I think there are two or three of you out there who might have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in almost six months. It’s interesting how easy it is to slip below the horizon when you are not actively contributing to the literature. It’s not that I haven’t been writing. It’s just that it’s becoming more and more difficult to produce anything more than a few hundred words at a time. I am still working on what may be the last novel in the California Saga series. Part of what makes it difficult is having to accurately tie it in with three other novels that take place at the same time. I will finish it eventually. It stands at 52,000 words at this time. So I imagine it is a bit more than 50 percent complete.

There are two or three other stories in the mix. I will get to them eventually. I want to complete The Cynthia Chronicles – Volume 2; however, there is still quite a bit that needs to be done there. I will post Volume One in its entirety in a little while.

I am seriously considering retiring full time. I am 72, and my work is interfering with my recreation.

Subject change: I miss the guy. I know he disturbed many readers and authors at this and other sites; however, it was nice to post something and know at least one person would read it and post a comment. At least when he was here you could count on getting some feedback. I think it’s been just a bit more than a year since Stanman passed away. I’m sorry no one else has picked up the baton, not that we need a resident critiquer.

As some of you are aware, we and two other couples took a trip around England with stops in Edinburgh, Invergordon, Kirkwall, Ulapool, Belfast, Dublin, Holyhead, Cork, and Portland/Weymouth before returning to Southampton. Afterwards, my wife and I took the train from London to St. Ives where we visited cousins in Truro and traveled around the area for a couple of days. We had a great trip; however, things started to deteriorate towards the end.

One of our companions started experiencing pains in both legs on our return to London. On returning to the US he was diagnosed with blood clots. Complications set in including bleeding in the stomach. He ended up in an induced coma. He’s better now; however, he still is having hallucinations and is still in the hospital. The sister of the husband of the other couple went into hospice for untreatable cancer and has since passed away. While we were in London my sister-in-law contracted pneumonia, and after two weeks in the hospital has just been released.

It doesn’t end there. My 99 year old father-in-law who has been in a nursing home for much of the last year started to rapidly decline. He passed away two nights ago at the age of 99 years, 10 months and 9 days. He had a full life and was ready to go. Everyone is celebrating his life. I don’t think there is any great sadness.

I know many of you have experienced great losses over the last few months, and what we’ve been through pales in comparison. It has been heartening to see that in spite of these losses we continue on. We all face the inevitability of the end. I just hope that there is a lot of good news out there that needs to be shared. We are in need of some uplifting.