July Goals Recap

It was a lonely month for a while, but I did accomplish a lot of writing, and I suppose that's the most important thing. Oh, and I listened to a LOT of RWA workshops from past conferences.

Plus I downloaded all of Harlequin's FREE e-books to read, so have gotten through several of those. I confess, I'm not a huge fan of e-books because I find I hate sitting a a computer to read a book. Perhaps if I had an e-reader of sorts, I would enjoy it more, but I can't read in bed or sit at the kitchen table and read while I eat my ice cream.

• SARK month 7 yes
• Blog 2ce at least
• write my monthly Operating Manual articles for the rest of the year. done
• Participate in my local RWA chapter's BIAW goal met/exceded
• Write 1 Desk Diva article Angel Speak--Music in the Workplace
• edit/rewrite 50 pages of WIP oh yes.
• attend critique 2ce.yes
  

Summer Time From a Reader's Perspective

Summer time . . . and the living is easy.
Real easy.

I love summer (except when the humidity is as high as the temperature).

No shoes, no socks? No problem.

I love summer clothes. They're light, breezy, and frothy. Irwin Shaw wrote a short story (which I've never read) with a wonderful title: "The Girls In Their Summer Dresses." I see these girls, these women, every where I go, in strappy sandals and painted toenails, with skirts flirting around their legs. The title is a perfect image.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is about a small southern town in the summer, where "Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft tea-cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.” (Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird). Another perfect image. I can see those ladies (the church ladies of my childhood). I can smell their talc mixed with their perspiration.

One book that is a must-read for me each and every summer is Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence. I looked for this book for years before he even wrote it: a book about summer food. It's not a cookbook, but rather the true (-ish) story of the first year the author and his wife lived in the south of France. Very Mediterranean. Although the book contains stories of all four seasons, I think of it as a summer book. And he writes constantly of the meals he eats.

This summer, I've based my meals at home around things I read in this book: crusty breads, the best olive oil I can buy for dipping; a jar of pesto (basil, olive oil, garlic) for spreading on the bread; olives themselves, both green and black, and flavorfully cured, not the foam-like garnishes from my childhood; salami (which is a sausage); good cheeses; roasted red peppers; melon; berries; wine. These are perfect to eat on hot, humid nights after a day at the office. No slaving over a hot stove, very little clean up.

And thus my reading effects my outlook on summer, providing indelible images that come to mind whenever I think of summer.

What sorts of images from your reading stay with you?