The Sweet Smell of September

School,
Effort, and
Play.
Trying your best
Each hour of the day,
Making new friends,
Being good as you can
Exciting discoveries,
Reading books with a friend."
- Boni Fulgham

This is most likely more appropriate at the beginning of the month, rather than the end, but as I was searching for inspiration, it struck me.

I always look forward to September. For me, rather than January 1, it has always seemed to be the true start of the year. Probably from associations with school. The death of summer, the start of a new school year. Tom Hanks said it well in “You’ve Got Mail” when he spoke of newly sharpened pencils. I also like to buy a candle in the scent of MacIntosh Apple for September.

For us here in the Far North, September brings leaves of red and gold and the smell of decay. You can smell the mustiness of leaves and mushrooms and the crispness of snow in the air. It’s a month of change. Flip flops are replaced by racks of snow suits in the stores. Boots and slippers go on sale. Sweaters take over the clothing racks and snow shovels push aside the grills and patio umbrellas. Halloween will be on the shelves if not this week, next for sure.

This week I’ll dig up my summer garden of weeds and scatter Arctic Lupine and Shasta Daisy seeds hoping come spring I’ll have an instant garden. Well, almost instant garden. The lemon thyme and Johnny Jump-ups should come back next year and I’ll start my Sweetpeas come March. I’ll also buy my pansy and petunia starts much, much sooner.

So until my garden can grow outside once more (inside my tomatoes are ripening one by one!) I’ll look to the last line of the poem above – Reading Books With a Friend – or three. And writing. Yeah, it’s a good time of year to hunker down and spend my time reading and writing.

What do you like about Fall? I’d love to see recipes, hear about rituals, and even see what you’ve got on your TBR pile. What makes Fall great for you?

Morgan Q. O'Reilly
Get Some Tonight
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A Bright Hello from Qwillia

Hey there,

I'm using my pen name just in case my students decide to get sneaky and try to look up my real name on the web. LOL. Wanted to say hello and crow about the fact that my January 2009 release, Diablo Blanco Club: Unfair Advantage, went to print at the end of August. YAY!

It's available for order online from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million, as well as Loose Id, LLC. Links can be found on my website under the Books by Qwillia Rain page. Website address is: www.freewebs.com/clubdiabloblanco

I'm also feeling particularly relieved today because I just finished the first round of edits on A Neighbor's Ultimatum, the menage & M/M novella scheduled to release November 10th. It's a sequel to Meeting A Neighbor's Needs and takes up where the first book left off. And just for clarification--there won't be anymore books with these three in it.

Writing is not as easy as it looks. There are so many people out there who think it just takes an idea and a computer to become an author and it takes sooo much more than that. I can tell you, I've spent the last four days writing and re-writing the story and trying to figure out how to fix the issues raised by my editor.

But, I'm preaching to the choir. The other authors contributing to this blog know just how difficult writing can be. Getting the story onto the page is just the first stage. You have the editing, re-editing, re-writing, chopping out and plopping in of passages, details, and plot twists that make the story that much deeper.

I guess it's appropriate that I discuss the labor involved in producing a novel--considering it's Labor Day!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and you've had fun with family and friends. I'm off to relax in front of the television and work on the changes that need to be made to two other manuscripts under consideration by my publisher.

Congrats to the AK Heat Wave Winners!

First, we want to say a huge Thank You to everyone who entered!

What a fabulous turnout we had.

Our Grand Prize goes to Marilyn S. from Seattle, Washington.

She had the luck to have her name drawn to recieve all four books!

Our runner-up winners are:

Virginia C.

Juniper Bell’s The Extremist

Sandra M.
Kianna Alexander’s Skye’s the Limit

Ashley V.
Shea McMaster’s Six Foot Hero

Heather H.
Tielle St. Clare’s Maxwell’s Fall

Thanks to everyone who played along and/or purchased our books!

Stay with us as more exciting announcements are made in the coming weeks.

Also, our chapter members will blog weekly. If you have questions about life in Alaska, we'd love to hear them. Post your questions here, or email them to networking@akrwa.org