Am I Entering Hyperphagia?

Lately, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos from a man in Asheville, NC who encourages black bears onto his porch while he's sitting in his rocker. My friend, who also lives in Asheville, has a healthy respect for the wild bears in her neighborhood, but this guy's boundaries are very loose, although he seems to know a lot about bear behavior. Recently, the man said he was closing the entry gate to his porch since the bears were entering hyperphagia, the period of time when bears prepare themselves physically for their winter hibernation by eating and drinking nonstop. Seems the bears get a bit cranky when they don't find food. 

Fall's coming, without a doubt. The local news is filled with tips on where the most vivid fall foliage is each weekend. 

My freezer is full of food and I've got plenty of work to keep me busy. We don't get a lot of snow here, but enough cold weather to make me cranky. I'm ready to snuggle under my comforter and not come out until Spring. 

Does that mean I'm entering hyperphagia? 

Autumn

The air's a bit crisper. The scent of pine and wood smoke is in the air. Fall has always been my favorite time of year, and now, in a new state, it's become even more so. The sights and smells are somehow stronger, or maybe I just imagine so since they're not a harbinger of four months of ice and snow that's just around the corner in Ohio.

I'm taking next weekend to become one of the "leaf-lookers" I used to complain about when I had my cabin in West Virginia. That's right. I'm heading out to the NC mountains to observe the leaves changing colors. I've heard the spectacle is not as awesome this year as in years past–a combination of an excess of rain mixed with high winds from the two hurricanes that barreled through the state. We'll see.

In any event, it will be good to take a step away from my WIP, which I've been refining for the past two weeks. And, it will be good to step away from my side hustle job, which hasn't given me anything good to write about in over a week. I need a break and there's nothing finer than spending a weekend hiking in the mountains, hearing the rustle of the leaves, hoping for a bear sighting, or at least a deer or two. It will be a great way to reset my creative clock. A visit to the Biltmore will keep me in the historical era mind set and a few nights breathing in the autumn air on the deck will be a balm to my soul.

Can't wait.

Anticipation

Fall is in the air, I can smell it. The leaves have yet to turn here in North Carolina, but the days are getting a bit cooler and we don't have as much daylight as we did even a few weeks ago. I'm finally feeling like this is home, although I don't go far still without my pocket GPS system.

I'm also anticipating getting the rights to more of my books reverted to me from Simon & Schuster. I hope to have the remainder of the Cotillion Ball series be released to me in October so I can re-publish them with new covers. It seems to have breathed new life into the first four, all of which have now been released.

And, I'm anticipating hearing from two more beta readers for book three in my new Regency series. I've limited my beta readers before to only one or two, but this time I sent it to four people. The first two had the same comments about certain sections of the book, so I'm glad to have handled it this way. I'll make final changes, read through it yet again, and then send it off to my agent while I rework book two and start book four.

It's a busy time, but as the days grow cooler, I can again take walks with my dog, Mary. The parks system in Pinehurst is amazing with its interconnected trails and I need to explore it further. I had only discovered it before it became too hot to use.

That's what my fall will be like–working in the morning on books two, three and four of the Regency series, working in the afternoon on promotion for the re-released Cotillion books, and walks with Mary in the evenings. What will you be doing?