I hope
you all had a wonderful Father's Day, and if the country you're in reading this
does not have Father's day, drop me a line and tell me what you celebrate in
June, besides winter - 🤣(Shout out to Australia) It's
been an interesting week here at the doghouse. The weather has been
interesting, to say the least. Morning arrives with thick fog, but soon becomes
a sunny late morning. By late afternoon the clouds roll in and the rain
started. And it's been a torrential downpour. Rain coming so hard and fast that
as it pours off the roof, it jumps over the rain gutters.
The
weather has been a triple threat to me because it hampers my writing in at
least three ways. First it's warm and welcome rain, and it's amazing to watch
as it pours out of the sky. However, my dog, Marly, hates it. She's a pit/lab
mix, and the only thing she's ferocious with is the neighbor's chickens. The
rain gets her nervous, and the thunder terrifies her, so looking for comfort
she comes and forces her way under my desk and takes over down there. I will
have an 85 lbs. beast laying on my feet, crying. All I can say is, "Suck
it up Buttercup, Independence Day is getting closer, and I'm not holding back
this year."
The
next headache is the power. Today was the first rainy day where we did not lose
power this month. Swampland Rural Electric Cooperative must know when I'm in
the mood to do some serious writing, because that's the time they pull the
plug. We don't lose power for very long, just long enough for me to get my
laptop set up and my notes copied over so I can finish up the thought I was
working on. My Wi-Fi is set up on a battery backup so when the power goes out,
I still have internet for devices. Usually, by the time I get rolling on the
laptop, the power comes back on, and I have to move everything back to the
desktop.
The
last headache is Cell. We've lost cell service here three times this month.
That's an enormous pain because our internet is 5G, so if we lose cell, we lose
everything else. We cut the cable years ago, and all TVs are connected to Roku
now. Most of my library is eBooks, and since the VA is crap at providing me
with the proper optical prescription, the hard copy books I have can be
impossible to read. I store all my notes and stories in the cloud so I can work
from anywhere, and suddenly I'm cut off from that. I have a hard drive with
older anime stored on it so I can put that on, but it's all subtitled. These
cell outages are not quick; each one was a five hours wait.
I've
finally gotten to a point where Stormwatch 16 is flowing. It's been a pretty
painful write because Pierre Lévesque and his family are in Springville. Pierre
wants the man who killed his daughter and son-in-law. Josh thinks he knows, but
he doesn't want to say because what if it was someone else? Either way, there's
a senator who needs to go to prison.
It's
not going to be all sadness. The girls Josianne and Marcelline are fascinated
by snow and the twins. They became addicted to Ranch Dressing, fish fry, air
hockey, beef on weck, Loganberry pop, and their nephew Cholly. The people of
Springville can't understand them at all. In their eyes, this family traveled
from Heaven on Earth to the slush capital of the world. Why would you do such a
thing? And are they going to take Cholly back to New Caledonia when they leave?
I'm
estimating that I'll have Stormwatch 16 finished up and in KMaz's hands for her
awesome editing skills by this time next week or sooner. That means I can start
working on Gods Save the Queen Book 5, Yuletide. Yes, it's going to be a Yule
celebration in the Snowcross Mountains. It's also a leap forward by about six
years. Marlon Stein will have a three-year-old sister when the book opens. I am
looking for ancient Yuletide traditions that we can transfer to Kodu. I have a
Santa Claus/Father Christmas figure already, he's been mentioned in each book,
but I didn't expand on that. Maz Dracus, the god of Charity and Generosity.
He's called "Draka" or "Saint Heldus" or "Father Yuletide."
If you
have or know of an ancient Mid-Winter tradition that we can export to Kodu,
please drop me a line. Sorry, but the Missile Toast joke won't make it to Kodu,
but I'm sure we can figure some evergreen plants that the elves of the far
southern regions used for Yuletide ceremonies.
And
that's it. I have maybe 5,000 words to go then Stormwatch 16 goes into its
editing phase. When I return to work on Stormwatch 17, Josh and Veronica will
be on their Honeymoon along with Paul, Andi, Yi, Kenny, Don, Lanh, and Kim-ly.
If there's anything you'd like to see on their vacation to Nisi Arcadia, please
let me know, I'll entertain any suggestion!
Duleigh - Doug.
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