This is more of a check-in than an actual proper blog post. What we used to call a “drive-by posting.” It’s September, so naturally we’re still in the grip of what should be properly called August+. The heat won’t really break until maybe mid-September…if we’re lucky. So far the heat has taken the willow, maple, and one of the blueberry bushes we planted this spring. We won’t know the full extent of the damage until next spring, but we’ll either replant or face the fact that whatever comes up of its own accord is probably the only plant worth bothering about. For instance, the Yoshino cherry I planted a couple years ago dropped dead within three weeks.. It’s now been replaced by a popcorn tree that wanted the spot. I’ll see if it does any better.

The War God’s Son is in the home stretch. The draft passed the 80k mark last week and it might—might—have 10k to go. Likely it’ll grow a little in the rewrite, since I’m one of those who tend to embellish as much or more than I cut, but if it turns out over 90k words I’ll be surprised. Like any other project, ideally it turns out as long as it has to be and no longer. And for those (both of you) who have been wondering about the sequel to Black Kath’s Daughter, it’s next on the agenda, but I have to finish this one first.

I couldn’t sign off without mentioning the passing of Fred Pohl. He was one of the last of the old guard SF writers. “There were giants in the earth in those days.” I’m old enough to remember the passing of several of them: Heinlein, Asimov, Leiber, Anderson, Clarke, and that’s not even counting the ones who went before their time, like Tom Reamy. It’s rather like watching history passing before your eyes. The field has been undergoing something like a sea-change in the last several years, and the loss of Pohl only emphasizes it. Change happens. That’s all.