“Indigo Waters” hitting Kindle on June 17, 2014.

There is always something special about summer time.  When you’re a kid, you dream of school-free months to sleep late, watch daytime TV, and pool parties.

As an adult, we don’t get summers off–usually.  Still, summer is a time for planning trips, spending extra time with family and friends, and to remember to relax once in a while.

I’m getting ready to release “Indigo Waters” this month.  Since it takes place during the summer, it has me reflecting on my summers past and which ones are most special to me.

Mom and me at summer time ball game.

Different bits and pieces come to mind: childhood days spent at my aunt’s pool, playing with my cousins, going to little league games and watching “The Mighty Ducks” movies.  As I got a little older, trips to Six Flags Great Adventure, Hershey Park and Cape Cod.  At 15, I had my first club experience and my crush told me I looked good, and I was lit up for the rest of the summer!  There was that one week I spent in Wildwood with my

My pen-pal turned best friend Natalie and me the summer of 2001.

cousins where I got drunk and puked for the first time (learned a valuable lesson from that).  The summer I graduated high school was also filled with great memories.  My pen-pal (who is now my best friend) visited for the first time and I got us lost in Manhattan often.  That same summer, I took my first trip to Disney World as a gift from my sister.

My sister Cindy and me at Universal Studios.

Those are all wonderful and funny memories, but the summer of 2013 just may have topped them all.  I spent most of last summer with my family — especially my niece and nephew.  I was in the pool with the kids, playing games, and showing my niece movies from my childhood.  It was a special feeling to relive some of my favorite things with those two adorable children, whom I love and miss very much.

My Goddaughter/niece Samantha and me.

To make last summer even better was the fact that I got to live one of my dreams — I swam with dolphins.  Not at some aquarium where they hold marine mammals captive and force them to do tricks, but in the Bimini islands with wild dolphins.

Me, Cosette (who inspired the main character of “Indigo Waters”, and Ute snorkeling with stingrays at Gun Cay near Bimini.

The people I met on Indigo (the boat I spent a week on) and the experiences I had were amazing.  That, combined with my love for my family, is what inspired “Indigo Waters”.  For that reason alone, I think last summer just might take the cake for the best summer of my life.  It’ll be hard to top…

Please leave a comment and share your favorite summer memories with me!