I said I’d be back on September 17th, and here it is…already September. When did that happen?! I could have sworn it was May a moment ago, and yet here we are rushing headlong into autumn with hardly a pause for the summer season. Last week, we we were sweating to 90+ degree temps, and now we shut the windows at night because it gets too cold for the baby if we don’t. I love this season, I really do, but I didn’t expect to blink and have all of my opportunities to go to the beach and bbq with friends disappear out from under us! Nevertheless, it’s happened, and I have no choice but to accept it.
Of course, it doesn’t help that trying to get back into the swing of working from home with a three month old in tow is not as easy as I thought it would be. Back in April, when I was setting up projects, I was blissfully unaware of how much more difficult it would be to get things done without childcare. I thought my years of teaching the 0-5 set would prepare me, but I failed to factor in the lack of sleep and the emotional bond that would make it nigh on impossible to focus for any significant stretch of time. On top of that, I’ve only managed to open my computer maybe four times since June, so I’ve had to get very good at typing on my phone one handed. (If you see typos here, it’s because I’m typing this entire post using only my right thumb. True fact.) Nevertheless, although my hands have been mostly tied, my brain has bounced back from its pregnancy haze just in time to start working on a few new projects. I’m not sure how or when I’m going to get it all done, but I figure if countless women have done it before me, I’ll eventually figure it out too.
A brief word on becoming a parent before I dive into more detail about what I did on my summer “vacation”: it’s wonderful. We are fortunate to be blessed with…
(I’m not exaggerating when I say our son woke up at exactly that moment and six hours have now passed since I started this post – new parenthood in a nutshell.)
…a sweet and curious child. He keeps us busy in the best possible way, and since he’s arrived, I’ve discovered that I can be wrong about at least one thing on a daily basis. I expect that will continue for a while (maybe forever) but it’s worth it. That being said, it seems like my hands will be full for a while longer and I’ll only be able to post here every other week for a few more months. I hope you’ll bear with me as I tinker with my schedule after this major life change!
Now, onto Patricia Briggs. Her books have been my near constant companions from the last two weeks of my pregnancy through the many long nights of the first three months of our son’s life. Mercy Thompson, one of Briggs’ powerhouse lady protagonists, became my best friend during hours of blearily cuddling a newborn. She’d actually stolen my heart while I was waiting for him to arrive though. I’d found her, and this is no joke, by googling for werewolf books that
would make me laugh. Briggs (and Thompson) didn’t disappoint.
Briggs’ style is sweet, light, and compelling. Her characters value friendship and family as much as they do romantic relationships, and the action is smart and well paced. It would be tough not to love Mercy most of all – she’s a Volkswagon mechanic who also shape shifts into a coyote in a world dominated by werewolves, vampires, fairies, and the ordinary folk just learning about the existence of such supernatural beings. Any parent will understand that it takes a really great book to stay awake after a (beloved but energy-sucking) infant falls asleep…let me tell you that it’s even more dangerous when that book is a series. The only thing that saved me was that there are only eight volumes in this series so far.
Of course, then I found Briggs’ Alpha and Omega series…but that’s a story for another day. In the meantime, there’s a basket of board books calling my name.
For more about Patricia Briggs, head over here.
Books, j'adore 