Teasers have returned! Here is an excerpt from The Merchant of Nevra Coil. Called Everthorne, this is the northern Sister City and sits in a very difficult region. A briar forest to the south, icy expanses to the east, swamplands to the west, and a craggy shore to the north. Yet, it sits in a comfortable weather zone. It has a lot of trouble though, which you’ll get to see more of in the book.
Welcome to our end of season sale! All of our grills are discounted and can come in any reasonable shape you want. The only choice you have to make is size and the method by which it cooks. We even have vegetarian and vegan additions that will eliminate all non-desired food placed on the grill. Same can be done with allergies. Why do we do this? It’s because some people visit those with diet restrictions, ignore them, and take over the grill as if they are in charge. Totally optional addition though.
Now, take a look at our small, but expansive list.
Gas– The good old propane grill. Our tanks are extra fortified to prevent leaks and punctures. They are also self-filling through a tiny portal, which accesses our propane reserves. This will go off when it reaches 10% capacity, but it will shut down the grill for about 30 minutes.
Infrared– Using gas, a ceramic tile is heated to create more controllable thermal radiation. The smaller cannister has the same additions as the Gas Grill. The tiles will summon their own replacement when it is time to retire.
Electric– If you don’t want gas or charcoal then we have electric. The battery cannot recharge, but we have an automatic replacement system. It’s a team of vultures paired with raccoons who are trained to do the work. All you have to do is give them some of the BBQ and they’ll be happy.
Pellet Grill– This grill uses wood pellets and has a lot of versatility in how you cook the food. Each purchase comes with a list of preferred woods as well as where you can buy them cheap. The list changes as prices change. Grill comes with a splinter warning and removal system just in case.
The rest are all charcoal grills, but different styles. You can use any charcoal that you wish, but we do have a brand that burns slower. It means your charcoal will last longer and save you money.
Brazier– A standard grill with a wire rack over the charcoal. These all have a button you can press for intense heat, which cleans the rack. Any food that falls through the grating is lost, but summons a helper goblin to make sure it doesn’t happen again. They won’t touch the food because they ate the lost piece. Many people sacrifice a piece just to get the help because some goblins arrive with special sauce.
Kettle– This sphere-shaped grill is similar to the Brazier model, but doesn’t come with a goblin. Instead, it has a perfectly shaped cover, which can be made transparent by the turning of a dial. This allows you to check the progress of your cooking without losing heat. Larger models have a switch that will flip food to cook both sides.
American Hibachi– Unlike the Japanese version that only warms food, these small grills will cook food. They can be folded to a size that will fit in a shoebox and can be cleaned by shaking it in its compact form. This grill comes with tools made exactly to its size, which can be kept in a side compartment.
Tandoor– This is a more advanced grill made of clay and shaped to look like a vase. It can use wood or charcoal. A timer/thermometer is built into the tandoor grill, which will eject the skewered meat when cooked to your programmed desire. This grill comes with a robot designed to catch the flying food.
Gravity-Fed– Nothing special or magical about this type of grill. It’s just really interesting and cool.
I’ve had the giant anteater on my list of potential animal posts for a while. It was actually the whole anteater family, which is why it was going to take longer to put together. Then, I started learning about how the giant anteater isn’t as gentle as I believed. In fact, it can be downright aggressive. So, I’m going to focus on it with the usual conservation status and list of facts.
First, what is a giant anteater? These are big, hairy creatures found in Central and South America. From the name, you can tell that they eat ants as well as termites. They usually have a black and gray fur pattern with a really big tail. A giant anteater’s long snout helps with getting it’s long tongue to its underground meals. Rounding out the physical descriptions, we have really big and sharp claws.
The giant anteater is listed as vulnerable to extinct throughout its territory. This means it has been wiped out of some areas, but it lives and struggles in others. The main cause is the destruction and segmentation of its habitat. Much of the grasslands they live in have been turned into pastures for cash crops. The remaining areas are divided by roads and giant anteaters aren’t very good at looking both ways before they cross. Roads also split up populations and can lead to shallow gene pools. I find this interesting because it’s the first time I heard about this issue, but it’s probably fairly common.
So, what are some giant anteater facts?
They can be from 6-7 feet long with males being slightly heavier than females.
While their territories do overlap, they are solitary outside of breeding and mothers caring for their children.
They live in grasslands and rainforests.
Giant anteaters have their iconic snouts and sticky tongues, which are long and narrow to get into ant and termite homes.
Their tongues are 2 feet long and is only 0.4-0.6 inches at its thickest point
Their claws are big and sharp to help them dig into their prey’s home. This works very well for termite mounds, which are very strong.
They can eat 30,000 insects per day.
Giant Anteaters do not have teeth.
They have poor eyesight, but their sense of smell is 40x that of humans.
They get water by licking wet vegetation with their tongue.
If they are threatened, they will bellow and stand on their hind legs to swipe at their enemy with their claws.
Giant anteaters are typically diurnal, but will become nocturnal if there is a large human presence.
Their bushy tail helps to confuse predators because it makes them unsure of which end is the front. Choose the wrong one and you can get a claw to your belly.
Baby anteaters ride on their mother’s backs for around 6 months.
They have one of the lowest body temperatures of any mammal at 91 Fahrenheit (32.7 Celsius).
Giant anteaters can kill pumas, jaguars, and humans if threatened.
Now for the pictures and videos, which people always enjoy.
I’m actually writing this on Thursday night because I’ll be busy Friday and Saturday. The former has me waking up early to drive an hour and spend the day binge-watching a show with a friend. This has become an end of summer tradition before the school year starts and we go back to work. Bagels, vegan Chinese food, light drinks, and just all around goofing off. Going to be a lot of fun, but will leave me tired on Saturday when I’m determined to work on a non-writing project.
I might as well dive into what that project is. I’m trying to put together as much of my son’s Halloween costume as possible. A lot of sewing is involved and I have very little idea what I’m doing. Took time on Wednesday and Thursday to watch videos on how to knot the thread, sew, and tie it off. For some reason, I keep messing up, but I managed to get some of the pieces put together. The difficulty is with the shirt where I have to attach stuff and make sure I don’t sew the whole thing together. Need to have it hanging from the hat rack to make life easier. Using ribbons to hide my stitching and I’m going to fight to be neater with those. My plan is to finish as much as I can today and be able to finish once my son is here to act as a model. With any luck, I’ll switch back to being an author by Sunday or Monday.
Darwin & the Demon Game has been printed for months, so it’s good to go as soon as I get some time. My work schedule might give me 30 minutes or so to edit if I have the energy. My hope is to get the hand edits done by the 2 week holiday break, which will give me time to type it all in. Start 2025 with editing Darwin & the Beast Collector and I might be getting to Darwin & the Joy Path by next summer. This editing project is taking a lot longer than I expected, but life is crazy this year. I’m also being rather meticulous. If I get any sense that a detail isn’t right, I’ll mark it and spend 10-15 minutes checking the previous books to confirm consistency. So, this isn’t to edit books so much as the entire series so far and get everything settled for the next volume.
Oh yeah, I was in Oswego for the beginning of the week. Clearly, I made it up there and back in one piece. Spent a lot of time with friends, especially those who recently added a little baby. So cute. Went to a party, hung out, and helped with a few things before I went to have dinner with another friend. Add in a few Pokemon Go outings and I didn’t get as much writing done as I expected. I imagined staying in my room for most of the day with my notebook, but it was only 2-3 hours in the morning and maybe 2 at night. Kept getting phone calls at night from other friends, which delayed me tackling the project I set my sights on.
‘Phi Beta Files’ isn’t done as far as outlining. The first 2 books have been prepared and this took longer than expected. Well, the 1st just needed extra characters and locations. The 2nd one required repeatedly reading through my previous notes and creating the best short story chronology. It gave even more difficult with the 3rd book, which I only did the story order for. I’m an idiot for not realizing the 4 main characters having to split up for separate adventures meant 4 sets of ‘book only’ supporting characters and locations. I was going to tinker with it more at work, but I wasn’t the only one showing up extra early. I might take advantage of the classroom being empty and work in there some mornings when I have the energy. Be nice if I can get this done by the end of the year too.
Totally unassociated with the writing part of the trip, I made it up to Oswego, NY in time to visit this snack shop. They get treats from other countries like Brazil, Japan, Mexico, China, etc. I’m talking flavors of candies and chips that we don’t get here. Definitely going to order from them at times because what I got was great:
Passionfruit Snickers (DELICIOUS!)
Strawberry Snickers
Strawberry Shortcake KitKats
Golden (Caramel) KitKats
Ruffles Chips that smell and taste like Outback Steakhouse Babyback Ribs
Lays Chips that smell and taste like lemon garlic chicken
All great purchases and I really wish the place opened on Monday or early enough for me to swing by before leaving on Tuesday. Oh well, there will be other times because I’m thinking of making this a yearly trip for visiting friends and getting away. It was relaxing before returning to school and work. Be nice to bring my son up again too, but a solo trip once a year would be good as well. Helps that there are friends in the area, so I have people to hang out with.
The coming week is when school and work begin. Technically, I started already with our conferences. My students arrive on Tuesday for a new bell schedule, so we’re going to see how things go. I’m considering picking up a few protein shakes for lunches instead of making something. Just in case it’s harder to get my break than usual. Rice bowls take a while to prep and I’m not really digging the wraps and salads any more. My lunch is fairly late in the day too, so I don’t know how hungry I’ll be and I don’t want to have little appetite for dinner. I’ll take some time these weekend to get a few and stuff for rice bowls like tofu and a pineapple. At least my son’s lunch situation is thought up with ramen, mac & cheese, sandwiches, pizza rolls, and possibly chicken corn chowder. Kid has a great menu to choose from during what’s going to be a rough year.
Goals of the week?
Finish sewing the costume.
Start editing Darwin & the Demon Game OR tackle ‘Phi Beta Files’.
Get back to work.
Sleep!
Can’t Pokemon for exercise.
Food shop for lunches and future dinners when I’m on my own.
Order remaining costume parts I can’t make myself.
Well, it’s the end of August and I went through the first two days of school to confirm that summer is over. At least, it will be when this post goes live. Right now, it’s Memorial Day weekend in May and I thought it would be funny to write this and see if I was right about what happened.
Honestly, I spent most of the summer working. Our Life Skills program continues for 6 weeks in the summer to prevent regression. So, I signed up to be a TA for that, which meant working from July 8th until August 16th. That gave me about 1.5 weeks at the start of the summer and 1.5 afterwards. A lot of changes had been going on too, so the weekdays were rough. Field trips every Thursday were kind of fun, but I couldn’t exactly relax on them. This meant I spent weekends either cherishing the time I got with my son or editing while regaining energy for the next week.
On the plus side, I got through all of Darwin & the Avenging Elf. I was able to begin Darwin & the Demon Game when I was in Oswego for a few days to get away for a bit. Couldn’t bring my laptop, so I’ll get to the hand edits of the former this weekend since I have time. Still, made some decent progress with 2024 being a big editing year. I might even start writing Darwin & the Joy Path by December. Won’t hold my breath considering this school year is set to be a doozy. Not only for me, but my son has a crazy schedule with a lot of work.
Non-editing free time was the big Lego sets I was saving. DnD 50th Anniversary, Gotham City, and Barad-dur gave me some good challenges. I only worked on them when the weather was bad and the evenings. If I wasn’t working and the weather was good, I went out to do some Pokemon Go. As long as I got an hour of fresh air, I was happy since it cleared my head when I needed it. Still getting the hang of the game and they have so many special events on the weekends that it risk being a big distraction when I don’t have my son around. Thankfully, my goal isn’t to do great against other trainers. All I want is to get one of each Pokemon and complete the whole collection. That and get some exercise because the biking was getting boring. Probably have to get back to that once the cold weather returns.
The time with my son felt very limited, so I tried to make the most of it. I spent July 4th with him, but there weren’t any big shows in the area. Seems they do that the weekend before if the holiday lands on a weekday. I didn’t have my son during that time, so the local fireworks and drone show wasn’t that appealing to me. Maybe I’ll get lucky and have him for the show next year even though I don’t get the holiday. Since we did a trip in April, we didn’t do one in August. Only had a week together too and I wanted him to see his friends or see my parents. Trips are fun, but he needs to socialize with people other than myself.
Speaking of trips, I took a solo journey to Oswego at the start of the week. (At least, I hope I did since I’m still looking at hotel rooms.) It was fairly nerve-wracking since I never made that trip on my own. Nobody to talk to in the car or eat with when I make a stop for food really wears on a person. It was nice to be up there on my own and get together with friends, but I’m still not comfortable doing it. A few times I felt like I was in over my head and should turn back, but the hotel room was booked. Will I do a trip like this again? I don’t know. Definitely go back with my son, but I haven’t decided if I would do another solo trip. It is nice to get away to a place I know enough to be comfortable, so I can get some writing done. Oswego definitely has a more relaxed vibe than Long Island, which helps with the creative juices.
That was my summer . . . Or not since I’m writing this in May. 😀
By the time you read this, I’ll be back in school and probably well into the first of many meetings of the year. That or some training because I made this post before I got the itinerary. At the very least, the ice breaker is done. Why are ice breakers never about crushing ice to make snow-cones? (To be fair, the summer session I worked started on July 8th and ended on August 16th. So, I didn’t have much of a summer break to begin with.)
Legends of Windemere 