Fall Starts My Year by Karen Rock

For many, Fall heralds the imminent end of the year. Leaves drift from trees, leaving their branches stark and bare. Flowers bend their blooming heads to the cooler weather, knowing their reign is over. Grass needs less mowing, holding on to its green until frost paints it with a fatal white stroke.



Yet to me, Autumn always feels like the start of a new year. Maybe it's my roots as a teacher. My adrenalin surges at the thought of new students, new classes, new white board markers (always the best perk of teaching :) Now that I'm a writer, however, the season brims with new possibilities. What characters will I meet, stories will I tell, places will I invent now that my laptop calls louder than the pool? The first drift of wood smoke on an October night invigorates me. Bumping through orchards and fields to pick apples and pumpkins reenergizes me. Nothing perks me up more than stacking hay bales, potted mums and cornstalks by my mailbox.

This has been an even more hectic Fall than usual for me. My daughter Danielle left for her freshman year in college... and left me an empty nester. I completed my contract and turned in my Heartwarming on 9/16. Another Heartwarming, SOMEONE LIKE YOU, was released 9/1 and my latest YA novel, CAMP FORGET-ME-NOT comes out 10/7 with a follow-up novella, CAMP CRUSH releasing later this month. I'm almost dizzy from all of the promotional work for my releases as well as writing proposals for new novels. Yet now that the lazy daze of summer is over, I'm ready to tackle it all... even the mad, daily texting with Danielle that has permanently bent my thumbs.... But it's Autumn, which means anything and everything feels possible :) I hope you feel the same.


Wishing you all, a Happy Fall!

Comments

  1. I'm with you! I love fall and it always feels like a fresh start for me as well-more so than January 1st. We are heading to the pumpkin patch and corn maze this weekend to really kick-off the season:) Congrats on all your releases and meeting your deadlines. Wherever fall takes you will be wonderful I'm sure! xo

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  2. Beautiful pictures! I imagine it's bittersweet seeing your daughter off to college. I have a feeling I will be ready for him to go and completely unprepared for his leaving when my son goes in a few years. Sounds like a very busy time of year for you, congrats on all the good and looking forward to more and more from you!! :)

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  3. I love your pictures, too, and I love fall, too. When the kids were young, not so much. Even though they had winter-spring birthdays, it seemed as though they were a year older the day school started, and I was never quite ready.

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  4. I'm joining the autumn lovers! It's my absolute favorite season. And Karen, like you, to me, it feels like new beginnings more than spring. And all your book releases makes this autumn even sweeter. :)

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  5. I love fall, too, because it's where I am in life. Spring and summer are gone and winter is still a distance away. I'm reaping what I've sown, and its not too bad. The creaky joints love summer, but the romantic heart loves cool weather, heavenly scents on the air, rain on the roof and a beloved someone to be with in a cozy shelter. Your photos are beautiful and that hillside in autumn dress reminds me of my Massachusetts roots. Congratulations on all the good stuff going on for you right now, and the completion of all the hard work that brought you to this spot. As Amy said, there's also great stuff ahead of you because that's what you bring about.

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  6. I wish our trees turned the beautiful colors of fall. That's the one thing I miss about living up north. Autumn is my favorite time of the year too. Love your pictures!

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  7. Stepped outside the other day and smelled woodsmoke. Even in TN where the trees are still green, I knew then it was fall. I think the season feels like a new beginning because for so many years we started school then. Even with kids off to college or grown, that feeling remains.

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  8. Fall is my favorite season. I love the fall colors. And I was born in the fall, and so I've always considered it my time of the year. I only wish it lasted longer. The pretty leaves are gone all to soon. Congratulations on your accomplishments, Karen!

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  9. Your daughter is lucky to have you. My little guy is nine and I'm worrying about him going to the skatepark alone - I can't imagine him going off to college alone. WAIT. We're praying he makes it to college LOL
    I love fall colors, too. Great photos.

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  10. I love fall, too. But now it means leaving my summer house and driving 3000 miles back to "real life". College football, cool mornings and my grandson's birthday make autumn special. Love those pics--I now want to glue crystals on pumpkins!

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  11. Sorry I missed this yesterday. I'm off to a family wedding in California soon. Fall is in the air here.

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  12. Yes, I'm late to the party...again. But I love fall, too. The colors, the crispness in the air...going back to Standard time!!! I get my hour back. WooWoo

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  13. Karen, I am with you as well. I love the crisp days and the riot of colors outside. Maybe it's the smell of clove and cinnamon coming from my oven as I bake pumpkin shaped cookies. Anyway, congratulations on all your releases, I've just dived into Someone Like You and devoured the first fifty pages! Way to go! It's always so very rough those first months when our children go off to college. I hated it. But I got over it and filled it with more research, more writing and new friends. You will, too. And guess what....all of us will benefit!! Lucky, lucky us! Take care

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