March 2024 - Update #2

The last week has been busy again, including preparations for tomorrow's divination workshops and a good bit of snow shoveling yesterday (we got about a foot of heavy wet snow). I'm half way through chapter 13, and Gwernin et al have arrived at Fráechán's rath, to find that he is not there.This is new territory for everyone in the group except Taliesin, who spent several years there long ago (as related in The King's Druid) studying with Fráechán and his teacher.

Presently I'll have to go out and shovel more of yesterday's snow, but at the moment things are warming up a bit and I'm waiting for more of it to fall off the trees. After tomorrow I should be able to get more writing done.

March 2024 - Update #1

A few conflicts in the last week again, but I finally finished chapter 12. Gwernin and company are in Ireland now, and Taliesin has procured pack ponies from King Díarmait. This was not hard, because in this period no one dared refuse any request from an Irish Master Poet--an Ollam Fili--for fear of their satire. The next chapter will take Gwernin to the ráth of Fráechán’s foster father, a place Gwernin has not been before. I spent some time earlier in the week thinking about what each of our party knows and where they have been in Ireland. Gwernin and Mael, for example, have seen most of the places we'll be going in this book, but not Fráechán’s two homes or "cairn T" on the Sliabh na Caillí; Neirin and Ianto have not been in Ireland before, so this is all new to them. Taliesin, on the other hand, spent seven years in Ireland after Arthur's death, part of that time studying or traveling with Fráechán. I'll be pulling descriptions of these new locations from The King's Druid--another case of needing things to match up. 

In other news, I've been spending time preparing for my presentation on ogam divination in Chokecherry Grove's March Divination Workshop. For more information on that, see this link.

February 2024 - Update #5

 Rare it is to have five Thursdays in February, but this year we do. Their abundance, however, has not helped my rate of progress with the book. I did finish chapter 11, and started chapter 12 ("the bend of the Boyne"), partly through reorganization of material, but since Monday I have been working on another project. Our local ADF group, Chokecherry Grove, is putting on a series of Zoom workshops on divination methods in two weeks (Saturday 16th), and since I signed myself up to speak on the ogam, I have been preparing a PowerPoint of my material. It's about finished now, and it's time I got back to Gwernin et al, who have arrived in Ireland at last.

Aside from some brief but intense snow on Tuesday morning, the weather has been mild and dry, and windy enough that we had fire weather warnings on a couple of days. Next week looks colder and wetter again - typical March weather here.

February 2024 - Update #4

 I'm still working my way through chapter 11, the title of which is still in flux. Last weekend was busy, and Tuesday I had a dentist appointment (as a result of which I have another one today for repairs), so that's three days shot. A lot of my progress yesterday was "recycling" again for Gwernin et al's journey to Ireland. I've got 1,529 words so far, but some of it still needs polishing, so I'll be working on that today and tomorrow, then trying to finish the chapter over the weekend -- an average chapter is about 3,000 words. They are currently on their way to King Díarmait’s ráth, where Taliesin plans to petition the King for pack ponies to replace the ones they left at Aberffraw before going on to look for their friend Fráechán.

My orange cat, Ruay, is having his morning outside time, when he likes to chase the squirrels. He's developed a habit of jumping onto the plant stands under the window and looking in at me and Mulberry. That won't work come summer, when the plants come out of the garage, but in the meantime it's amusing.

February 2024 - Update #3

 I finally finished chapter 10 ("Aberffraw") yesterday. This takes Gwernin et al to the King of Gwynedd's court in search of a ship to Ireland. Again I pulled pieces from previous books - "recycling". Part of this is so that people and descriptions will match up with previous books, but also to cover things so that someone who is reading this book without having read the previous five, or hasn't read them recently, is more aware of the background and what's going on. Since this book is the third of the second trilogy, I'm also tying off some things - "closing the circle" as Gwernin said in the fifth book (The Old Gods Endure). I need to solve some puzzles from that book, too, and will - mostly. I'm starting chapter 11 (title not fixed yet) today, where the first problem for Taliesin et al is whether to take all, some, or none of their ponies with them to Ireland. If they can take all of them, they arrive not needing to acquire more, but it may complicate finding a ship or ships that can bring them all back, because they'll need them then to get home... and as Gwernin said in the fourth book (The Fallen Stones), ship captains do not deal in songs of praise.

Only about three inches of snow last weekend, and it's already melted - mostly. Not much more forecast for a while, so we may be able to have our first quarter moon ritual outside this month - more about that another day.

February 2024 - Update #2

 I finished chapter 9 ("togidubnos") in a rush over the weekend, and am working slowly on chapter 10 ("aberffraw"). This will take Gwernin et al to the King of Gwynedd's court, in search of a ship to Ireland, and finish the first third of the book. I spent some time yesterday re-reading the first part of the manuscript, noticing things that need to be added on my next pass - mostly more descriptions of people and just general background stuff. So far I'm at about 30,000 words and 100 pages.

Last weekend's storm dropped 5-6 inches of heavy wet snow, followed by a hard freeze - a real mess. I've finally got the walks and driveway cleared, and plan on running a few errands later today. The forecast for this coming weekend is another 4-5 inches. Sigh.

February 2024 - Update #1

I've finished chapter 8 ("the dark path") and am working on chapter 9 (tentatively "togidubnos"). Last weekend was busy, and it took me a couple of days to get going again. I need to finish this chapter by Saturday morning at the latest, because we will be celebrating Imbolc Saturday evening and Chinese New Year Sunday. This chapter should finish off Mael's Dark Path, and the next one will take Gwernin et al to the King of Gwynedd's court at Aberffraw and a new problem.

Mild weather this week, but a rain/snow mixture forecast for the weekend. Our Imbolc celebration will definitely be indoors.