“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” Maybe you’re hummin’ that tune just reading those words or remembering someone’s voice singing it, but I’m telling you, it’s an overstatement. In South Texas, even out here in the hills, it’s a full-time job to stay cool in these triple digit temperatures. If you’re not wearing shorts, a breathable t-shirt, and barefooted, then you are overdressed. The easy living will return with autumn temperatures. 

But summertime is perfect for making memories. Vacations and family trips. Neighborhood BBQs. Family fish fries. Garden harvest. I remember from my childhood in South Georgia the smell of warm sunshine on the dried clothes when Mama took them from the clothesline; the essence of freshly-mown grass; the intoxicating perfume of an afternoon shower on the gardenias; the taste of a plump tomato picked from the vine and bitten into as though it were an apple; that stinging in your nostrils when you’ve spent too many hours in the swimming pool; blackberry picking with my grandmother and her blackberry dooby with real cream; a slice of ice-cold watermelon (with salt, sorry); the thrill of catching a trout from the Ochlocknee River; a summertime supper of fresh fish, Mama’s hushpuppies, cheese grits, and her lemon chiffon dessert all eaten on the picnic table outside.  Yes, summertime is perfect for making memories.

Those were the summers of my childhood and youth, and my memories take me there if I but close my eyes and breathe deeply. But this spring and summer of writing a Christmas novel has kept in my favorite chair with a glass of iced tea and thinking of December. Most Christmas books take us to snow-covered places and to mansions and inns, but this book took me to Georgia’s coastal marsh lands – to Gullah Country and to my imagined community called Bar Haven. New foods, new Christmas traditions, and a fresh look at what Christmas is all about. 

As with all my books, there will be some laughter (provided by a red-haired five-year-old boy who takes every word literally), a few tears (a young, single mother at a crossroads), and a few things to ponder. And always food. 

Who could write a book, set in the south, and not write about food? And the Gullah/Geechee people know their way around the kitchen and not just at Christmas. Seafood. Sweet potatoes. Okra soup. Red rice. Spices. Pecan Chewies. How I enjoyed the research! I read so many articles about the differences between chicken pilau, chicken perloo, and chicken perlo. I think the Gullah cooks got it right with their Chicken Bog. They do know how to use hot peppers and sausage and shrimp. I’ll be putting some of those recipes on my website in November when the book comes out. I’ll give you a heads-up as you may just want to try some of these. 

Christmas at Bar Haven is with my editor now, and then I’ll be putting the spit-shine on it for its November release. I’m giving you a sneak preview below of the book cover—another one imagined by Bill as I read my day’s writing to him each afternoon. Bar Haven is the kind of community where we all want to live -- where everyone counts. The local residents even put it on the sign that welcomes strangers to town. Look for it below.

Now pour yourself a glass of sweet tea and remember some memories from the summer times of your youth. And I do hope you’re making some wonderful memories this summer. I resonate with what James Dent has to say about summertime. “A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawnmower is broken.” But I would add “a glass of iced tea with a sprig of fresh mint, the ceiling fan gently rustling the pages on my desk, gathering clouds and the sound of distant thunder for my perfect summer day.” 

Joy and Blessings,
Phyllis