MY STRUGGLE WITH SUMMER

There are times when I'm pretty sure I would have been better off having gone to summer school all through school, every year. Not because I wish I'd graduated high school at 15 or anything like that, or college at 18. But because if you don't become a teacher summer holidays in your youth set you up for a lifetime of struggle. Especially if, like me, you don't have a boss breathing down your neck other than yourself, spurred on by the occasional horrifying glance online at your bank account or last royalty statement.

Right now it's 83 degrees outside, sunny, not too humid. The me who grew up spending 17 years of summer holidays - kindergarten through my BA - is convinced that I ought to be out and about doing something other than sitting in front of this computer. I should be taking pictures, playing baseball, exploring different parts of the city, walking along the beach, SCUBA diving, sipping drinks on a terrace with a view, something else than what I'm doing.

Just writing this I'm distracting myself. I've got other stuff I ought to be writing: rewriting the second book in my new L.A. Trilogy, writing the third book, writing the first Lei Yue book, there's two other book ideas in varying states of progress and a non-fiction book idea percolating and a couple of short stories I have in mind.

But waaahh! I don't wanna!

I'm too old to be feeling this way, aren't I? I haven't been in school with a summer holiday since, since - oh shit, Gerald Ford was President. But all those damn formative years when I was growing up have apparently suckered something deep inside me into thinking - it's hot outside, it's summer, I should be out somewhere having fun.

I've got a plan. I'm not sure how much good it's going to really do me since I'm only doing it for three days, but I'm heading to the desert where it's 109 at the moment and only likely to be even hotter on the days I'm there next week. No one in their right mind wants to go outside in weather like that. And in spite of all evidence to the contrary, I am, I insist, in my right mind.

Plus, the deluxe hotel room in the deluxe hotel I will be staying in, normally goes for something north of $400 per night when the weather's good. I'm getting it for $89. (It's questionable whether or not the owners are in their right minds - why bother staying open in the summer?) And there's a swimming pool approximately 15 feet from the door of my room. And the air conditioning works.

Maybe I'll get some writing done. Maybe I ought to see about staying out there for the rest of the summer.

I don't have kids but I do have some advice for those of you reading this who do. Do them a favor, send them to summer school or encourage them to go into teaching.