Update #4 - November 2025

 Well, I finally got out of Chapter 1, and made a brief start on Chapter 2. This one will take Gwion to King Arthur's court at Venta with Talhaearn and Emrys, where he will be living and studying as he grows up. Again, this is a period which I will have to think about, as it's not something he has ever told Gwernin about. On the other hand, I don't have to make it fit in with much that he did tell Gwernin...

Cold mornings now - 20 F at dawn yesterday and today - and colder weather coming next week. I need to empty the water buckets in the garden when I can get them thawed, even though the small birds like to drink at them. Getting anything thawed this morning for the wildlife involved icebreaking and hot water. 

Rather than celebrating Thanksgiving today, I'll be joining Rowen and two friends Saturday for our Friends-giving dinner. Instead of duck or turkey, we'll be having Alaskan crab this year!

Update #3 - November 2025

 Again, not much progress on the book. Partly too many distractions - errands and other things. I'm still bogged down in chapter 1, and need to decide what happens next. The beginning setup feels too similar to the beginning of The King's Druid, but maybe that's partly why Taliesin and Fraechan become such good friends. Well, we'll see... Incidentally, someone bought a bunch of my books on Lulu a few days ago, which was a nice surprise. 

One of the distractions was the removal of a dead tree in the backyard. Between delays in starting and the need for me to supervise the process that took most of the day. Tuesday was spent running various errands, and this afternoon I'll take Ruay to the vet for his annual checkup. After that I have a few days when I hope I can concentrate on writing...

Update #2 - November 2025

 The last week has been mostly taken up with setting up the new computer, and I still have more work to do on it. At least I got it to the point where I could use it for last night's Zoom language class. Once that's done, I can concentrate on writing again.

Gardening continues in the winter cleanup phase. I'll be doing some yard work today, raking leaves and trimming a couple of elms. After a cold weekend, we've been having a stretch of mild weather with little or no frost, but the cold weather will be back next week. What I keep asking the weather gods for is some rain.

Update #1 - November 2025

 Very slow writing progress again. Partly it's a matter of fitting bits in from the Storyteller books, and in some cases adding necessary bits that Gwernin didn't know or misremembered (something that has happened before when I wrote The King's Druid). I have a chapter outline as usual, but it may need some tinkering. And this weekend will be taken up by computer stuff, since I finally ordered a new desktop which should arrive tomorrow. Sigh.

Frost most mornings now. I've been doing yard work several days a week. Yesterday it was leaf raking, the day before tomato and bean cleanup. I pulled the hoses, but may reattach one to water a few things if it stays this dry - mostly the roses. And I still need to do a little mowing, but there's no hurry now.