Just Add Summer

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Edith/Maddie here, with a re-run of a group post from five years ago, where Barb asked us what we were absolutely determined to do that summer.

  • What place will you definitely visit this summer?
  • What event will you definitely attend this summer?
  • What activity will you definitely participate in this summer?
  • What book will you definitely read this summer?

Edith:

  • I will definitely visit Jeness Beach in Rye, NH, this summer with my chair, towel, hat, and a good book.
  • I’m looking forward to attending the Women’s Writing Retreat at Pyramid Lake in the Adirondacks, a lovely never-motorized lake. It’s all genres, with workshops, lots of free quiet time for writing, and great female company. I last went 17 years ago and can’t wait to return.
  • As always, I will stake, prune, and harvest tomatoes, plus eggplant, cukes, lettuce, and other veggies. Almost nothing makes me happier than going out back and picking our dinner.
  • I know I will read the new books from Barb, Liz (as Cate), Sherry, and Julie (as Julia)!

Sherry:

  • I can’t wait to fly to Old Orchard Beach, Maine for our annual retreat!
  • I’m going to Writers Police Academy the first week in August. It’s my second time and it’s fabulous.
  • Swimming. I love to swim.
  • Other than the Wicked releases that are coming this summer I’m looking forward to reading Borrowed Time by Tracy Clark. I loved her first book Broken Places.

Jessie:

  • I will definitely visit Old Orchard Beach, probably several times each day.
  • I will attend the fireworks on the Fourth of July.
  • I will invite friends and family for lazy visits lolling on the sand and relaxing on the patio with the grill sizzling away in the background.
  • I will read Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice and Death in the Stocks by Georgette Heyer. I have been meaning to read work by each of them and was delighted to spot them recently at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ. If, sadly, you can’t make it to the shop they have a very comprehensive online store!

Liz:

  • I will definitely visit Newport, Rhode Island and Second Beach in neighboring Middletown.
  • I will attend the Arts Festival in my neighborhood, which comes around twice every summer.
  • I’m going to do a lot of sitting on the beach this summer…
  • I’m looking forward to catching up on reading after I turn in the book due July 1, and a couple of new ones including Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls.

Barb

  • I will definitely visit Boothbay Harbor the week of 4th of July. The family is renting a place next to our old house.
  • I will attend my niece’s wedding in Roanoke, VA the first weekend in August.
  • I am going to sit out on my deck and have wine and cheese this summer.
  • Kate Atkinson’s new Jackson Brodie, Big Sky, comes out June 25th and I will definitely be purchasing it just in time for our week in Boothbay.

Julie

  • I will go to an amusement park. Probably Canobie Lake. I need to ride a rollercoaster.
  • I will attend some sort of outdoor art event. Happily in Boston there’s a lot of that to choose from.
  • I will write a book that has been rattling around in my imagination for a while. I’m at the point where I’m having dreams about the characters, so I don’t have much choice.
  • Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls is on my list. And the Wickeds are going to keep me busy!

Now, back to the present. Readers: How about you? What will you definitely go/see/do/read this summer?

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Published by Edith Maxwell

Agatha Award -winning author Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Beyond the Page) and short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Dot and Amelia Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries series, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the Cece Barton Mysteries (all from Kensington Publishing). She lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and cat Martin, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook.

18 Thoughts

  1. I will definitely visit the PT facility
    I’m looking forward to Nashville for Bouchercon
    I just downloaded The Burning by Linda Castillo

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  2. I went to our jazz festival. I’m going to Bouchercon next month and touring Nashville. Hard to say what I’ll definitely read (current read is Dead Tired by Kate Ailes); depends what comes in from the library. Movies I’m planning to see – Fly Me to the Moon, Sing Sing, Twisters, Deadpool & Wolverine. Have a ticket for Present Laughter (National Theatre play in a movie theatre).

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  3. I am staying in Ottawa area this summer (first time), so I am looking forward to scenic hikes in nearby Gatineau Park on the weekends and a visit to a local beach.

    I am also going to Nashville Bouchercon, and spending an extra 3 days exploring downtown Nashville.

    Like Edith, I am looking forward to enjoy the bounty from balcony garden. It will be peak harvest season for cherry tomatoes, Asian eggplant, leafy greens (Swiss chard, kale, lettuce) and herbs.

    So many books on my TBR due to not reading much from April-June. Top anticipated reads this summer include:
    What You Leave Behind, Wanda M Morris
    Hall of Mirrors, John Copenhaver
    Call of the Void, J.T. Siemens
    A Lonesome Place for Dying, Nolan Chase
    Pay Dirt, Sara Paretsky

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  4. This summer was to be spent mostly at our cottage in the Poconos with visits from the kids, time with my older brother, and catching up with friends. Last summer I had a hard time getting around up there because of an arthritic ankle, so I didn’t spend much time there. I had the ankle replaced in October and that meant being laid up for the next three months and then rehab for another three. I was planning to be up at the cottage for Memorial Day but ended up in the hospital and had to have a pacemaker implanted. Now I am almost back to normal with still some doctor’s visits to sign off on being able to do everything, and I have to hope that by the end of the month I will be able to go up there and relax!

    Because of the above, I have no plans to go anywhere else right now – I will wait and see how everything goes before I plan anything!

    I look forward to some porch time once this 90 weather is over!

    I have been reading a LOT this year since I had limited mobility. Just finished Susan Wittag Albert’s latest, Forget Me Never, Ellen Crosby’s Dodge and Burn, Kate Khavari’s A Botonist’s Guide to Society and Secrets, and Annette Dashofry’s What Comes Around. I have Jack Carr’s newest, and will get the new Kate Burkholder mystery today. We also have a great library, so I never go without something to read! First on my list is always any book by the Wickeds!

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    1. Awe, thank you. I hope you get up to your cottage soon! I loved Annette’s book. (Edith)

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  5. If the creek don’t rise, as the saying goes, we are taking off for a trip that will mark off several items on our bucket list soon. Headed by car to Alaska to see and photograph both scenery and the bears. Since Alaska was my almost home state, I’ve always wanted to go there. Then instead we head back home we are going to do a mini version of a trip we had planned a few years back that Covid managed to cancel. We’ll go over to the west coast going down to the redwood trees (lived in CA 9 years as a child and never got to see them) and then over to Utah to the national parks there before heading home. We’ll see if these old bodies are up to such a long trip again. We plan on taking lots of photos for memory refreshment of a fun time. Although we plan on staying busy, I’m taking lots of books to read while traveling and nights in motels unwinding.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  6. We did spend the 4th in Boothbay that year and we went to my niece’s wedding. (It was lovely. She and her husband are expecting their second child at the end of the summer.) I imagine I sat on my deck with wine and cheese, since that’s pretty much every summer. This year we are headed to Boothbay with most, though not all, of the family this week. And Jackson Brodie #6 comes out but not until September 3rd, which is kind of a bummer in the summer reads department.

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  7. I have a weekend in northern Arizona planned for the end of July and am looking forward to Bouchercon and Nashville in August, hibernating until then, so lots of reading. Just starting Kristin Hannah’s The Women, Also on the list for this summer are The Letters in the Books by Stephanie Verni, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kristin Miller, Havoc by Deborah Ledford, waiting anxiously for JD Robb and Richard Osman’s new books in September. I have three shelves full of books waiting patiently for me to catch up on.

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  8. I will definitely spend time at the Cottage.
    I will visit Nashville for Bouchercon.
    I will read THE CARDINAL’S CURSE from Bruce Coffin/LynDee Walker.

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  9. I flew to Flower Mound, Texas to visit my best friend and celebrate my niece’s 56th birthday and met with old neighbors from when I lived in Grand Prairie, Texas. Those are my place to visit, event to attend, activity to participate in, and I am reading or have read lately Jennifer J. Chow, Vivien Chien, Sherry Harris, and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. Everyone have fun in 2024.

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