The Ides of March – What times of the year do you pay special attention to? by Lara Zielinsky

March is probably the time of year I’m most focused on. I look forward to it every year, usually

from the point of view of Spring Break. Of course I attended school, and that created the rhythm in my life, but I also worked several positions in schools and colleges, keeping up the rhythm in adulthood, and then parenting. As the days get longer and brighter, there’s a sense of more time. The spring equinox is right around March 20-21, too, and we usually go for a long weekend at the beach because the weather is so good.

I am super sun-centered and the longer days of March mean that it is bright enough most mornings to coincide with my morning writing session (7-8 am every morning) so I can take it outside to my deck. 

This time of year is also very inspirational for the romances that I write in my stories.

I find romances blossom right along with the flowers. When I was working in schools, the spring term was when the deans most often found the skipping kids kissing (and more) around the portables (or under them, that’s quite a story). It begins in February with St. Valentine’s Day and prom proposals. A lot of adults who did marriage proposals in February now start planning their June nuptials. They’re deciding on the shape their twined lives will take, where they’ll live, and imagining the possibilities. The commercial world—from wedding planners, to bridal shows, to home show and décor spreads in every magazine—obliges with advertisements that take advantage of their preoccupation. 

With all that going on in the world around me, this feels like the perfect time to be penning love stories. I’ve not only tended to start writing my stories and novels around March and April, but this has tended to be when I publish most often, too. Three of my four novels were released in March or April.

So, why isn’t my favorite time February, you might ask, like Valentine’s Day?

I think that if you love someone, it’s not really just once a year you should show your love, but in many small every day moments. My characters tend to share this slow-build concept of love, showing their growing feelings in small actions, which finally build to a “critical mass” and bubble over into the actual words. In my first novel, it took 90,000 words to get to the first kiss. The build-up had a lot of “let me help you with that” and “be safe on your way home” and “I’m glad to see you smile.”

So, join me in embracing March as the offbeat season for love. St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. Join me for a pint at the local pub and we’ll have a grand ol’ time, tellin’ stories ’til the lovers come home a’mornin’. (a blessing on my Irish grandmother)

Lara Zielinsky is a full-service fiction editor. Through LZEdits.com, she offers writing workshops, blogs about writing and editing, and provides developmental, copy/line, and proofreading services to independent authors. An award-winning author, she continues to write her own books, published by Acquitted Books (Supposed Crimes). Her website is larazbooks.com.