October 2023 - Update #4

No writing in the last week either - weekend errands plus an intensive on-line course I'm taking with the Anglesey Druid Order took care of Saturday and Sunday; problems have reappeared with my laptop, which I like to write on while looking out the garden window; Wednesday was errands again, plus moving my geraniums from their summer home in the cold frame to the garage; today more garden work - moving rosemarys inside and four frost-tolerant plants to the empty cold frame, and harvesting the last of the current tomatoes and some still-healthy catnip (the latter to dry). Probably frost tonight, then snow Saturday night and Sunday, w/ a forecast low of 13 F Sunday night. Winter is on the doorstep. Next weekend we'll celebrate Nos Galan Gaeaf.
 

October 2023 - Update #3

 Our retreat is finally over, and I hope to start writing again. Certainly I made no progress for the last week though - prepping to hold it at my house had kept me very busy, and I spent most of the weekend managing the Zoom sessions. After that it took me a few days to recover. Next year we expect to be back at La Foret, with more room and facilities, and that should be easier. We will also be a week later in October - the third weekend rather than the second, in part to avoid some conflicts which developed this year. Since we'll be so close to Samhain, I'm hoping our overall topic will have some aspect of that season.

Before next Wednesday I'll also have some end of the season garden work to do as well. We've had several light frosts, but things are about to get colder, so it's time to move the sensitive plants into the garage for the winter and harvest the rest of the beans.

On with the work!

October 2023 - Update #2

No writing this week - I've been prepping for our annual Rocky Mountain Retreat. It should have been at La Foret conference center, where this picture was taken, but our cabin reservations got screwed up; instead the Zoom sessions and ritual will be at my house. This has required a lot of prep on my part.

I've also been creating a Power Point for a presentation I'll be giving Sunday morning. Since I'd never worked with Power Point before, I had a bit of a learning curve. Fortunately it works a lot like Publisher, which I use for ADF's quarterly magazine, but I had a busy 3 days.

Looking forward to having time to write again in a week or two!
 

October 2023 - Update #1

 

Again, no appreciable progress with my writing in the last week. There have been too many distractions, and I'm still stuck in the middle of chapter 2. Next week is unlikely to be better, but after our Rocky Mountain retreat I hope to get the story moving again. 

In other news, I picked most of the nearly-ripe tomatoes yesterday. We haven't had frost yet, but it can't be long - maybe tonight.

September 2023 - Update #4

 

Very little writing progress in the last week - perhaps 300 words on Chapter 2 - but some ideas are developing. Most of my attention, however, has been on the situation with Chokecherry's retreat. Due to clerical errors on the part of our site, we are going to be forced to hold the retreat (which fortunately is mostly virtual) here in Denver at my house. A good bit of time and energy was spent on these problems, including unsatisfactory negotiations with the site, changing arrangements with several people who will be here, and serious housekeeping on my part. I also spent half of yesterday with technical support regarding a problem with my laptop, which turns out not to have been entirely fixed after all. Life in general has been rather chaotic, but I hope to get back to Gwernin's adventures soon.

September 2023 - Update #3

 

No progress on The Well of Wisdom this week as I've been occupied with the next issue of Oak Leaves - working on my Coelbren article and on layout and contents of the issue. There have also been a few blips in my life in general - dental work and vehicle problems, among other things - and a good bit of yard work to get my back yard ready for our Autumn Equinox ritual Saturday 23rd. This is a public Zoomed ritual, by the way, and if you're interested in joining us it starts around 6:30 p.m. MDT.

After I finish with Oak Leaves, I'll be involved with Chokecherry Grove's annual Rocky Mountain Retreat, managing the Zoom sessions by our presenters and giving a presentation myself. For more information on that, see our blog. I figure I might get back to working on Well of Wisdom seriously sometime in mid-October!

September 2023 - Update #2

 

Another mixed week. I received my proof copy of The Old Gods Endure Thursday afternoon, and after looking through it, I approved it for publication on Lulu on Monday and ordered 9 more copies so as to have some on hand for Chokecherry Grove's annual Rocky Mountain Retreat in October. I'm not 100% happy with the cover design, but it's good enough for a first edition since my sales are either person to person or on-line. I also set up a pre-release link at Smashwords for the ebook versions. The print version should show up on Amazon by and by, but if people buy it at Lulu, I'll get more of the money <grin> and you can avoid Amazon, which some people prefer.

No real progress on the next book so far - I'm still half way through Chapter 2, although I've tinkered a bit with Chapter 1 and the manuscript generally. I also need to finish my Oak Leaves article on the Coelbren Alphabet, although that's more than half done now. Having only two balls in the air at once rather than three should be helpful.

We are finally getting cooler weather, with some overnight lows in the 40s F in my back yard. As a result, I've finally got some yard work done, although there's plenty left to do. And the nasty Japanese rose beetles have pretty much disappeared, thank the Gods! Autumn at last!

September 2023 - Update #1

 

It's been a mixed week. After making what I hope were final corrections in The Old Gods Endure, I uploaded the Lulu version and ordered my first proof copy. After that I transferred all my corrections to the Smashwords version -- less trouble than making a new Smashwords version from the Lulu one -- and uploaded that as well. Lulu shipped my proof copy yesterday, so with luck I should have it in a week. Then, if it looks good, I can order a few pre-publication copies to have on hand at Chokecherry's Rocky Mountain Retreat next month.  

After that I turned my attention to the next book for a day or so, before moving on to work on my paper on Coelbren alphabet for the next issue of Oak Leaves for a couple of days. The tricky part there was getting all my illustrations into the correct format to fit them into Office Publisher. This involved something I'd never done before -- removing a table from a Word document and running it through Photoshop to produce a .png file. Having done this, I moved on to do layout for the next issue of Oak Leaves with the other submissions I had on hand. I should finally get back to The Well of Wisdom today or tomorrow!

In other news, we are having pleasantly autumnal weather, and are finally running out of Japanese rose beetles!

August 2023 - Update #5

 

Having got some good feedback from one of my first readers (thanks, Nathan!), I've been working on The Old Gods Endure again. After correcting some typos and making minor edits in a few spots, I spent yesterday dealing with layout issues. That's almost finished, although I saw one more thing I need to fix when I looked at the pdf last night. After that, it will be time to upload this new version to Lulu and order my first proof copy. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I can go back to my work on the next book <grin> and on my article and presentation on the Coelbren alphabet.

After some cool weather over the weekend, we're back to highs in the 90s again, but at least the nights are cooler, and longer now as well. The change in the morning sunrise position has become very noticeable - 3 more weeks until the autumn equinox... And suddenly all the tomatoes have got ripe!

August 2023 - Update #4

 

Not much writing progress this week, partly due to the hot weather (Denver had record highs a couple of days), partly due to another project. I am hoping for feedback from my first-readers on The Old Gods Endure sometime in the next week, because I want to make any corrections and order the first proof copy by September 7th. That will give me time to do any last minute changes and have copies on hand by our October Rocky Mountain Retreat. 

The other project, by the way, is an Oak Leaves article and a Retreat presentation on the Coelbren alphabet, a Welsh bardic thing attributed to Iolo Morganwg. But that, my friends, is a story for another day.

On the gardening front, things are much the same - beans, tomatoes, and nasty beetles. I'm ready for September.