I haven’t forgotten about the Annual Christmas Week Short Story Challenge. My holiday offering needs another 48 hours to marinade followed by a few days in the slow cooker. It should be ready by next Sunday. Hopefully it will be worth the wait 🙂 .
Today, instead, I’d like to celebrate my favorite day of the whole year.
I’m a grinch about Christmas and I find it difficult to stay awake long enough to welcome the New Year, but the winter solstice is important to me. Today, 22ndDecember, is the shortest day and longest night of the year, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere.
I don’t suffer ill health in the winter months as some people do, but I’m sensitive to changes in daylight, and at some subliminal level I respond to trends and momentum. Once my subconscious notices that every day is a little lighter and longer than the one before, I start to feel energized and empowered and creative. Almost superhuman. It doesn’t matter that we’re still in winter, that the weather may be grim and the nights will be longer than the days for another three months.
I’ve learned over the years that this is my best time. I typically get ever more inspired and enthusiastic until May or June, sometimes right up to the summer solstice. Then I’m done. My Girls take a vacay for the summer and spend the fall on housekeeping and closing out projects.
Which means if I want to get the next Elan Intrigues book done, there’s no time to waste. I need a discovery draft done by the end of spring. Tomorrow I’m planning to warm up with the Short Story Challenge and then I’ll use that momentum to roll on into 2020 and Daire’s story.
Of course I’ll take the time to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, but as far as I’m concerned the best day of the year is today. Right here, right now.
Happy Wintersnight, everyone! Nothing but good times ahead 🙂 .
Are you a seasonal creature? Do you have a favorite day or time of the year?
Eight Ladies Writing 
Like you, I celebrate the solstice and the coming of longer days. And I also tend to be at my most productive during the winter months, though I’ve always associated that with the cold and the icy streets which all but eliminate the distraction of playing outside.
Here’s to both of us completing a draft of our WIPs by spring!
Short days and cold weather depress me, and in search of comfort, I take to the fire, hot beverages, and books. I celebrate this day, too, as the sign that better days are ahead. I’m looking forward to this Christmas as the first in many years that I won’t be traveling to a cold and snowy place, so everything is looking cheery right now. 🙂
I do feel a bit seasonal, and I think it shows in my short stories. (-: I like the solstice, although I often miss it. I did notice on Friday that it was still light at 4:10 p.m. — I read somewhere that the light is sort of shifty around this time of year, so while Friday was shorter than Thursday, maybe it was darker in the morning for longer, and then got lighter at a slightly earlier time.
I can’t say I noticed much difference this morning, but I’m looking forward to the turn of the season! My husband grumped the equivalent of, “The days get longer and the cold gets stronger,” but that won’t last forever. Six more weeks, tops. Then it’ll be mud season, which doesn’t sound so great, but at least means we’re coming out of winter.
Wishing you much productivity in the first half of the year!