Tuesday...

Hmmm. Progress of a sort... I did get some writing done yesterday, but then had some thoughts about the overall plot structure which led to another pause for research. I think a little more action is called for...

Daffodils from the market, not the yard, alas, although the temperature here was in the 60's F. yesterday:



Back to work...

-GRG

Monday...

Back writing today after a weekend off. I think chapter 8 is pretty much finished, and I've started chapter 9. Gwernin is at Tara now...



Back to work.

-GRG

Saturday...

Where did the week go? Snow shoveling on Tuesday and Wednesday, writing on Wednesday and Thursday... sometimes one thing crowds another out. In this case, it was blogging which got displaced. However, chapter 9 is more or less finished at last.



Nicer weather yesterday made it hard to stay inside, especially after some of the record cold weather lately.

-GRG

Tuesday...

Snowing again today; about 4 inches so far, I think.

Current book references of the week:



More snow to shovel, then back to work.

-GRG

Monday...

Spent yesterday shoveling snow and working of The Druid's Son. More of the same today (well, minus the shoveling -- that comes tomorrow morning...).

A shot from yesterday morning:



Back to work!

-GRG

Thursday...

After three days of atrociously low temperatures, things are finally getting back to normal here, and I'm hoping to get some writing done today. Just another Irish picture, to get me in the mood:

Tuesday...

Whew! Winter has come back with a vengeance. Temperature by my back door this morning is -12 F., and tonight is supposed to be colder. After starting with freezing drizzle, it snowed gently all day yesterday, although the total accumulation is only about 3 inches. We canceled Welsh class tonight - no weather to be out in if you can help it.



The line of tracks in the lower right corner are fox tracks.

-GRG

Friday...

Making good progress on chapter 8. More writing to do today, but I wanted to share this picture of Titus in the cold frame that I took yesterday. The pot he's sitting on contains catmint and grass; the mint hasn't started growing again, but obviously he thinks the dried plant smells good! I had the lid up to rearrange some pots and he hopped in.



Back to work!

-GRG

Thursday...

Just a snippet today because I was busy writing yesterday. I'm into chapter 8 now and have introduced most of the main characters, and have several potential conflicts heating up. Onward!

Today's picture: a landscape shot taken from the top of Knowth, looking westward:



Back to work!

-GRG

Monday...

Saturday was busy. I spent a couple of hours finishing chapter 7 - at least, I *think* it's finished - and then dove into preparations for the CWS St. Dwynwyn's celebration that night. Because St. Dwynwyn is the Welsh patron of lovers, I needed something less grim than my usual Celtic fare, and had settled on the story of Pwyll and Rhiannon from the first branch of the Mabinogi. The only drawback was that I'd never told that story before... First I read through that section in three different English tranlations - Ford, Davies, and Jones & Jones. Then I started walking around the house paraphrasing and revising. A straight reading of any of the English versions would have been too long, and also there's a certain amount of repeated material (the section where Rhiannon tells Pwyll how to defeat Gwawl) which slows things down and diminishes the impact. Cutting most of that helped with the time problem. I worked through the story three or four times, trying to get all the important bits in the right order, but not worrying about exact wording. In between, I ran through my poem "Blodeuwedd", which I also planned to perform. After we arrived at the site (early, to help set up) I found time to go into an empty room and practice the story twice more. In the event, aside from one minor bobble, it went very well, and the audience clearly enjoyed it. I'll have to keep that in my repertoire for the future.

Yesterday was gray and cold, and I pretty much took the day off. Today I've been back at work on the book. No actual writing so far today, but a good bit of map work and planning, making up my mind about the locations for some of the key incidents and making sure they're consistent with things Gwernin's told us in past books. Just about set now. I'm aiming right now at one chapter per week, but hopefully this will speed up as I get into the swing of things again. We'll see!

References so far this week: Temples of Stone: Exploring the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland and The Life of Colum Cille.



Now back to work!

-GRG