Ah, Labor Day. Pools close. Schools are open. Summer is over?
The Autumn Equinox is on September 22, when the sun will be over the equator and days and nights will be exactly equal. That has always worked for me. We have two weeks to go! On the other hand, Meteorological Autumn begins September 1. That is supposedly based “on the annual temperature cycle.” Current temperatures in many parts of the U.S. argue otherwise; we have another spat of 100+ temperatures in many areas. I suspect the concept is mostly because blocks of three months are tidier in the modern world than the astronomical measures agricultural societies relied on historically.
Here in the urban wilds of eastern Pennsylvania, temperatures are fairly moderate, I’ll admit. And calling autumn to be September, October, and November is easy enough. Throwing December into winter makes sense also. We’ll worry about the solstices some other time.
Autumn it is. That is handy because I’m working on a story for Fenwick Forevers, the Bluestocking Belles’ book series set in Fenwick-on-Sea. We are releasing them in groups of four. The first group was set in summer, 1815. Book four in that group, What the Heart Knows, launches tomorrow!
My story is part of the second group of books, set in autumn, 1816. I am putting it in November, when cold winds are blowing off the North Sea toward Fenwick. That way my naval captain can where his heavy boat cloak as he stares out to sea and it billows all around him. My heroine? She lives there and the weather doesn’t faze her. She does like the look of the man on the beach. He may even look familiar.
Meanwhile Moonlight Madness is in arc format and seeking reviewers. Getting it there took a chunk of time last week. It includes “Not Again, Harry,” my second story about the mischievous wish granting mouse.
I need to get Moonlight up on my website! Aside from that the rest of this week is all Fenwick, and my story “Here and Now.” But first, coffee.