Happy Summer!
In a case of best laid plans, I had a wonderful author booked for today, but she's been struck by illness and we couldn't get her on the blog right now. She'll be back but in the meantime, I'll give Mikki Sadil a shout out! A fellow BWL Publishing author, you can find her books at https://www.bookswelove.com/sadil-mikki/
Over the years, we've created great memories of taking the kids camping, hiking, and just generally meandering around town to keep ourselves amused. One of the things we never did was to plan our trips out in detail. Not once. In fact, the typical response to "what are we doing today?" was, "We'll just wing it."
On a trip we took to Sauble Beach, we wandered the beach, the shops and ended up at a little glass shop making glass "bookmarks." The boys and I each decorated bookmark sized rectangles of glass with glass chips that the shop later baked. We picked them up the next day and took them home, not quite sure what to do with them, but we loved them. That fall in shop class, my middle son welded a cool "holder" that enabled us to turn the glass bookmarks into windchimes. Not for outdoor use for sure, but a wonderful memory!
Memories are exactly what we set out to create on camping trips and hikes.
On one of our most fun hikes, we ended up meeting a woman in the woods who was walking her neighbour's dog. The dog, was thrilled to run and play with three energetic boys. And it turned out the woman we met was a writer too. Would she like to join a writing group? Sure. Where and when? By the end of our hike, we'd made two new friends.
Camping was always a new adventure. We'd go with various friends to different locations and, in one instance, ended up alone on the last night at a local lake. How cool it was that as twilight came around, the bats began to swoop over our site catching bugs? Or that we could sit around the campfire, eat s'mores and count the stars. Or watch baby porcupines walk by.
Sometimes we'd just walk around town going for gelato or ice cream, or even hanging out in a coffee shop to chat. Saturdays at the Farmer's Market was always fun, too.
Now that they're all grown up and on their own, I miss all those great little adventures we'd go on. The best part about it though, is getting to hear their own amazing stories. One thing my kids haven't lost is their love of "winging it!"
Every book I've written would make a great beach read!
Just like my adventures with the kids, they are always a surprise and never dull.
To find out more, head over to my website:
And if you're in the mood for more fantastic authors, please stop by the BWL Publishing website!
