June, June, June, June!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: June is busting out all over! My mother always sang that song from the musical Carousel on this day, and as a June baby, I always felt it was meant for me. (When the puberty fairy arrived with her bike pump, it took on a new meaning, sigh.)

 

 June always feels like a month of infinite possibilities and celebrations. Weddings, graduations, school letting out, the start of summer vacation, everything in the garden bursting to life. (So much life, it becomes hard to keep up with the mowing!) 

 

I know if you’re living in the southwest, like Jenn and Debs, it’s a bit different weather-wise. My high on Monday is predicted to be 64°/18°    and Jenn’s is 103°/ 39° !!!!!! But the rhythms of the season remain the same no matter where you live.

 

The baseball season is in full swing. Your friends are talking about where they’re going this summer (my prediction is a revival of the staycation, as the price of gas reaches eleventy hundred per gallon.) The local grocery store has a towering display of everything you need for a cookout, and you buy hot dog and hamburger bund for the first time in nine months. (Don’t forget to toss the two buns you put in the freezer last October, optimistically thinking you would use them at some point.) It’s your last chance to find bathing suits in the stores, so Debs, get moving!

 

Since my June includes two weeks with Youngest and the Very Tall Dutchman (whom I will now abbreviate VOC, and the commenter who tells my why gets a virtual guilder,) and a concurrent visit from The Sailor, it’s kicking off in grand style. We’re going to a Sea Dogs game, taking VOC hiking in a wilderness area, and, if the weather cooperates, swimming in Celia’s lake. (The lake does not actually belong to Celia.)  VOC also wants to see a super Walmart, but I may not tag along for that glorious excursion. Toward the end of the month, it’s a five-day oceanside writing retreat. Do I plan to go down to the boardwalk and buy 5,000 calories of greasy, salty beach fries? Yes. Yes, I do.

 

How about you, Reds? What does June mean to you, and what are your plans for the month?

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Spring makes me think of that song too… With special meaning because my dad was the director of the movie Carousel and he used to talk about the changeable Maine spring weather… They began filming that number dancing on a pier in Bar Harbor and had to relocate to the sound stage in Los Angeles to finish the scene because of the weather. If you know it’s coming, you can see the difference. So yeah, changeable.

 

JULIA: Every once in a while we have a discussion and I'm suddenly reminded our Hallie's family were genuine Hollywood royalty! 

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: And now I am singing!  June used to mean freedom, and that whole long long long summer where we could do  anything we wanted. Including slathering on iodine mixed into baby oil and sitting out in the sun with aluminum foil to get tan. I do NOT miss that! And still have the  freckles to show for it.

 

Now it means three months until the book is due, and the whole month will fly by. It’s all good, I’m delighted, but also here in Boston is it FREEZING so it does not feel like summer yet.

 

I have actively scaled back on events this June–although I am interviewing some fabulous authors in person, and speaking at a big Girl Scout convention, adorably–but have to keep my days and nights open  since I am gearing up for a fall book launch, and also, see above, my book is due. So June is a writing month. And you will find me at the computer for most of the time!

 

JENN McKINLAY: June is not the happy occasion in Arizona that it is elsewhere. We’re checking the AC unit and making sure the pool is ready for the dogs to shift from walking to swimming (with me, of course). It’s more of a girding the loins until September month for us.

 

 

That being said, I’ll be in Colchester, CT on June 12th at 6 PM at the Cragin Memorial Library to give a talk and a signing. Click HERE for details. After time with the fam, I’ll be flying down to Myrtle Beach, SC to visit my college bestie and get in some beach time! Woo hoo!

 

RHYS BOWEN:  I’m glad it’s June because May was not an easy month for me, as you can imagine. Planning a funeral, wading through endless paperwork, seeing bank, attorney etc etc. So I’m hopefully moving on to a time when I can enjoy summer. At this moment it’s cool and cloudy but it should warm up and then pool time. 

 

My family has been so wonderful and supportive that I’ve hardly been alone, and this month I have good things to look forward to: granddaughter graduates from Santa Clara University and I’m hosting a big party here. Clare and Tim will be here for a couple of weeks and we’ll do fun things and then at the end of the month I’m flying to Canada with Dominic and Meredith. We’ve an AirBandB on Vancouver Island, on a secluded beach and then a few days in Victoria. They have been several times before and know the best bakeries, oyster farms, blueberry farms etc. So that is definitely something to look forward to.

 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It is truly summer here. We’re easing into the low nineties, but we’ve had a lot of rain and the garden is glorious. I’ll be doing lots of grilling and hopefully a bit of lying in the hammock with a book, before it gets too hot to stick a nose outside. Other than that, I suspect it will be edits, edits, edits, and I’m looking forward to that.

 

Oh, and some birthday celebrating, too. Kayti and I are going to see Matt Haig (on tour for his new book, THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN) at the Dallas Museum of Art on Friday, with dinner at one of my fave restaurants beforehand. And I’m hoping that Rick will take me out for a movie date to see THE TUNER, as I’m a huge Leo Woodall fan. (And Hoffman fan, of course!)

 

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ll be in the writing cave with Hank–hoping to finish the Paris book this month! John is going on a Grand Canyon adventure for 9 days so it will be quiet here, no need to cook big meals either. So I don’t have a good excuse not to buckle down. I’ll also be playing golf, and some pickleball, and taking another quick trip into New York to hear Sting’s opera with two of my good pals. 

 

JULIA: How about you, dear readers? What's on your calendar for June?