless) beaches of the Greek Isles.

I’m also posting this story as an official warning to those of you, like me, who’ve failed to notice swimsuit season creeping up on us. It’s almost here. My resolution is to lay off the donuts and, okay, probably not run six miles a day. But I’m going to do something physical most days of the week. Yeah. That sounds good.

How about you? Do you dread the first big reveal of the season? Do you have a strategy for getting into summer-wear shape? And have you ever been forced to wear someone else’s tiger-print micro-bikini, or is that just something that happens to me?