Switching Gears by Judith Hudson

Maybe it’s the season, but the long soft evenings, short nights, early mornings of the summer solstice have energized me.
Women's solstice and equinox gatherings, and the theme of renewal, run through my Fortune Bay stories. Like in this excerpt from Summer of Fortune, at Maddie's first solstice gathering with Frankie and Louise:

Maddie sat back and listened as Frankie and Louise bantered back and forth. She barely recognized herself, a woman with silver hoops in her ears and a cluster of bracelets on her wrist that tinkled like wind chimes when she moved. A woman taking charge of her life—because that was what they had decided the evening would honor, in the spirit of wise women’s solstice gatherings stretching back for thousands of years. Nothing too weird, they’d all agreed, just something to encourage their own awareness of their personal power. They would each ask for, or choose, a direction to follow for the next fertile quarter of the year.
And for Maddie it had to be fertile indeed. The next equinox fell before the opening of her show, the harvest, so to speak, of her summer’s bounty.

(If you haven’t read Summer of Fortune, the first full length book in the series, get it now while it’s free because next week the price is going up – just to 99¢, but even so. 😊)

I'm feeling a lot like Maddie these days. After a much-too-busy year and a half of family ‘stuff’, I am finally shifting gears and getting back to writing full time. Is it entirely coincidence that the final step, the sale of 95-year-old mother's house happened right on the day of the

My Mom on her 95th birthday last month. She loves to be the center of attention!

summer solstice? I think not.

My mother’s a Finn, and my Finnish blood feels the waxing and waning of the sun cycle every year. I have a special light I use in the winter and revel in the summer sun, getting up at an unheard of six a.m. at this time of year!

My June horoscope in the Canadian magazine Chatelaine said:
You’re changing, Leo. … Allow chance to work its magic upon your life so you can see what happens when you get out of the way.

So I'll try to get out of my own way and let the words flow. I’m primed and ready to start a new three-book series, working title, Secrets of Elk Lodge. I'm planning for it to be romantic women's fiction with a bit of mystery thrown in, but it's early days. I have the first six chapters of the first book written so I’m eager to jump right back in. This is my favourite part, getting to know the characters as they reveal themselves to me through the writing. And, in this case, discovering the secrets in the old lodge that the women have inherited.

Should be fun. I’ll keep you posted on my progress over the summer, and if life doesn’t get too much in the way [she says looking cautiously over her shoulder] I hope to have the first book out by Christmas.
In the meantime, please:

- join me for fun and chat in my private facebook group – Judith Hudson Author – Let’s Talk! I love chatting with readers!
- get your copy of Summer of Fortune while it’s still free.
- book two, The Good Neighbor is still 99¢ - but only until the end of the month.
- and be sure to enter the Gems June Rafflecopter contest – HERE!
Grand prizes include lovely pieces of jewelry chosen for readers, and ten giveaway books, including my own book, Starting Over.
There’s nothing to buy, but I’d love it if when you enter you’d find me, Judith Hudson, in the Rafflecopter list and follow me on book bub. Thanks so much!

That’s about all. Until next month, enjoy reading romance!

Judith Hudson