Are the Boys of Summer gone, then?

Well, there haven't been any boys. Apart from the husband, of course. But I have that Don Henley classic rolling round me head as I write this, wondering when the leaves are going to start to turn and I'll get the first peek at the famed New England fall. It's still pretty damn hot, the kind of weather that would constitute an amazing summer back home in the UK. And yet they tell me that summer ended on Sept 1st - so why am I wearing shorts and t-shirt?

(I've never fully got to grips with the question of whether seasons should be capitalized - Summer, Autumn or summer, autumn. And while we're at it - is South East England correct, or is it south east England or southeast England?)

So here I am - after almost a 3 month hiatus which consisted of:

1 Going back to the UK for a couple of weeks
2 Having my ma to stay here in the US for a month
3 Having a 3 week mad writing marathon to make up for all the time off
4 Having one of my best mates here for a couple of weeks
5 Having a wee holiday on Cape Cod - hurrah!

So that's what I've been up to. I've powered my way into a new kids' book - an adventure story for 9-12 year olds, and would have been nearly finished the first draft had I not fallen into the usual trap of writing too damn much. I was aiming for around 30,000 words, but I've already written about 25,000 and I'm only halfway through my plot. Bugger. I think one of the reasons is that I still haven't found my 'voice' for this book, so I'm over-writing and trying different things out. First draft stuff. I'm going to be doing some serious culling and re-writing when I finally get to the end, but I think it's the best way to go for now.

Writing this book has been a very different experience from writing my first kids' book and my chick lit novel. It's been much harder to write and I've had to stick to very strict schedules and word counts for each day. It's been a trial and has felt like work. I'm enjoying the story and being in the world of the book, but the process of getting it down on paper has been much more of an effort for some reason. I think that this is because it is more plot-led than character-based. That's probably no bad thing for my writing. There's more action (which involves more description) and less dialogue. It's probably more male, less anecdotal. And it's not comic - not that it's without humour, I don't think I could write it otherwise, I'm all about the funny. I guess it's just a little more straight. I just hope that doesn't translate as boring.

Anyway, I'm going to give it a rest! In true style, I'm going to bury it for a few weeks and switch to the chick lit novel again. This has kind of been the pattern of the year, swapping from one to the other as the whim takes me. The thing is, the chick lit thing is just eating away at me until I get it done, it's so easy to be fired up about this book as it's such a huge ol' dollop of me and I want to start subbing it. I had a long conversation with the husband about the book at the weekend as we were walking, and he was hugely helpful with getting a few things straight in my head. He's a creative person and understands a lot about story arcs, so it was great to run a few things by him.

I guess I'm feeling all back to school-y, so it's a great time to crack on. In some ways, this always used to be a favourite time of year for me. Time to get enthused, inspired and knuckle down and get busy.

Besides, they've closed the damn swimming pool on the roof, so what else am I gonna do with my day?