Everyone who knows me knows I live for that first day at the end of the summer, when the temperatures drop 20 degrees and the humidity is cut in half. You can take a deep breath without feeling as though you need gills, and walk the dogs without feeling as though you live in a greenhouse. As someone with poor heat tolerance, I loathe summer. I get it when friends bemoan the coming winter months, when the skies are dull and gray, and you have to deal with sleet and the occasional snow. But give me a break. We barely get any fall or winter these days, whereas summer is nearly year-round now.

Let me have my autumn, darn it. Bring on the spooky season, I say!

“Summer” starts sooner and lasts longer each year now. Every year shatters heat records from the year before. We almost never see snow around here anymore, and are perilously close to losing fall as well as winter.

I incorporated a little ode to Autumn in the opening paragraphs of A Nose for Death (Ginny Reese Mysteries Book 4) that had to be eliminated when I moved the time sequence for the story from fall to early spring. I’ll share it here:

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year. And not just “fall” but autumn in every sense of the word. It’s the crackle of dry leaves underfoot as they skitter across the sidewalk on a windy day. The smell of wood smoke in the air, and the wet mulchy scent of damp earth. It’s the honking of geese overhead on a cold, gray day, the mournful sound resonating in your bones as you pull out your heavy sweaters and boots for the first time of the season. It’s how the spectrum of sunlight shifts from white to gold, slanting through trees with leaves of yellow, orange, and red, lighting up the emerald-green blades of grass in the fields with an intensity seldom seen at any other time of year. It’s waking to air so crisp, it’s like biting into a fresh apple, with tracings of frost on the windowpanes.

Sadly, what we’re experiencing now is what’s being referred to as ‘false fall.’ Yesterday we got the lovely break in heat and humidity, and tonight the temps are dropping into the upper forties. Normally I’d be thrilled, but we’re told the temperatures are going to bounce back up into the 90s again and stay there well into November. As someone who loves hiking with the dogs, this is depressing, to say the least.

But I’m taking advantage of it now, making a point to get outside after work while we have this temporary reprieve from living in Satan’s armpit. Yesterday, while walking the dogs, the solution to a thorny plot problem that has been tying me up for months miraculously revealed itself to me, and I had to dash back to the house and write it down before the resolution escaped me. I’m not much of an outliner or plotter (some would point out the advantages of being one right about now) but as I wrote down the details of the solution, it held up. Which means I can finally move forward to finish this book.

I’d be hard-pressed to say exactly why it is that I’ve been struggling to finish this WIP. Work stress, life stress, just-getting-darn-old stress have all been factors. I try not to be annoyed with myself and just accept any progress, the Eureka moment when I solved my sticky plot problem being one of them. This means I’m entering the homestretch of Nose at last, and I’m hoping for a fall release date. Another reason to love fall!

I’ll be attending the big mystery convention Bouchercon in Nashville next week, meeting up with friends and sitting in on some panels. I’m busy making swag bags with stickers, QR cards, temporary tattoos, and candy, as well as decorating bookmarks. I find the process of sorting beads, deciding on the colors and patterns, and then creating the handmade look very soothing. But at this point, I’m planning on bringing so much with me to Nashville, I might as well move there!

The swag bags and bookmarks are for the author speed dating event I’m doing Thursday 8/29 am, where I will be circulating a room of attendees, pitching the Ginny Reese Mysteries in a 2 minute spiel to each table. On Saturday 8/31 at 8 am, I’ll be on a panel discussing how to avoid the pitfalls of indie publishing, after which there will be a book signing in the dealers room. If you’re near Nashville next week, you should check out Bouchercon at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center! If you’re attending, look for me there–I’d love to meet you!

Also, if you’re not following M.K. Dean on BookBub, I’d love the support! I can’t take advantage of certain features on the site (such as their release announcement function) until I have at least 1K followers. It costs nothing to create an account if you don’t have one, and what I love about Bookbub is you can tailor your preferences when it comes to their featured deal notifications so you’re alerted if there are discounted/free books in your favorite genre. Check it out!