Summertime Shift

Q: Here comes the summer! Are summers a distinct stretch of the year for you? What's this one got in store?

From Frank

My wife is a teacher, so my summertime projects are purposefully scaled back when compared to the rest of the year. I don't stop, but I try not to be quite as compulsive. I also go on hiatus with my podcast, Wrong Place, Write Crime. This gives me more time to spend with Kristi. She likes to be active during the summer, including some traveling, and I want to be available for that.

We'll take the kayaks up to the lake frequently, for example. And because I definitely need it, we're getting back into the gym routine.

I'm pretty sure she'll have a house project she wants to tear into, although the still unfinished kitchen cabinets may be enough to satisfy that itch for her. Here's hoping, because home improvement is essentially my idea of hell. Seriously, if certain religions are right and I end up standing before a horned tormentor one day, he's going to laugh manaically while he shows me around a fixer-upper and says, "It's all yours."

Anyway, the biggest event for us this summer will be our twelve-day trip to Ireland in July. We're even flying Aer Lingus, the Irish national airline. We start in Dublin, and go from there, hitting Galway and Dingle.

And since going to Ireland can qualify as research, I suspect there's going to be an Irish-centered book or story that finds its way into the writer pipeline in the not-too-distant future.... Of course, I said the same thing regarding my 2013 trip to Italia, and those three projects are still struggling to work their way up the queue. But at least they're in line, right?

If I give a character an Irish accent, do you suppose that will cut it?

So if anyone has any slick tips about what to do while in Eire, better shoot 'em to me quickly. We leave July 1!