Friday, September 15, 2017

Fall-ing In Love

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of SciFi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. Summer is drawing to a close here in the UK, but I love the shift of season to autumn. It means less risk of sunburn to my poor fair skin and nights too hot to sleep (yup, even here we do get some heat in summer!). The leaves turn beautiful shades of gold, red and brown and carpet the ground.
 The smell of bonfires or people starting up their fireplaces as the nights grow longer and get that cold snap at first light and dusk. Foggy mornings that turn to bright, brittle sunlight.
It means Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas are on their way. I love it! Plus the chillier evenings are an open invitation to snuggle up with hubs or break out the hot chocolate for the monsters. And it means squashes will soon be in the shop so I can start making my favourite soup again.
My eldest son's birthday actually lies on the autumn equinox (though we're already into meteorological autumn), so another cause for us to celebrate and mark the changing season. He turns 13 this year, so now I'll have two teens in my house! >.< Here he is in his outfit as the Witch-king of Angmar from Lord of the Rings. Scary but cool.
Once upon a time I set myself a challenge of writing some short stories based around holidays, though that shifted slightly to the theme of seasons. To date, only one has been published - my Halloween story - though I'm hoping to have my summer story ready for next year in time for...well, summer. :-P
While it's still a bit early for Halloween (although the shops already have the merchandise on display), I thought I'd share this excerpt from my short. In Hallow's Eve my hero feels the shifting season a little more clearly than the average mortal...
A chill breeze ruffled his hair as he left the bar, and he hunkered down inside his jacket. He could feel the change in seasons coming, and not just in the air. Normal human beings had all but lost the instinctive ability to sense the shifting balance of power between summer and winter, the greater presence of the unseen as Samhain approached. Humans used Halloween as an excuse to party. Hal's family never had.
***
I hope you enjoy autumn or fall (or spring for those on the opposite side of the world) as much as I do!

1 comment:

Diana McCollum said...

I love the fall and spring weather best. Here in Central Oregon we've had a summer of wild fires burning and extremely smoky days. Not fun. This coming week predictions of rain showers and clearing air!!! Yay!. I do love the holidays too! The stores here had Halloween items out in August! now there are Halloween and Christmas items out! I swear the stores start putting out holiday stuff earlier each year. Your book sounds really good!