rolled up neatly and tucked into a bottle, screwing the red cap on tightly

I have been neglecting the blog shamefully! Day Job has been a little crazy lately, and then I fell ill with a dire cold. So I don't really have a lot to talk about, you know? Haven't had time or energy for much garden work.

I will say this: THE DAFFODILS ARE BLOOMING THIS IS A REAL THING THAT IS HAPPENING

It feels like the curse of this bizarre and terrifying winter has perhaps lifted at last!

Creatively... I have been drawing, but see also: time and energy for scanning and formatting.

I did also make a pretty huge creative change in one of my settings, but it's so huge that I want to develop it a but further before I talk about that. It has put back my research for BP&P, but I'm not too upset because I think the novel will be stronger for this even if I don't get it written on my original timetable.

Also also I wrote a poem, but it's not spec and I have no experience with this, so not only do I have no idea whether it's any good, I also don't know what you do with poems that aren't spec. Suggestions welcome.

It's very odds and endsy right now, readers. The badness of the world has been weighing especially hard on me the past few weeks; I look around and I see hatred and hostility everywhere. Lately this has almost eclipsed the weight of my own personal sadnesses. I wonder whether there's even any point trying to get better while the world gets worse and worse.

I know there are things to be said to that. I read a post recently by a man who is blogging about his life with cancer and it has, in the words of Hercule Poirot, given me furiously to think. But I, myself, don't know how to translate answers into life. I'm just here, each day, getting up and doing what I can. Praying that something will change, whether it's in the world or in my circumstances or in myself.

Guess that's all you can do, right?

I will try to scan some art soon, though.