I’m really enjoying the seasons this year. Even though I live in SoCal, the truth is, you can find all four of them here. Two weekends ago we went into the San Bernardino mountains for a couple of days. Surfer Guy and I drove around to places we hadn’t seen before and ended up in a tiny community built around a small lake…that was frozen over! I had never seen that before and thought it astonishing. I know, I know, but as much as I’ve seen snow in the SoCal mountains, I’d never seen such a thing. We had a very cold snap a few weeks back and this little body of water went to ice.
Then we came home to more coastal climes and had a couple of beautiful 80-degree days. My editor happened to be in town from NYC and I was glad she had a chance to experience our winter. It’s not always that warm, but we’ll have stretches of summer-like conditions that make the jade plants flower and send out their sweet, sweet perfume. Yesterday I just happened to notice this wisteria vine now in bloom. Beautiful! Spring is stealing in.
But the fact is, I’m all about summer. Already. That’s because the first in my new back-to-back-to-back trilogy is now available in digital and print. Beach House No. 9 is about the fictional Crescent Cove, California and the “Summer of Love” that awaits on the sand. A woman on a mission travels there to confront a man trying to escape his past and what follows is sexy, sunny, and deeply emotional. Jane has great shoes, Griffin has great eyes, and their story will make you laugh and cry. I hope you’ll try it! Find an excerpt and buy links here: http://christieridgway.com/wordpress/beach-house/beach-house-no-9/
What season is calling to you now? Are you still enjoining winter’s cool embrace or are you already looking forward to spring and summer?
In the summer I live in central Wisconsin where the summer temps usually stay in the low 80s. Perfect for outside and indoor activities. Humidity is usually low too. We live on a 70 acre lake that freezes over every winter. Perfect for cross country skiing and ice skating. However, now that I’m able to escape the cold I find I’d rather be warm than cold. I’ve seen a good portion of Lake Michigan frozen with huge ice flows. It doesn’t happen very often but quite impressive when it does..
I loved seeing the frozen over lake! I think where you live sounds wonderful. Great summers, then those fun cold activities in winter. I have a friend who lived in Michigan and I was going to visit in January and she told me I couldn’t…that it would be way too cold for me even when I protested I could get a heavy coat.
I instead went in July.
Your new trilogy sounds wonderful Christie. I can already smell the salt air.:) Some of my fondest memories are of trips to the beach with my family. I used to say that summer was my fave season, but I like my temps a little more moderate these days. Stay away 90 degrees!:)
I don’t like it to get past 90 either. I like my summers to be around 81 degrees.
And any winter day I can get that is nice too!
For the first time ever, we’re spending the winter in a warmer place–Florida. I got some sun yesterday and felt for my family back in Indiana where it’s been COLD, but I think I prefer the extremes of the seasons. Though I didn’t always in my working days. Now, in retirement, if it’s too hot or too cold, I just stay inside.
That’s the thing about extremes…It can make it difficult to do the things we must. When we have really hot temps in SoCal it is not pleasant to get into your car that’s been sitting in the sun. Things like that. I know the cold has its own hazards.
I’m tirrrrred of winter and so looking forward to spring…though that gets pretty sloppy I love seeing the world wake up here in Minnesota. We’re under quite a lot of snow now and though it’s pretty I’ve had enough.
Summer books sound like fun.
I imagine it’s very cool seeing the world wake up! I love that idea. Nothing exactly goes to sleep here in SoCal, at least not around my house.
We are in the winter freeze here in Southern Ontario, well all of Ontario is, north, west and east too.. We have not had that much snow, but we are about to get dumped on tomorrow or so the weather man says, but who can take him at his word. I used to like the winter, but the older I get, the more I long for those beautiful spring and summer days of sunshine and warm breezes. Of course Beach House No.9 helped to take me to that place. And I can’t wait to read the next books in this great series…That will take me back to my girlhood at the beach where I spent many summers thinking about my dream man…
Glad the books can remind you of your summers! We’re looking for a storm here in the next couple of days too, but not snow, of course. Stay warm!
My first twenty-six years were in Minnesota, and I love winters with lots of snow, and even the crystalline beauty of ice storms, though I much prefer not having to travel in the worst of it.
We’re now in Iowa, which has a little less snow. When our son moved to Dallas for a couple years he called one day, laughing about seeing all sorts of people outside, taking photographs of a light, brief snowfall that quickly melted.
I wish it could be fall and winter all year around, and I LOVE rainy fall days. When our kids were growing up, those were the days we loved to bake cookies, or go to town to spend hours at bookstores or the library. We especially enjoyed a huge used bookstore, because it was a like a treasure hunt to see what we could find…and the kids love the store kitties, too.
Rainy days and warm cookies! What great memories.
When my Son2 was in kindergarten, there was an unusual deluge of rain during the first week of school. It came just as the day was ending and all the little kids ran out and lifted their faces to the sky like flowers lapping up water. They were so cute…I think they really hadn’t remembered rain.
Congrats on the beach read, Christie! So it’ll be released over the next three months? Fun!
You flower pic makes me pine so desperately for spring here. Sigh…
Yep, BEACH HOUSE NO. 9 is out now, then BUNGALOW NIGHTS Feb. 26 and THE LOVE SHACK Mar. 26. I’ll fan some spring breezes your way, Michele!
Summer gets my vote but I think when I’m retired I’ll be a fall gal. Love the colors, the crisp leaves crackling under foot. And there’s something about an autumn sky at night that’s absolutely magical!
Autumn is lovely in SoCal too, even though we don’t get a lot of leaves changing color. Another Son2 story: Went to visit my my in NoCal for Thanksgiving one year and he goggled over the orange and gold leaves. Dh is a native of SoCal and he kept insisting we had them here too, but we all just shook our heads at him.
Spring is calling me. Its like a new world opening up. Love to get out and walk in the spring, but they tell me not to anymore, worn out hip. I think I will take a few walks this spring anyway. Love seeing the grass get greener and the flowers blooming.
I’m looking forward to spring!! Not summer, too hot here in Mississippi.