Song of the Week

Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”

Good morning!

It’s a new month, and I’ll be out to two new events in the coming weeks. First is the Kenosha Comic Con on Sunday, July 14, and second is the Feast of the Goat Queen on Saturday, July 27. I’ll be sure to remind you as we get closer to these dates.

Patreon readers have FOUR more chapters left of Journey to the Water before the serialized version is complete, and blog readers have five. I’ll be working at a polling place for the special election primary tomorrow, so the posting schedule will be moved forward a day: I’ll have a new chapter on Patreon on Wednesday, and last week’s chapter will be here on Thursday.

I’ll probably still be in the middle of rewrites when all the chapters are posted (roughly a month from now). My plan right now is to give you the first chapter/installment of some of the new projects I’ve been working on and hold a vote, so stay tuned.

Here’s some petitions:

Via Mercy Corps: Support families experiencing extreme hunger

Via Care Action: Countries are facing catastrophic hunger

Via Win Without War: Block offensive weapons bound for the Israeli government

Via Jewish Voice for Peace: Arms embargo now

That’s all I’ve got for you for today. Have an excellent week.

Journey to the Water Chapter LXIV: The Gate of Bone

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

From the wreckage of a hundred or more ships, I crafted a sturdy canoe, large enough to withstand the crashing waves but small enough that I could hold its sail and its single oar alone. I cut apart the robe that had been given to me at the temple of the dragon, stitching its panels together to craft a sail; the oar was a fortunate find, washed up in a frigid tide pool. Water and weather had split it almost in two, but I tied it together with sinew and rope, and it held well enough. It would get me out to sea. 

All the while, the sun rose lower and set more swiftly with each brief, passing day. I worked by firelight. The pilgrims maintained a bonfire of driftwood and animal dung. We ate from our shared stores and from what little we could gather in the tide pools: tiny shrimp and spiny urchins, as well as kelp and seaweed. I harpooned a seal soon after my arrival, and that fed us well for many days and earned me a place among the pilgrims. 

How they stared at me, day and night, watching me work. They were a strange, pale lot, with sunken eyes and bodies bent from carrying heavy packs and eating little for months at a time. They had walked, they said, for the better part of a year, almost entirely on foot. When the bitter winter ended, they would make their return journey, carrying with them all that they would need.

Still, when a great squid washed up upon the shore, its dead flesh shining like still water and reeking of the deep, they left it alone. One must not eat the flesh of a god, they said. 

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter LXIV: The Gate of Bone”

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Interlude Six

This man’s eyes, however, were a bright, metallic gold, the color of a new coin. 

“Welcome home, child,” he said in Khalim’s voice. “You’ve been wandering a long time.”

Interlude Six: The White City

We’ve arrived at the last Interlude of Journey to the Water, in which Khalim returns to the citadel for answers. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon.

Song of the Week

HIM, “In Joy and Sorrow”

Good morning! It’s Monday again.

I’m starting the Great Rewrite of Journey to the Water this week! In the meantime, you, dear reader, are nearing the end of the serial version. There will be a new chapter up on Patreon tomorrow, and last week’s chapter will be here for free reading on Wednesday.

A couple of petitions I’ve gathered today:

Via Win Without War: Enforce US law and save lives in Gaza

Also via Win Without War: Skip Israeli PM Netanyahu’s congressional address

Via Action Network: The US must welcome Palestinian refugees

If you’ve come across any actions to help Sudan and/or the Congo, please leave a link! I haven’t been able to find any.

I think that’s all for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Journey to the Water Chapter LXIII: The Last, Lonely Harbor

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

If I had gained nothing else from my term in the service of Deinaros the All-knowing, I had obtained several volumes of esoteric maps and the goodwill of the new master of the sorcerer’s tower. Both of these I gave to Hamilcar, in exchange for his aid on this most perilous of journeys. 

We would sail west first, out of the Summer Sea and into the vast, unforgiving ocean. We would then turn south and sail as long as the Lady of Osona could withstand the wind and the waves. She was a sturdy vessel, reinforced with the best shipbuilding techniques known to all the peoples of the trade routes, but Hamilcar warned me that even she would not hold together in the waters at the end of the world. I would have to traverse the last miles over land, alone. 

Bran, my faithful companion, the bravest of horses and the last gift that I still carried with me from Phyreios, would have to stay behind. He had already endured a number of sea voyages, none of them even a tenth of the length of the one I was about to undertake. He deserved solid ground beneath his hooves, green growing things to eat, and the open sky over his head. Confining him to the ship’s berth for so long would be little better than torture. 

I wandered Marenni for hours in widening circles, delaying the moment of our parting. In the evening, I left the city proper and stepped out into the surrounding hills, where the late-autumn fields spread out bare and brown beneath a cloudless sky. 

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter LXIII: The Last, Lonely Harbor”

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter LXIV

The timbers creaked as the sail unfurled, but I trusted my boat. It would carry me to the gate of bone. 

Whether it would carry me back remained to be seen. 

Chapter LXIV: The Gate of Bone

Eske is off on what might be his very last voyage. You can read this chapter right now on Patreon.

Song of the Week

Merci Raines, “The Devil Is a Gentleman”

Good morning!

I’ve finished the Great Reread of Journey to the Water, so I’ll be busy for the next couple of days creating a new outline. I wrote about this stage of my editing process here if you’re curious or think it might be helpful. Also, if you like that kind of content and want more of it, please let me know! Comments are open on every post. You’re all so silent, but WordPress tells me that you’re there. I don’t bite, I promise.

I still have a few more chapters of the original version of Journey to the Water for you, so there will be a new one up on Patreon tomorrow, and last week’s chapter will be up here on Wednesday.

Here’s the petitions I have rounded up today:

Via Demand Progress: Stop sending American-made bombs to Israel

Via the American Friends Service Committee: Act now for welcoming, dignified, and just immigration

Via Save the Children: Help child refugees survive and thrive

Via LeftClick: Pass the Trans Bill of Rights

I get a couple dozen petitions to my email inbox every day, so I’m focusing on sharing the ones that have to do with immediate or near-immediate threats to human life.

Thanks for stopping by! I love you, stay hydrated this week.

Some notes on editing

I’ve finished my reread of Journey to the Water! Next step to get it into shape is a new outline, and then the Great Rewrite begins. In the meantime, I thought I’d share a little bit about my editing process, in the hopes that it will be helpful, of interest, or both. I’ve mentioned a few of the steps of my process before, but it will be good to have it all in one place.

Here are three things about me:

  1. I cannot afford to pay a good editor at the rates that they deserve.
  2. I have a Master’s degree in English literature. (Points 1 and 2 may be related.)
  3. I do my own editing, but I always, always have at least one other person whose taste and advice I trust read through my manuscripts before they go to publication.

In order to edit my own work, I need to first distance myself from it.

(This got long, so the rest is behind the cut:)

Continue reading “Some notes on editing”

Journey to the Water Chapter LXII: Farther Shores

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

“So,” I said to Cricket, trying to appear nonchalant, “you’ve been reading.”

She regarded me with a look of utter disdain. Of course she’d been reading. “First, I read the safe books, and I learned to bind the monsters between the pages.”

As if in response, the bookshelf at her side shuddered, its heavy tomes shifting in place. I took an involuntary step back toward the stairs. 

Then I read the others,” she continued. “I didn’t sleep for four days. I know all of Deinaros’ secrets, and some he didn’t even know. He wasn’t all-knowing, after all.”

Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter LXII: Farther Shores”

New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter LXIII

I had walked the tundra and the steppe. I had crossed the mountains of the North, starving, mad, and alone. This would be no different. 

Chapter LXIII: The Last, Lonely Harbor

We are racing to the end of Journey to the Water! You can read this latest chapter right now on Patreon, or wait until next week for it to show up here.