One thing about living in Florida is that we stay warm pretty much all year. And even though this winter’s weather has been weirdly warm, I know it won’t last. I’m hard at work on the second Dogwood Mountain novel, this one set in summer, so I have hot days and firefly nights and ice cream on my mind.

Going to college in South Carolina taught me to love beach music. “Summertime’s Calling Me,” recorded by The Catalinas in 1975, is one of the great beach music classics. If you come across this on a cold day, imagine yourself on one of Florida’s sugar sand beaches, or trying the waves off the Outer Banks, or relaxing in a chair on the Grand Strand, and remind yourself that summer’s always calling.