Update #3 - January 2024

 Some progress this week - about 2/3 of chapter 21. Gwernin and company have arrived at Oweynagat, and three of them are sharing their own experiences of the cave. I'm debating whether to include a couple more incidents, which would make for a rather long chapter. In the next chapter, they'll head north.

The weather has been cold and dry for the last week, but there's a bitter winter storm with snow and subzero lows forecast for the weekend. May the weather Gods be merciful!

Update #2 - January 2025

 I've made a little progress on chapter 21 in the last week, interrupted by finishing up the spring issue of Oak Leaves. I've found a replacement editor and will be working with her on the summer issue which comes out at Beltane. After that I should be able to concentrate on my own writing without interruptions. This will be good, since the story is beginning to move -- Gwernin et al are on their way to Oweynagat.

January weather is back this week - very cold with intermittent snow. I keep planning on running errands, then canceling. Next week at least looks drier, if not much warmer. My orange cat Ruay hasn't spent much time outside this week, and when he's out I've been setting a timer to remind me to check on him. We'll both welcome the approach of spring.

Update #1 - January 2025

 I finished chapter 20 yesterday -- mostly fidchell games and magic. Now in chapter 21 Gwernin et al will be moving on to Cruachan and Oweynagat for a different sort of magic. First, however, I have to finish my article for Oak Leaves and wrap the issue!

Relatively mild and dry this last week, although we had one night in the lower teens. Next week's weather looks more promising for precipitation, which we need badly. I ask the weather gods every morning for rain - we shouldn't be having fire warnings in January.

Update #4 - December 2024

 Despite the holiday interruptions, I got about a third of chapter 20 written in the last week. In this part, Taliesin and Fráechán tell the others a story about a series of fidchell games Fráechán once played against an adversary. Most of this episode is lifted from The King's Druid, but repurposed into a discussion of strategy and tactics. Fráechán tells part of it from his point of view, including something Taliesin, who was traveling with him then, didn't know. With luck I might finish this chapter in the next week. :)

Mostly dry weather, 50s and 20s, although we got a little rain last night. I went around yesterday morning and this morning giving Christmas cards and jam to a few of my neighbors. Fortunately this was Royal Crest Dairy's delivery day, because when I went out first thing to collect the milk, I found that my neighbors on the north side had reciprocated (presumably yesterday afternoon when I was at Rowen's house) with a card and cookies - happily I found the cookies before a squirrel did!

Season's greetings to everyone, and best wishes
for good fortune in the next year!

Update #3 - December 2024

 I finally finished chapter 19, which took an unexpected turn at its end. As a result, the visit to Oweynagat has been pushed down a chapter. Chapter 20 is now called "Strategy and Tactics", and Fráechán is  going to play some games of fidchell (a board game similar to chess which was important in several episodes of The King's Druid) with Mac Tire, the leader of King Suibne's bodyguard whom we met in The Fallen Stones and under a different name in Flight of the Hawk. After that Gwernin et al will eventually be going to Cruachan for Oweynagat. Unexpected developments make writing more fun <grin>.

More writing means less yard work, but there's no urgency with that this time of year. The weather has been mild and dry for the last couple of weeks, and almost all of the snow has left my back yard except for some tattered remains of the November blizzard in shadowed spots. It doesn't look like we'll get a white Christmas this year, which is all the better for travelers. We'll be celebrating Midwinter on Saturday, outside for a change. It will be nice to celebrate with a real fire!

Update #2 - December 2024

 Slow progress again - still plodding intermittently through chapter 19. Not a busy weekend ahead, so I hope to finish it soon, before I get bogged down again with holidays and Oak Leaves. The weather looks better too - no snow in the forecast for a while. It will probably wait for Christmas / New Year's. The last snow storm was very cold, but we only got an inch or two, most of which disappeared after a couple of sunny days.

Happy winter holidays to anyone who reads this. At least I'm getting my Thursday posts done on Thursday this week! :)

Update #1 - December 2024

 Slow progress, but that's better than none. I spent one morning rereading part of Flight of the Hawk, the second Storyteller book, which takes Gwernin and Neirin to Scotland. This was because Fráechán was asking Neirin about Druidic ceremonies he had seen among the Picts. This chapter (# 19) is called "A Little Teaching", and Fráechán is preparing Neirin and Mael for a visit to Oweynagat. 

The weather has been mild this week for December; most of the previous snow which isn't in shaded places has melted, although we may get a little more Sunday night. I spent yesterday taking Ruay to the vet for his annual exam and booster shots -- important because he spends part of the day outside, and sometimes, er, interacts with one of the neighborhood cats (not in a friendly fashion, let's say!). Then I spent most of the rest of the day doing assorted errands. I'm hoping
today will be more productive, writing-wise.

Update #4 - November 2024

 Finally started getting a little writing done this week. We got a little snow yesterday - maybe a couple of inches following some rain - so there's no temptation to do yard work today. So far I've got about a third of chapter 19 ("A little teaching") done, and have an idea of what needs to be in the rest of it. After that Gwernin and friends will be moving on to Oweynagat in the next chapter.

Rowen and I and a couple of friends celebrated an early Thanksgiving last weekend at her house, so the friends could celebrate today with their family members. Among other things we had roast duck, and I made a cheesecake. Good food, good wine, good company. May everyone reading this have as pleasant a Thanksgiving today!

Update #3 - November 2024

 Another week without much writing progress. I decided I needed a database of character names from my books, and especially from the last three involving Ireland - The Fallen Stones, The King's Druid, and what I've written so far in The Well of Wisdom. I am trying not to use the same name for different people - at least important ones. Common names for secondary characters are less of a problem. I realized a while back that I'd used the name "Fedelmid" for both Togi's chief Druidic teacher in Ireland and Fráechán's magical teacher and predecessor as Archdruid, but since there was 500 years between them, and it was a popular name in early Ireland, "borne by mythological and historical figures, kings, saints, and many exalted ancestors in genealogies", according to the Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (one of my name sources), so that's okay. I hope to make more progress on chapter 19 soon, once that's done.

In other developments, my neighbor on the south asked Sunday if he could take some branches off the fence-line elm tree which was overhanging his power line due to the snow, and I said, take what you want, I'm thinking of having the whole tree removed, and could you take some branches off on my side which are on my lines while you're at it? The upshot was that he took the whole tree down in pieces, and I have been spending a couple of hours a day reducing big branches into smaller pieces for large item pickup Monday. I'm going to have all the firewood I need for quite a while!

Update #2 - November 2024

 The last week was somewhat chaotic, to say the least, which is why I'm writing my Thursday post on Saturday. Last weekend involved three days of snow shoveling in order to get out of the drive and attend the last farmers' market on Sunday, and another day's work removing a lot of the plum tree which was blocking the front walk due to the snow having bent it over. After that I tidied up chapter 18, and got a little writing done on chapter 19 - about 700 words. 

Then on Wednesday evening my furnace developed problems (it was doing something called "short cycling", where it repeatedly tries to start and then stops), and it started to get rather cold in here. I managed to schedule a repairman for Friday afternoon. Thursday I went out and ran various errands, including buying a second little electric heater like the one I keep in the bathroom. The repairman arrived as scheduled on Friday, rapidly diagnosed the problem (a gadget which tells the furnace if it is getting enough air had died), located, fetched, and installed the replacement part, and did a complete evaluation of the furnace using a bunch of high-tech instruments. (The rest of the furnace checked out fine.) This all took a little over two hours, and was not inexpensive, but now the house is warm again, and I can try and figure out what day it is <grin>, and hopefully start writing again!