Last Saturday I spent the day with 20,000 other readers and writers at the Union-Tribune Book Festival—an all-day literary extravaganza at Liberty Station. There, in Authors Alley, I shared a table with my dear friend and sister writer, Jill G. Hall. Her half of our eight-foot table graced by her beautiful books and a pair of silver shoes, and my half littered with a couple of my books and a small replica of a typewriter.
We are in the Dog Days of Summer, which began July 3 and end August 11. Many believe these summer days were given that name in reference to the heat, and that even dogs are stricken lazy by it. During these Dog Days, we may find our writing lagging, too.
But the term Dog Days of Summer isn’t about the heat or lazy dogs. Actually, it refers to a different kind of dog: Sirius—Orion’s most loyal hunting dog. The Dog Days of Summer actually refers to the heliacal rising of the Sirius (heliacal, meaning rising with the sun), which for the six weeks we’re in the midst of now, is the brightest star on the morning horizon.
