Day: July 26, 2025

I am loosing track of time. I had to rewrite the heading of the blog yesterday to reflect the actual number and day. It wasn’t Thursday yesterday at all. That means it is Friday today. I’m blogging from this beautiful backyard after a failed beach session. I put together roughly 1200 usable words but I did not finish a chapter. It was far too crazy and hectic on the beach to really settle in and focus. Normally that sort of background chaos is okay for me, but it was also hotter than I’m used to as it was much later in the day. As the hour closed on 4:30 I started to think I was screwing up and not doing what the Lady Talis needed–which led me to up and quit.

I developed a routine and then I broke away from it for very good and productive reasons. However, trying to slide into a new time slot was a rough start. I believe I ought to go back to the basics tomorrow and try to get this chapter done. There is one more following it before the Coda. That pushes a finished draft back another day to, possibly, the 1st of the month. That is the deadline at any rate. From then forward it is all about the wedding and settling into the rest of this honeymoon we are on.

Some Thoughts:

1. Continue to be blessed in this wonderful place. A local artist is allowing the Lady Talis to wear one of her fabulous custom pieces to the wedding–NO CHARGE! Just take pictures, she says. Heck yes we will.
2. The initial photos from the engagement shoot dropped. Sick pics. Really really nice stuff.

Stories rarely turn on the axis provided. Often they go awry, chasing the thread of whatever found the most meaning to the characters through your word and attentions. My story has done this, swelling from the original 80K to 100K with three chapters firmly remaining. It has been three for two days now. I’ve completed a chapter each of those days and found need to add another to follow it. These things are signs that the tale is telling itself. It is right, it is spiraling, and it may not survive the final edit.

I hope that it does. This last section feels like Shadowrun. It feels like what they wanted me to write in the first place. It is winding down properly and will end on the note it is supposed to. This is the way of writing–of writers. I am pleased and blessed to have that be a major part of my existence. It could have gone another way, y’ know. I could have succeeded in football, or more likely, failed in a much slower and grander fashion. That would have given my kids a greater advantage and understanding of the sport than they do now, but likely less hunger. It is better the way it is now. They have or will surpass me and then have an entire life to figure out what they want to become.

I, on the other hand, am what I mean to become. I saw an omen of that today. As I wrote on the beach, a bald eagle set down on the beach not twenty feet from me. It stood there for well over a minute watching me watch it. Crows screeched and whirled all around it, trying to force it to move on. It never flinched. It surveyed me, surveyed the beach, and eventually moved on

Siting an Eagle, especially at that distance, is a powerful omen. I don’t want to take it for granted. I seek to understand it and to use the good mana to propel me forward. I was writing without the distraction of the internet, which leads me to believe that is the right thing to do. I will find a way to keep that ritual as part of my life and to keep writing in focus for longer and longer. This is the way. This is my way.

However, the omen comes only weeks away from my wedding, so I cannot say it is about writing alone. That connection–that bond I have with the Lady Talis is so important, and I must do what I must in order to ensure she is happy and safe. I will work harder at that and I will keep her in focus. This too is my way.

It is the only way.