Sometimes I feel sapped of all creative energy when the temperatures as well as the humidity soar. All my dark and dreary impulses rise to the surface and my works often reflects this.

We've been having the dog days here, temps in the upper 90's with humidity almost as high and walking outside was like being dipped into a vat of warm pea soup. Not very pleasant, but certainly not unusal for summer time in Southern Indiana. My head felt like someone had stuffed it full of cotton socks. And as I have several books I'm working on, this was not a good thing.

Sitting there looking at the keyboard, my mind was going duh..duh...duh. So dragging out my paper and pen, I found a nice cool spot and gave it a go. It made no difference, even under cool air conditioning my brain was still mush.

Then came the rain. Not the usual summer type rain where after the storm, the land gives off steam and it feels like a sauna. No, this was a cooling rain. Cleaning the air, cooling the breeze and refreshing the earth. Sweet smells of honeysuckle and wild roses caressed my senses and the fresh breeze swept away the cobwebs from my brain. My mind felt fresh and sharp and the characters that had been in hiding have once again come forward to tell their stories.

So, now I can work.