In Praise of August

August. It's like a comfortable pair of summer shoes or sandals that you know you need to get rid of, but you hang on to them just a bit longer because of your memories.

It's hot, but not as hot as July. (And may we all be eternally grateful for that!) Here in northern Virginia, we'll lose an hour of sunlight between August 1 and August 31. By the end of the month, kids will be returning to school, which always just seems wrong to me. Where I grew up, schools closed right before Memorial Day and reopened right after Labor Day.

August memories hold a special mix of joy, wonder, and sadness for me. In mid-August many years ago, my parents went to the hospital expecting to bring home one baby. Instead, they had twins! One August, I got fired in an upper-level management change from what at one point had been my perfect job. Another August, someone I loved learned he had prostate cancer.

I hope you treasure August--and keep those shoes just one more year.

On the Nightstand: A Two-Fer for a Trip to Michigan

I'm headed for Michigan at the end of the month (more on that later), starting with two nights in Mackinaw City--and one glorious day on Mackinac Island. I don't have much of a bucket list, but Mackinac's on it. Of course I'll visit the Grand Hotel; I've got a happy hour reservation and am hoping to have tea as well. But what I really am looking forward to is sitting and watching the ferries come in.

Why, you ask? Because one of the most moving scenes in Gene Stratton-Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost occurs there. I've loved the book since I was eight or nine, though I'm sure I didn't understand the whole story then. Since then, I've pushed an untold number of friends to read it--and forced them to listen to my telling of the scene, never without tears. I'll carry my copy with me to Mackinac Island.

But wait, there's more! I've been following author Carrie Fancett Pagels for years, but somehow never have read any of her books. I'll be rectifying that this month with A Butterfly Cottage, the story of three generations of women at the family's Mackinac Island cottage for a summer.

What's on your nightstand?

Some Items of Interest

Readers are loving Georgie, the older man in my novel, Something to Be Saved, who comes into the story briefly near the end. Georgie is selling his Shenandoah Valley cabin, and the protagonist, Peter Gregory, comes to inspect it before his daughter and son-in-law make an offer. Several people have asked about the inspiration for this character.

Well, there really was a George Burdett Smith, but he lived in western Wisconsin, not Virginia. He was one of my great-grandfathers and is pictured here in 1960, two years before he died. I've posted a Substack article about the similarities and differences between him and the character.

The first Blessed Are You podcast episodes have launched! You can listen free on Spotify, YouTube, and now, hooray, Apple!

And now, back to the month at hand. Most of my Michigan time will be spent in Grand Rapids exhibiting at the National Council of Catholic Women convention. Please stop by my table if you're there!

I'll be having lots of fun earlier in the month, including going to Washington, DC's iconic Blues Alley to hear my friend Memphis Gold perform and attending a Washington Nationals baseball game. The Nats may actually make the playoffs this season, something they haven't done since 2019 when they won the World Series. (A girl can dream...)

Blessings, Melanie