Summer Solstice

It seems to me that I have written, I don't have anything to write, so many times recently that I could just go ditto. It's not that nothing is happening. It's that it is not earthshaking or even worth repeating long enough to write it down. Pretty much that's not a bad way to live  actually. Life is made of little moments that are not earthshaking but just ongoing. They take us forward; we don't really want fireworks every day-- or at least I do not.

So this week we felt fortunate to have our four grandchildren around quite a bit. Two came in for the week and two came to play one day and later spent one night giving us all four under our roof for that night. That all went quite well which is just how you want it to go. Nobody got more than a few blisters or a skinned knee.

My partner and I (known here as Farm Boss) put out the eBook Storm in the Canyon which was received about as I expected considering the two before it-- as in with a dull thud :). To be totally honest, almost nobody cared to read this paranormal trilogy.

From my viewpoint, I enjoyed writing something different, liked the heroes and heroines, and it was fun figuring out the paranormal aspects which I got a lot of help doing from my chemist husband (also known as Farm Boss). But then my liking them doesn't say much since my normal read is not paranormal. I mostly have no idea what readers of that genre really like. I believe in them enough that they will all three go into a paperback which will be called Diablo Canyon with three parts to it (around 110,000 words, I think) and that will be out by the end of June or first of July-- I hope.

Sometimes as a writer, you simply write what you are given, and it doesn't mean a reader will like it at all. I can't even be sure all the readers who might like one of my books will stumble across it. At least though this trilogy was all a pleasure to write, the trailers were fun to create, and the covers suit the books perfectly. That's all a writer can do. The rest is out of my hands. Onward and upward as a friend of mine used to say.

We had to make a firm decision to postpone our trip to Yellowstone. This has been an odd year for getting hay. We need 40 tons of big round bales to get through our Oregon winter when the grass is there but not growing and with limited nutritional value. Raising cattle and sheep, sufficient hay for winter is not an option.

So instead of going to Montana/Wyoming, we may just take a shorter trip around Oregon (after we get the hay) and maybe a bit of southeastern Idaho where I am told there are interesting ghost towns as it was quite a mining area at one time. 

You know, take a vacation or not, I don't feel anxious about it because I live in a place that feels like a vacation to me. It's a place I would choose to vacation if I didn't live here. The thing is though vacations are meant to give us a break from regular routine. Maybe what we should do is pull the trailer to Portland and do a big city trip. Now that would be really different except when I am there a day is usually enough for me. Anyway, all of that is dicey until the hay is in the barns.

So with grandkids back to their families, I am ready to edit. Comes the Dawn, an Arizona O'Brian historical, will be out July 10. It follows Arizona Sunset and Tucson Moon. I hadn't thought of these titles as fitting from sunset to dawn but turned out that way.

And today is Summer Solstice--

At the very least we know we are still near the exact center point when the ‘stargate’ or ‘portal’ is wide open during the solstices. The Sun acts as a doorway to the incoming energies, illuminating and opening the stargate to other realms and dimensions as it rises, sets and tracks across the sky during the solstice time.

Do Solstices matter for attaining something? Well-- sometimes it can.  If you believe in energy portals (I just wrote a paranormal about such), this could be one. What can you do to make it special for you? 

1. Voice a committed choice for something that will enhance the quality of your life-- big or little thing. 
2. Eliminate something that isn't working in your life.
3. Commit or recommit to something you have always wanted.
4. Litha, this summer solstice Sabbat, honors the longest day of the year and a time to reflect on seasons and cycles.

Any moment can be a special one if we make it so. Every change starts with a commitment to make it so.

What we know for certain sure-- energy portals or not, we are at the longest day of the year and now on our way back to the shortest. Another cycle is completing. That alone should be cool for those who believe in cycles ;)

My granddaughter who was teaching me (or trying to teach me) how to use my smart phone, took the first photo of Blackie and Raven on what we are currently calling our old garden for wont of a better word. It seems what is our front yard should be our back based on where the road is; so it's taking some doing to come up with a word to describe both gardens that we will remember...