Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. Albert Camus
Summer departed last week and autumn came into her own. When I walked last week, I found leaves beginning to show their colors. I like fall. I like seasons. I’ve never wanted to live where it was summer all through the year – although a year in Hawaii might be interesting – and I certainly wouldn’t want to be where it was winter with no real summer. A little winter is okay, but I never want it to linger. I like welcoming spring. But fall is a good season here in KY and perhaps even better to the north where the leaves show more vibrant color. We haven’t had remarkable autumn color in the last couple of years. Too dry. So we’ll see this year although I’m noticing a lot of oaks with brown leaves as if they’re dying instead of changing colors.
I like using seasons in my books. I pick summer to tell my stories a lot of the time. That’s the easy season because you don’t have to put coats and gloves on your characters to let them out the door. The Outsider went through summer and winter with the soldiers fighting the War of 1812 suffering first in the heat and then in the cold and snow. My Hollyhill books had a year’s worth of weather, starting one June and ending the next. Angel Sister was set in the hot, dry summer of 1936.
The weather can be a force in any book. A tornado blew through The Scent of Lilacs. A snowstorm stranded a visitor in Summer of Joy. Hannah made snow angels in The Believer. And the coming of spring played an important part in the plot of that story. Then of course, Lacey did her dandelion dance to welcome spring in The Blessed. Weather matters. I’m editing my fifth Shaker novel now. The Gifted will be released next summer. And the climatic scene is very stormy.
Do you notice the weather in the books you read? I try to make you feel it along with my characters. Of course I’m trying to make you feel everything along with my characters – love and joy, anger and despair. So why not rain and snow? Sunshine and shadows.
Hope you’re embracing whichever season is falling down on you right now wherever you are. Or in whatever book you might be reading.
Oh yeah, if you haven’t signed up for my giveaway – see the details of what you might win on my website News and Events page – you need to send me a message or leave a comment with a way to get in touch with you before the end of the week. But you can jump the gun on winning something before that. The Book Club Network is having a great giveaway Monday evening, September 26, at 9:30 p.m. I’m giving away a couple of books. Several other authors are doing the same plus one author is giving away a Nook. You have to be present at the “live chat” to win. You can check it out at The Book Club Network.
So great to have you come by.