Vicki Doudera here, posting very late today, caught in the crazy rush that is a Maine summer.
There are only so many hours in the day, and in mid-July it feels as if I need double the allotted amount to keep up. Make that triple!
There are gardens that need watering, especially after the spate of 90 degree days we just enjoyed/endured; little dogs that require walking; Mothers That Need to be Taken to the Yacht Club for Lunch (at least once during the summer,) bug spray that needs to be bought at Reny’s; house guests that need to be waved goodbye to; beds used by said houseguests that
need to be remade; a magazine that needs to be contacted about a prospective writing job: a contract that needs to be downloaded so that it can be signed and a new book begun; and chickens that need more food and their favorite treat, sunflower seeds.
Mingle into that the dozens of emails that need to be sent to real estate clients; a contract that needs to be signed and shipped out; an earnest money check that goes to the bookkeeper; a photo that needs to be updated and uploaded onto the web; and a cute log home that needs to be viewed – a second time – by a first-time homebuyer and his girlfriend.
All today.
All tasks accomplished — except for the log home viewing which will be during the mosquito-happy cocktail hour.
The one thing that was neglected in the mix? Writing a scintillating blog post for all of you. Mea culpa, mes amies. I honestly would have preferred doing that to many of the things I DID do, but it just didn’t happen.
I leave you with my newest summer mantra:
BREATHE. BUT BLOG FIRST.
Kait Carson
Charlene D’Avanzo 
Vicki, We understand. Where are those crazy, lazy, hazy days of summer, anyway?
But we are hoping you’ll take us on a tour of summer in Camden one of these days. Down to the harbor, beside the waterfall, up Mt. Battie, out to the lake, perhaps even onto a schooner. Make everyone envy YOUR Maine.
Kate
Sure thing! Coming up on July 31st….!
From the blog – The Rap Sheet – a mention of Paul Doiron…
* * *
This month is shaping up to be a favorable one for crime-fiction enthusiasts. In addition to Burke’s latest, try Massacre Pond (Minotaur), Paul Doiron’s fourth novel featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch; David Gordon’s darkly satirical Mystery Girl (New Harvest), about an unsuccessful novelist who accepts the assignment to follow a mystifying young beauty–and thereby becomes involved with underground filmmakers and Satanists; Ivy Pochoda’s new Visitation Street (Dennis Lehane/Ecco), about a teenage girl who vanishes from a raft cast off from the Brooklyn waterfront, and how the neighborhood she leaves behind–Red Hook–copes with that event’s fallout; These Mortal Remains (Minotaur), the late Milton T. Burton’s fifth book, about a Texas sheriff who must confront white supremacists in the aftermath of an assault on his skilled black deputy; The Homecoming (Knopf), Carsten Stroud’s sequel to Niceville (2012); and–finally in a U.S. edition–First Frost (Minatour), the pseudonymous James Henry’s initial prequel to R.D. Wingfield’s acclaimed Inspector Jack Frost series.
Amen to the need for double hours during summer days. I can report (and it’s certainly not just in Hartland) that libraries in Maine are experiencing perhaps the busiest summer ever. By the time we librarians get home, we’re talked and answered out, desperate for a bit of solitude, scrabbling for enough brain reservoir to do more than grin vacuously at significant others who clearly wonder if we’re hearing a word they say.