Update #2 - January 2026

 Sigh. Once again, not much progress. I've got to stop browsing the web so much and get on with this book.

Got about 3.5 inches of snow last night. This lot will now be leaving very fast, as it's going to be pretty cold the next couple of days. Lots of birds and squirrels this morning, including a flicker earlier who was busy eating the suet crumbs a squirrel was dropping from the feeder.

Update #1 - January 2026

 No writing the last few days, but that is about to change. If I'm going to finish the Taliesin book this year, I've got to get going!

Hope everyone had good holidays. Cloudy here today but not very cold. We need more snow, and more sunshine in between. :)

Update #4 - December 2025

 Running late with this post due to holidays. No writing progress this last week - I may just wait to start again after New Year's Eve, but I wanted to get one more December update before it's too late.

After a bunch of mild days, we got an inch or so of snow late last night, and it was 12 F at sunrise. The snow will clear itself off in the next couple of days, so I haven't bothered scraping it much, especially since it was frozen to the walks this morning. 

Happy New Year, everyone!

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Update #3 - December 2025

 Sigh. No writing progress, although I spent some time yesterday tinkering with chapter 1. I think I'll back off and restart chapter 2, which isn't working. I'd only got as far as planning that someone would tell a story, but I don't know what the story is.

Milder weather on the whole, but windy. Need to do some more yard cleanup, but no incentive. We'll be having Midwinter celebration on Saturday; then there's Christmas and New Years. I hope to get more things done next month. In the meantime, happy holidays, everyone!

Update #2 - December 2025

 Again, not much additional writing on chapter 2, but some reading of earlier material in the Storyteller books and thoughts about plotting, which led to an additional chapter in the spreadsheets. For some reason Talhaearn is about to tell a tale about Manawydan, perhaps as something Gwion can think about. This update is a day late because we were doing errands yesterday. I'm hoping to make more progress in the next week before the December holidays start.

After last week's snow and cold weather, we've now returned to highs around 60 or so occasional nights with mild or absent frost. Not unusual for Denver at this time of year. We could definitely use more precipitation, though - it's been a very dry year since late spring.

Update #1 - December 2025

 Very little writing progress in the last week, although I have the beginnings of chapter 2, and a couple of ideas for the rest of it. This chapter needs to cover their travel from Aberystwyth to Caerwent on the south coast. I've found an interesting link to Roman roads which will be helpful, although I've covered the ones they'll be using before in Storyteller and The Old Gods Endure. Hopefully I'll make more progress in the next week.

Winter is definitely here. We had snow Tuesday night and most of Wednesday, for a total of about 4 - 4.5 inches. It seems to have been wet initially, so all the trees are covered with it, but happily there were no leaves left by then. About 10 degrees F this morning, but the temperature may creep up above freezing for a while this afternoon. Too cold for my orange cat Ruay, who is currently sleeping
in the cat bed behind this laptop!

Update #4 - November 2025

 Well, I finally got out of Chapter 1, and made a brief start on Chapter 2. This one will take Gwion to King Arthur's court at Venta with Talhaearn and Emrys, where he will be living and studying as he grows up. Again, this is a period which I will have to think about, as it's not something he has ever told Gwernin about. On the other hand, I don't have to make it fit in with much that he did tell Gwernin...

Cold mornings now - 20 F at dawn yesterday and today - and colder weather coming next week. I need to empty the water buckets in the garden when I can get them thawed, even though the small birds like to drink at them. Getting anything thawed this morning for the wildlife involved icebreaking and hot water. 

Rather than celebrating Thanksgiving today, I'll be joining Rowen and two friends Saturday for our Friends-giving dinner. Instead of duck or turkey, we'll be having Alaskan crab this year!

Update #3 - November 2025

 Again, not much progress on the book. Partly too many distractions - errands and other things. I'm still bogged down in chapter 1, and need to decide what happens next. The beginning setup feels too similar to the beginning of The King's Druid, but maybe that's partly why Taliesin and Fraechan become such good friends. Well, we'll see... Incidentally, someone bought a bunch of my books on Lulu a few days ago, which was a nice surprise. 

One of the distractions was the removal of a dead tree in the backyard. Between delays in starting and the need for me to supervise the process that took most of the day. Tuesday was spent running various errands, and this afternoon I'll take Ruay to the vet for his annual checkup. After that I have a few days when I hope I can concentrate on writing...

Update #2 - November 2025

 The last week has been mostly taken up with setting up the new computer, and I still have more work to do on it. At least I got it to the point where I could use it for last night's Zoom language class. Once that's done, I can concentrate on writing again.

Gardening continues in the winter cleanup phase. I'll be doing some yard work today, raking leaves and trimming a couple of elms. After a cold weekend, we've been having a stretch of mild weather with little or no frost, but the cold weather will be back next week. What I keep asking the weather gods for is some rain.

Update #1 - November 2025

 Very slow writing progress again. Partly it's a matter of fitting bits in from the Storyteller books, and in some cases adding necessary bits that Gwernin didn't know or misremembered (something that has happened before when I wrote The King's Druid). I have a chapter outline as usual, but it may need some tinkering. And this weekend will be taken up by computer stuff, since I finally ordered a new desktop which should arrive tomorrow. Sigh.

Frost most mornings now. I've been doing yard work several days a week. Yesterday it was leaf raking, the day before tomato and bean cleanup. I pulled the hoses, but may reattach one to water a few things if it stays this dry - mostly the roses. And I still need to do a little mowing, but there's no hurry now.