Summer Entertainment

Ever notice how most types of entertainment operate by season? Movies have summer blockbusters and special Christmas openings. Mainstream publishers offer summer beach reads and fall lists.

But not us Harlequin category novelists. Our books come out every month, season after season. They’re always brand new, with no reruns.

I particularly appreciate that fact this time of year. Since the Olympians finished their flipping, relaying and discus-tossing, there is absolutely nothing to watch on television. Except, of course, endless promotions telling us what great stuff the networks are going to air in another month or so, when their fall season begins.

Thanks a lot.

While I enjoy catching up on my reading, there are nights when my husband and I are so tired, we just want to collapse and watch a suspenseful, funny show with good values and characters we love.

Earlier this summer, a friend loaned us a couple of delightful – but relatively short -- series, the British “Rosemary and Thyme” (two women gardeners who solve murder mysteries) and the Canadian “Slings and Arrows,” about a Shakespearian theater company on the skids. Both provided lots of fun, but ended too quickly.

Then I remembered a great series from the ‘90s with action, humor, heart, and a breathtaking hero. Oh, yes, and a really cute dog. So I ordered the DVD.

I hope some of you remember, and treasure, “Due South.” It stars the appealing Paul Gross, who also starred in “Slings and Arrows.” Now, when my eyes blur from reading and my husband wants to sit and hold my hand, we enjoy the antics of the transplanted Mounty in Chicago all over again.

So if my next hero looks just the tiniest bit like the handsome, dark-haired actor, I hope you’ll enjoy him – no matter what the season.