Our Summer Essay Contest: Tell Us About the Summer You’ll Never Forget
By Brooke Lea Foster
I’ve always believed that summer has the power to change everything – in the very best of ways.
Maybe it‘s because I fell in love for the first time around a bonfire on a surfer’s beach along the Atlantic Ocean. Maybe it’s because my husband proposed to me by the sparkly Long Island Sound on an unforgettable August afternoon. Maybe it’s because in the snowy northeast where we wait all year for summer, I put so much stock into the season. In the warmest months, when the days are long and the sun turns the sky pink and the sea into a shimmer, I can hear my inner voice more clearly; my true north reminds me of the kind of person I want to be, regardless of who I’ve become.
This is why I’ve set both of my historical fiction novels during the summer months. In Summer Darlings and my latest On Gin Lane, my heroines start their glamorous summer seasons in Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons thinking that they want one kind of life. By Labor Day, both women realize they want something else entirely. The fun as a writer is delving into that change and helping my characters get to the place that they’re meant to be.
Zibby and I fell into a lively conversation about the power of transformational summers when she was interviewing me about my novel On Gin Lane for her podcast.
Wouldn’t it be fun, she reasoned, to hear about the lasting summer memories of our listeners?
I would love that, I said.
And just like that: We now invite you to share your stories with us. Welcome to the Moms Don’t Have to Write Summer Memoir Contest
Do you have a summer memory that you treasure? Was there a summer in your twenties that changed you for good? Can you think of one moment as a child where you were at a lake, a beach, a summer camp that remade you? Did summer take a devastating turn and you came into the fall as a survivor? Can you think of a funny memory that still brings a smile to your face? Or perhaps the season does something more subtle to you.
Whatever it is, we want to hear about it.
Memories are our greatest treasures. To write them down, to pause even for a moment and give yourself the gift of remembering, may just offer you a sense of possibility. A new power.
To enter this contest, please submit a short diary entry (up to 700 words) where you tell us about the summer that you’ll never forget.
Winner! Winner! Zibby and I will read all of the entries, and pick one winner. You will have your entry published on this website, and lunch with Zibby and me in the Hamptons this summer. Expect signed copies of our books, plus a special gift basket from the editors at Moms Don’t Have Time To…
We can’t wait to read your story.