Summer: A Few of my Favorite Things @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Wow, it's been one crazy season since May, rocketing from family to food to friends to family. Here are a few of my favorite things so far--and then I'd love to hear about yours!

1. Old friends are the best friends! Is there anything better than reconnecting with people who knew you a million years ago and still love you in spite of your quirks? Nancy Parent was my absolute best pal in high school--we shared lovesick yearnings and terrible poetry. I met up with Yvonne and Wendy at Motown the Musical to reprise goofiness from grad school days....






2.  Writing pals are the gravy with my biscuits. So happy to share a booksigning with Barbara Ross and Liz Mugavero, and to help celebrate Hallie's new book You'll Never Know, Dear with Hank...

3. The garden has been amazing this summer (thanks to John, who is winning the battle of the woodchucks and weeding like a champion!) Here's our best crop so far....

4. I've been cooking a lot of Cuban food to go along with my Key West food critic mystery #8, coming next summer. Here's the best thing I've made: Mojito cake, flavored with rum, lime, and mint...recipe to follow later...

5. Best silly moment: With our favorite babies in residence, there has been plenty of silliness. I thought the first picture might capture my favorite (with great-nephew Lewis), but then our son Andrew showed me the wonders of Snapchat...

6.  Best Sport of the season: When I mentioned to John that we were attending a pirate-themed wedding and that I'd ordered him a costume, he didn't bat an eyelash. "Argggg!" he said. (As his sister suggested, maybe too much time in Key West has sent him over to the dark side...)

7. Best Innovative Work-around: Can there be anything more fun than watching a baby figure things out that we take for granted? Dorothea is the poster child for diving in if you really want something. We could all use a little of her gumption! 

How's your summer going so far? Tell us a highlight!

How's Your Summer Going?

Lucy with Hannah and David

LUCY BURDETTE:  Since amazingly enough Labor Day is less than a month away, I thought it might be fun to check in and ask about the highlights of your summer so far. We have been on a whirlwind of family events – two weddings and a new granddaughter. Oh, and two trips to California. The first was to Malibu for my darling nephew's wedding. It was a glorious weekend with lots of family time. 

Beautiful Dorothea

We thought we'd be going back to California in August after our daughter's baby was born, but nature had other ideas. On July 21, all 5 lbs. 11 oz. of her made her dramatic appearance. Her name is Dorothea, after John's mom, and baby and her fabulous parents are all doing well. Tired, but that's to be expected with these new creatures. 

We careened directly from Venice CA to North Carolina to participate in my sister's wedding. The most amazing part of this

Cousin Joan with Richard and Martha

celebration was connecting with Joan, a cousin I hadn't seen in 40 years, the daughter of my mom's oldest sister. Those three sisters and all of us cousins spent many holidays and summer vacations together, but Time has a way of changing things. She was so lovely, and has many memories of my grandmother from living with her that I can't wait to hear. And we learned that my cousin Tom Isleib on the other side has an amazing talent for limericks, and my brother emerged as a limerick master as well. I will leave you with one example. You'll see the topic can be anything... And stay tuned for more limericks on Friday--and a contest!

Cousins sent their men out to fetch lunch.
"Bet it's Subway," said Steve on a hunch.
Well, we gobbled that goo
While the flies had some, too,
Now we're lying around in a bunch.

RHYS BOWEN: What lovely family time, Lucy. I'm so glad you got to enjoy all of these events. My summer seems to have been going on forever. I keep hoping there will be at least one moment to take a book under a tree and relax. So far I've been to England, saw the premiere of the play of my children's book, taught a workshop in Tuscany, visited the hotel where John's parents spent their honeymoon in Santa Margherita Liguri, did research in Stresa, visited friends in England. Then worked like crazy to finish first draft of next Georgie book. Was on the faculty of the Book Passage Mystery Conference and have just returned from a workshop in Kansas City and a book event for Crowned and Dangerous in Scottsdale. Next up is an event on Mackinac Island in two weeks. I'm planning to watch Olympics and catch my breath for a couple of days before I do anything else!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  After that? I am going to skip my turn. Rhys! You are astonishing, but it makes my Tanglewood-attending, (Mozart and Mahler) and cataract surgery (life-changingly amazing) and book tour planing for SAY NO MORE (November!) pale in comparison. Still! I am having a very nice summer. Working working working. Today I reached word 55,555 in UNTITLED. Yay!

HALLIE EPHRON: When I'm not on the road (right now I'm in Portland OR at the Willamette Writers Conference - a fabulous conference!) I'm chained to my desk editing two books and missing deadlines. When my kids show up I drop everything for family time, but my poor husband who's off for the summer is very much flying solo, poor guy, for a few weeks yet.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I've managed to make a few of my summer bucket list items already: I've gone to see the Sea Dogs play ball in Portland AND the Rockies play the Pirates in Coors Field in Denver. I've had a fresh haddock sandwich at a lobster shack in Midcoast Maine. We've hosted friends for cookouts on our built-last-year patio, and I've spent the day up at Theatre of Monmouth seeing one of their excellent Shakespeare productions.

I've also been traveling quite a bit - although all of us will sound like stay-at-home recluses compared to Rhys! I went to Syracuse to spend time with my parents, went to Colorado Springs to stay with one of my best friends. Along with the ballgame, we also rode the cog railroad up Pike's Peak, explored historical sites and spent an afternoon in an outdoor hot tub drinking wine spritzers. Bliss.

The best thing so far? We just got home from Chicago, where we saw The Boy graduate from basic training at Naval Station Great Lakes! We stayed at the BEST hotel - the Deer Path Inn in Lake Forest. It was the perfect place to hang out and catch up with our son, and that had three separate restaurants, so we never even had to leave to find a meal. It was great seeing him again and seeing the positive changes the Navy has wrought on him already.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: It's been a summer of lots of travel — to Hudson, NY and Providence, RI. Now we're back in NYC (with the heat) and Kiddo is going to an engineering camp he really loves. I'm trying to write, as well as do the usual accompanying blog posts that come with a new book (THE QUEEN'S ACCOMPLICE drops on October 4). Did I mention it's hot? It's really hot. We're watching the Olympics in the air conditioning.

And did someone say limerick? The town we stayed in in Rhode Island is called "Pawtucket." 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I think I should skip my turn, too. I have spent my summer writing. I finished my book (only a year late) on July 18th. I collapsed for a couple of days, then spent a week madly gathering material for Laura Maestro, the wonderful illustrator who does the endpaper maps. THEN I started revisions. The book went to copy edit on Friday. While I wait for the copy edit, I'm working on revisions for the German version. That is it.

And it's been very, very hot. 107 here on Friday, but thankfully we've had a little cool front. But on Friday I'm going to Kansas City for the weekend with daughter and granddaughter to see my best friend, so that is my big much-anticipated treat of the summer! (Assuming copy edit doesn't arrive before Friday...) 

Lucy: Red friends, how are your summers going?