Ten days into the new year...

Yes, I've been neglecting this blog. Guilty, guilty, guilty! I'd resolve to do better this year, but I don't do New Year's resolutions.

Anyway, after several holidays, a foot or two of snow, and some fiendishly cold weather (-5 F. more than once last week), what do I have to say for myself?

I'm five chapters (58 pages) into the new book, and since Gwernin left Wales it's been tough going. Start to write, go off to do more research, come back and write a little, go off to do more research, continue in loop... Two steps forward and one back. I *still* don't know enough about Ireland. Too many things to check (sigh). More books to buy and read (grin). I've established most of the main characters -- boy, have I! -- but there's still more background work to do. And one of the places I visited in Ireland doesn't fit in at all -- it probably wasn't occupied in the 6th century -- and there are at least three more places I now want to take the story which I didn't see while I was there (two for lack of time, one because I didn't know it was there). And some of the last part of Gwernin's planned itinerary just doesn't make sense with the topography. And then there's the story arc...

So all in all, I think this book is going to take at least a year longer to write than I expected -- but then, I was also planning to retire at the end of December, and I've had to put that off. So it goes...

It will take as long as it takes to get the book right, that's all.

Belated Happy New Year!

-GRG