This summer has been hot. Usually here in New Zealand we have about a week where temperatures get into the high 20Cs, and that’s it. This year we’ve been up close to and above 30C since November. It’s the hottest temperatures recorded here since the 1930s.

Unfortunately living in a climate where summer doesn’t usually get this hot means I don’t have air conditioning and running a fan at night isn’t cutting it. Last week the temperatures finally started to fall to what is a normal summer here. 23C is much easier to handle than 32C, especially with high humidity. We also don’t have air conditioning at work and I’ve spent days wondering how I’m going to survive the summer.

This has been the default mode for my cats for most of the summer. Fraps spent most of her time sleeping in doorways and in the hallway, so getting up in the night turned into a challenge of not tripping over her.

Last week was the first time since this heat started that I’ve had almost a full night’s sleep. I’m tired and sleeping later than I usually do—because I can actually sleep. As a result my workload is piling up. I’m usually onto it and spend about an hour in the mornings writing before work. It’s turning into more like 30 minutes if I’m lucky. Adding to that I’m still trying to get rid of the backlog that accumulated while I was buried in books coming out last year.

But on the plus side, sleep is wonderful, although it’s still warm enough most nights to turn on the fan. And I have some cool stuff coming up this month.

I’ve taken leave for Easter Saturday this year so with the stat holidays I’m actually getting a block of five days off, including my weekend. I’m hoping to play catch up on my increasing pile, perhaps do some writing, and get out in the garden if the weather cooperates.

And then there’s Armageddon. Not the end of the world, four horsemen of the Apocalypse type event, but Wellington’s annual pulp culture expo. It’s my one day a year I embrace my geek side and go wander around stalls and listen to guest speakers. Among this year’s guests are Jeremy Renner and Matt Ryan. It’s about the only geeky thing we have locally so I go every year just because I can.

Writing wise, I love writing our Scots lads with Lou Sylvre, but I know my output isn’t what it was this time last year. Everything seems to take longer than it used to. And I have dragons wanting attention and considering how long they’ve been waiting, I don’t want to put them off too much longer.

I’m hoping once I’m finally caught up on all the sleep I’ve missed I’ll feel more focused but in the meantime I’d love some thoughts and suggestions on how to recharge my batteries and get back into the writing zone. I’m tired, and I can’t afford to be, not with the amount of stories I want to write….