I thought I’d do a lot of writing during my summer holiday. But alas, I reckoned without the intensity and busyness of that holiday – and my need for physical, simple things, instead of brainwork. So yeah, it’s been wonderful, but I haven’t been writing much. I started a new short story, have some poem snippets, and have tinkered a little with my novel, but it’s much less than I planned.

I’m trying not to let my perfectionist self get the upper hand. Yes, I could’ve/should’ve written more. But the reason I wasn’t writing was that I was busy out there living. Refilling my creative well with sunshine, the faint summer starlight of the northern hemisphere, pattering rain, reading a lot, folk music, dance, sparkling wine, the laughter of friends and loved ones. I’ve experienced many of the joys of a Finnish summer in the past couple of weeks: Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, an extravaganza of music, and what a rush it is to perform dance there; a wedding, complete with dance shenanigans and a battalion of mosquitos; picnics with friends in the balmy weather; and this week, the heady joy of summer cabin life (and last night, more folk music and sauna).

It was so important for me to get to go to a lakeside cabin this year. I hold it all close: The skin-shivering heat of a wood sauna. Rereading the marvellous novel The Goblin Emperor (by Katherine Addison) on the jetty, basking in the sun. Brisk morning swims in the lake, leisurely daytime swims. The searing pleasure of plunging into the lake from the sauna at night, of floating on the still water and staring up into the breadth of the sky. The wind in the trees. Rowing on the lake towards a far-off island. I was constantly reminded of my Strange Horizons story – in which I’ve tried to capture something of what our old, now lost summer cabin means to me.

Yes. Not much writing, but so much doing. Soon I will get cracking with writing again, get more discipline back. But for now, I’ll still indulge in one more weekend of purely filling the well: Helsinki’s roleplaying convention Ropecon, more friends, and more joy.