Ahh, sunshine! Finally, we’ve had a week without clouds. When the sun shines on this lush, green rainforest I call home, no place is more beautiful, and a day of sunshine makes me forget all the cloudy, rainy days preceding it. We have had a cool spring with almost no sunshine until now, and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever see the sun again.

June is “work” month here at our lodge on Kodiak Island. It is the month we paint, fix, clean, and garden in preparation for our summer bear-viewing and sport-fishing trips. A day of sunshine means it is time to rush outdoors, grab a brush and spread paint until exhausted. June is also one of the rainiest, foggiest months on the island, so we cannot afford to squander sunshine on decadent activities such as picnics on the beach or hikes in the woods. Nevertheless, I enjoy the sunshine, and after a week of hard work, I am also looking forward to the forecasted rain in a few days!

This time of year, writing is a luxury, and I have to steal a minute here and there to write a few lines. While my mind bursts with story-telling and promotional ideas, I don’t have time to follow through on them. I recently began publishing my murder newsletters on Medium, an online publishing platform. Here is a link to my first article. While this is the wrong time of year to give myself a new job, I was excited to have an additional outlet for my writing, and I couldn’t wait to see if people would read my stories on Medium. I dreamed of thousands of new readers, but now, I’ll be happy if my article receives a hundred views.

I am eager to get back to writing my next novel. I’m excited about the story, and I love writing fiction. My writing focus this summer, though, will be to finish the edits on my wildlife book. I hope to send it to my publisher this winter.

I have been thinking about my blog posts for this summer, and I plan to focus once again on fish. Of all the posts I have written, my most popular one is, “The Difference Between Atlantic and Pacific Salmon.” I guess this means folks are interested in fish, and since I love talking about fish, it’s a topic I’ll embrace. I have a halibut post planned for next week, and then I’ll jump into the troubling issue of the sudden decline in Pacific grey cod.

Please send me any questions you have about fish species in the North Pacific, and I will investigate the answer and write a post about it. I will be happy to write about fish biology, fishing regulations, and fishing techniques.

I know I don’t say this often enough, but thank you for reading my posts. I appreciate you! Now, it’s time for me to get outdoors, enjoy this sunshine, and paint something.

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Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. If you like audiobooks, check out her audiobook version of Murder Over Kodiak. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.