February 2023 update #5

 

A lot of writing progress in the last week - I should finish chapter 14 today! This takes Gwernin & company to Stonehenge, where they plan to watch the midsummer sunrise in the next chapter. This was not really a good decision on their part; Stonehenge (and Avebury, their next target) being in Anglo-Saxon territory, in the expanding kingdom of Wessex. Complications may ensure.

Pertinent reference for this chapter:

Wessex in the early Middle Ages by Barbara Yorke, London : Leicester University Press, 1995.

February 2023 update #4

 Since the last update, I've really got going on the writing. Finished chapter 11 (The Two Wells) on Friday; chapter 12 (Camlann Field) on Sunday, subject to a little tinkering; and I've got the larger part of chapter 13 (In Arthur's Hall) done already. After that I'll have to see what goes in chapter 14, which will be transitional to the next set of linked chapters. Those will involve some people Gwernin has met before. :)

Februry 2023 #3

 After spending several days on the Taliesin project, I'm finally back to The Old Gods Endure. I spent a lot of time proof reading the manuscript to date, fixing a number of minor issues, and redoing the chapter formatting, then managed 285 words on chapter 11. I hope to finish that chapter by this time next week, hopefully sooner.

I've also changed the header on this blog to match my business cards. The ogam letters on the branch spell out "tre gwernin", which means "Gwernin's home".

February #2 - An unexpected detour

 I have been putting in a lot of writing time the last few days, but not on The Old Gods Endure. Instead I've  been combing back through the Storyteller books to date and The King's Druid for snippets about Taliesin. I was beginning to have the feeling of potentially painting myself into a corner which led to my writing The Druid's Son in order to get Mac Criomthann's background straight. I don't plan (lol) to stop working on Old Gods in order to hare off and write Taliesin's story, but I've sorted out pertinent snippets into an timeline, and have only found a couple of minor contradictions to date. Now onward w/ Gwernin. :)

February 2023 #1

 Only 80 words so far on Chapter 11, but I hope to write more today. The last week was dedicated to research, plus coping with some very cold weather (highs in the teens F). The next week should be better. Currently useful references have included Geoffrey Ashe's Arthurian Britain, and the next three chapters will deal partly with Taliesin's experiences before and after Camlann.