I can't believe how long it's been since I was here! Time certainly flies when you're having flies. Or something! Scary business, whatever it is.

I have recently been able to get back into my writing, at least a little. I've been revising Darkest Hour, the second fantasy book in my Casanarva Scrolls, trying to improve the pacing. I went back and labelled the chapters in my chapter list "A" for Action chapters and "Q" for Quiet ones. The quiet ones are often dramatic, but lack action--okay, violence. Too bad that the two are so often equivalent in our society, but they are. When I did that labelling, it was easy to see where I had too many Q chapters in a row. The resulting switching around meant having to change seasonal references, etc. That was a pain, but some of the chapters were set in Eedo, "where winter never ends," so it wasn't as bad as it could have been! :)

I even got back to working on The Coleman Massacre, a historical novel based on a true Indian attack right here in Burlingham, N.Y. back in September 1757. I got a bit stalled out on the Lenape (Delaware) Indian words, but with the help of their website and some Inter-Library Loaned books on the language by Nora Thompson Dean (Touching Leaves Woman), I think I've gotten them straightened out. I hope so.

Now Sally May (my red & white furry secretary) is helping me type this, so anything is possible. Not that she isn't a fine paperweight and a first class champion shredder, but her typing leaves a lot to be desired. What can you expect from someone with four legs and a tail who follows you home from the post office? Ten years ago on December 1st actually. She was so little she didn't know how to drink milk from a saucer, but she smelled of perfume. Someone threw her away. And with all the trucks and cars pulling in and out of the post office parking lot, it's a miracle this tiny kitten survived. Probably they hoped she'd get a good home for Christmas. I hope she did. She seems to like it here anyway. And we love kitty very much.