The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I am a beach girl, so September is always a little bittersweet when the season ends, and the tourists go home. When I was little, the stores would board up, so it was sad when the strip looked like a ghost town until next year.

But, as a writer, I love back-to-school time. I am all about the school supplies. It’s time to get more notebooks, pens, and sticky notes. One of the office supply stores had a commercial with the parent singing “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and the kids looked so forlorn. It heralds the school shopping season, and I do love when the stores bring out all the crayons and colored pencils.

I have a stack of notebooks for plotting and writing down cool stuff that I encounter. Sticky notes are a must for my desk. They are my go-to scratch pad. And pens. Like books, you can never have enough good pens. I like the brightly colored Paper Mate felt pens for editing. And I use fun mugs that I’ve collected through the years to hold all my pens. Right now, there are two full ones on my desk and three on my worktable. Did I mention highlighters? Writers need those too for color-coding outlines and a myriad of other things.

It’s also the season to help fill teachers’ wish lists for their classrooms and donate to back-to-school drives. All, wonderful causes that let me share my love of writing supplies.

What are your favorites that you have to every year when school’s back in session and it’s time to write?