What Happened to Summer?

I can't believe I had to put a sweater on today to go bike riding with my kids. It was 96 or something earlier in the week.

On the one hand, it seems like summer passed in the blink of an eye, but on the other, looking back on all the things my family and I did, the time was both relaxing and fulfilling. We reconnected with relatives and old friends and met new people.

From a writing perspective, I can't say that I have a whole host of new stuff written. But, I do have a lot of new ideas waiting to put on paper. In June, five of my six blog-mates and I went on a retreat called Words in the Woods. As far as I'm concerned, pretty much every minute of it was worthwhile in some way, be it time spent getting to know my fellow writers better or learning more about the craft of writing. While forbidden by my friends and family to actually work on the opening of my manuscript again right now, I do have some great ideas for it based on what I learned at the retreat.

My family and I spent part of our vacation in Wildwood, NJ, which is where part of my YA novel is set. I grew up going to the Jersey Shore every summer since my parents have a business there, but I hadn't been back in about five years. It was an interesting experience to look at everything through the eyes of my heroine.

With vacation over, real-life has started again and it is busier than ever. We've started our home school year and somehow I am the president of one home school group and field trip coordinator for another. Most of the work is up front, I hope, and so maybe one day soon I'll be able to spend evenings after the kids go to bed solely on my manuscript and not registration forms.