Summertime and the living is easy

Ahh my absolute favorite time of year has finally arrived. I love summer. I love everything about summer; the heat, the pool, the kids out of school, the grilling and deck sitting. I love doing what I'm doing right now, sitting outside with my laptop working away in the fresh air. I love camping with my family, working in my garden (the real one for a change!), hanging laundry, picking cherry tomatoes off the vines and popping them in my mouth. I love the sound of the tree frogs, the birds singing in the morning, the white noise of the fan as it whirls at night bringing in the cooler breezes...ok ok you get the picture.

Fourth of July is around the corner and here at The Wild Rose Press that means that our staff is encouraged, entitled, and pushed out the gate to enjoy some much deserved time off. We traditionally shut down for a week to ten days this time of year to allow our staff to push back from the computer and not feel guilty if they don't edit or answer emails during this time.

I have learned that these little breaks in our routine are essential for rejuvenating and invigorating our staff. I know all of you will join me in wishing them well on their vacation.

But don't worry. I'll be here, holding down the fort or keeping the roses blooming or whatever you want to call it. This is the time of year that RJ and I shoo everyone out the gate and we eat all the chocolate that's in their desks.

Someone once said..."a family only gets so many summers". How true that is. With two young men in my house now (ages 18 and 20) and one who thinks he's all grown up (12), this statement hits home. I hope all of you get out this summer and do some fun family things or if your family is gone, go back and do the things you loved as a kid. Eat some ice cream without worrying about your weight, take a walk, visit the places in your neighborhood that you only see in the summer. Do something that you enjoy.

We'll be here when you get back ready to open the gate back up. See you on the 7th!

Rhonda

Imagine we're all in one building...

If The Wild Rose Press were housed in one building, what would our floor plan look like? How would our offices look?

Let's see...perhaps we’d walk into a garden-like main room, complete with roses and other plants, grow lights and floor-to-ceiling windows. From there, all the lines would branch like vines along separate hallways, coming back together at the other end into a massive meeting room.

Halfway down the American Rose hall is my office. Green walls, landscape pictures, lush plants, a fountain, fluffy rugs, and soft new-age music fill the room. A tiled counter near the shower/bathroom holds a coffee maker and small refrigerator. Plush chairs surrounding a mosaic-topped table await friendly chitchat with authors and editing colleagues.

Near my antique oak desk, shelves and baskets hold mementos, flash drives, and CDs. A Tiffany lamp, family photos, and a 22-inch widescreen high-def LCD computer monitor grace the desk’s surface. Although my office is paperless, the pink sticky-note pad beside Mr. Cupholder gets much use, as does the bulletin board/whiteboard enclosed within a wall cabinet behind my desk. The computer is top of the line and mainframed with TWRP’s production floor, which is even more luxurious than the main floor. My chair, of course, converts into a recliner for that 3:00 powernap.

That’s what my TWRP office would look like. How about yours?