Summer Fruits

Happy Birthday, Alex! Happy Anniversary to Aaron and Barb!

I love summer fruits. Cherries are among my favorites with peaches, plums and apricots coming in close behind. I love every kind of melon and all berries -- straw, blue, rasp, elder, marion, olalla, you name it!

When I get the chance, I relish some of the desert fruits I enjoyed as a child in Arizona: figs, fresh dates, pomegranates, even star fruit.

There's really no fruit harvested in summer or early fall that isn't among my favorites.

For years summer bore another kind of fruit in my home. I taught classes during the school year, so it was in summer that I saw the fruits of my labors as a writer. It was summer that produced the books.

During those same years, I stuck to short and fairly predictable kinds of plots since I couldn't plan on carrying a story into the new academic year when stacks of student papers would take precedence.

As the calendar rolls around to summer this year, I find I'm writing more than ever and enjoying it still more. My stories are longer and more complex. With no automatic end scheduled for my productivity, I can manage it better and accomplish more. My writing is bearing fruit, and I'm lovin' it!

Are there times and seasons when you write?