Yes, I enjoy summertime, but ...

Here's the thing.

I live in the Midwest, home of brutal winters and scorching summers. Climate change hasn't changed it much except perhaps to make it more extreme.

I am a gardener. I dabble in dirt. One of my degrees is in dirt (okay, it's in landscaping, but you get the idea). I'm a Master Gardener. My idea of great catalog shopping is Seeds of Change and Burpees. Give me those two catalogs, a cup of coffee, a cold winter day, and I'm happy.

I have May, June, and July to garden. April is iffy and July is usually too hot. September is wrap-up time, the first frost is in October, and by November, the garden is put to bed. So when summer hits, I go into Garden Mode. I'm searching for the right plant for here, I'm cutting down a tree there, I'm drilling out a stump and planting flowers there (we have an acreage and a LOT of trees).

I also work full-time at a Real Job, so that means I'm at the Paycheck Job from 5:30 a.m. to about 5PM (I work with folks in all time zones). I'm not physically sitting at the desk, but I'm on-task if needed.

I squeeze in a bit of gardening here and there during the day (I've been known to be on a conference call with a bluetooth headset on while pulling weeds outside). Then I garden a bit at night. By 7 I call it quits.

That's when I get to write. Gee, maybe 2 hours if I'm lucky. I also try to squeeze a bit in while at the Paycheck job, but that's tough sometimes.

So summertime = not-much-writing time for me. But there is a bright side to this: I have a marvelous garden (stunning this year) and while I'm gardening I carry a digital tape recorder. I often draft an entire scene while digging, weeding, hauling, and sweating.

This means that often my best writing is done in the summer when I have little time to do it. I'm a very efficient writer in the summer because I have to be. In the winter, I can take my time, looking for the right setting or the right character or the right word. In the summer, I slap it in and move on then go back later and edit (usually on a rainy day).

So there you have it. My version of the  ♪ Summertime Blues. ♪

☺

J L
(jayellwilson.com)