I Deserve to be Cold

I know I talk about this a lot, but I really wasn’t built for any kind of warm weather. I get overheated easily and my body and brain simply stop functioning. I thought Scandinavia was the place I belonged, but I ended up visiting on the hottest day my Swedish friends had ever experienced and I nearly passed out riding my bike around Ven. I still think Scandinavia is where I belong, because that day on Ven was basically a normal Ohio day from like, April through the middle of November, and if the Swedes tell me it was a fluke, well, bye bye Ohio, and hej hej Helsingborg.

You may be asking, “But Jackii, you work indoors with air conditioning, what do you have to go out in that weather for?” HAVE to? Eh, groceries, gym, errands, etc. But I would go out a lot more if I didn’t become one with the sidewalk every time I left the house any time of day.

By the time we circled back to Copenhagen, I realized that I’d spent every day for over two weeks in the sun, but instead of burning, my skin was just a darker shade of pale, and for the first time in over twenty years, I got...FRECKLES. God, I loved those new freckles. They were proof that I could go in the sun for days at a time and not get burned! And during the hottest part of the day on that hottest day in Ven, the UV index topped out at 4. FOUR! Meanwhile, a week before Easter, in southwest Ohio, within an hour after sunrise, we’re already at 10. Ten is as high as it goes.

All this is to say that I know it only calendrically turned Summer a few weeks ago, and we’ve got another fourteen or so before it starts to cool down, but I’m already miserable. I’m currently trying to distract myself from that misery by writing the zero draft for a new book, getting preorder links for Starlight and Cinnamon, and doing edits and cover design for book 2, which comes out in December. If you’d like to stay up-to-date on the details of these endeavors, and maybe get little treats like exerpts and cover reveals early, make sure to sign up for my newsletter. I think the sign-up is at the bottom of this page but you know technology thwarts me at every turn.