Quitting the day job...

Time vs. money: it's always a trade-off, isn't it? Sometimes I feel like one of those late-medieval serfs I read about when I was in college, bound to the land and spending most of their days working for the lord, with only a little time to tend their own gardens. I don't know how accurate that picture is, since it's not a thing I've researched since, but it's always had a resonance for me. It certainly describes the part-time writer's life, where your creative work is always being interrupted by the insistent call of the Job. It's been particularly troublesome with the present book, which for various reasons is proving harder to write than my first three. So... I've decided to solve the problem.

As of December 31st, I'm retiring in order to write full time. I'm really looking forward to it!

-GRG

Progress...

Another page written yesterday, and three more today. Not much momentum yet, but better than I have done in some while. I stayed at home today, gardened, read, and wrote. The weather was a bit cooler than yesterday, which helped: hard to imagine a cool, wet day in Ireland when it's this hot and dry.

Lots of squash and tomatoes, and the apples are getting ripe: time to make chutney, as soon as I get a cool enough evening. Summer's passing: almost September, and the days are visibly shorter since Lammas. Maybe a month left for the garden, if I'm lucky, before the first frost.

-GRG

New review

New review of Flight of the Hawk on LibaryThing.com.

Progress...

No actual writing done over the weekend, but a good bit of research. I've been rereading A guide to early Irish law and Early Irish farming, both full of useful details and more entertaining to read than one might think. Pretty soon I'll have to just start putting words together again, and see where it leads me.

Mist on the Mountains...

The Black Mountains again, on a different day. It would be easy to get lost if that cloud came a little lower.

Black Mountains...

I'll look up the details later on the map, but this one is looking north from a Roman and later medieval road.

Although this one is in England...

One of the stones in the biggest circle at Stanton Drew, about 15 miles east of Bristol Airport. The black and white object in the middle distance is a guardian cow.

-GRG

back from Wales...

...and I actually got some work done on #4 during the hours on the plane. Continental now has power outlets under the seats, which is brilliant - no battery worries! I added a page to the current chapter, changed its title, and now feel I'm back on track. If only I didn't have to go back to the Day Job tomorrow... oh well.

The first week in Wales I spent in Caerdydd, on a Welsh language course. Tutor was good, and I feel I made real progress (I'm in the nearly-fluent level). We finished up the week at the National Eisteddfod, where I bought - surprise! - a few books. The second week I wandered around, partly in England (Gloucestershire) and partly in Wales (Black Mountains), researching sites for #5. This was out of order, but since I had the opportunity to take the language course in Wales with a group I usually join every other year in North America, I couldn't resist. However, I'm glad to get back to work on the Irish book. I've changed the trilogy name slightly, from Gwernin's Quest to Gwernin's Quests, as I think this middle trilogy is not so closely linked as one quest would imply.

Pictures later.

(edited to add: one of the places I stayed... and another)
-GRG

Looking ahead

Thinking a little about the planned shape of the series, I thought I'd share this.

Young Gwernin trilogy (published):

1. Storyteller - location: Wales; date: 550-551 CE; publication: 2007.
2. Flight of the Hawk - location: Wales, Northern England, Scotland; date: 551 CE; publication: 2007.
3. The Ash Spear - location: Wales, Northern England; date: 552 CE ; publication: 2009.

Gwernin's Quests trilogy (writing in progress):

4. The Druid's Son - location: Wales and Ireland; date: 559 CE ; publication: 2011.
5. The Well of Wisdom* - location: Wales and western England; date: c. 562 CE; publication: ?
6. The Green North - location: Wales, Northern England, Scotland; date: c. 567 CE; publication: ?

The Fall of the North trilogy (planning stage only):

7. The Last True King - location: Northern England and lowland Scotland; date: c. 573 CE; publication: ?
8. Three Hundred Spears* - location: Northern England and lowland Scotland; date: c. 577 CE; publication: ?
9. The Fall of the North - Northern England and lowland Scotland; date: c. 580 CE; publication: ?

*Titles on these two keep changing. The rest have been fixed for a while, but might change before publication.

I'm also planning on a prequel, but that's a story for another day.

-GRG

still here...

Various mundane matters have been holding my attention lately (can we say "plumbers"...?), but I have a chat thread going on LibraryThing which might interest people.

Lots of gardening work, too...

-GRG