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Midsummer!

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Hello, dear Reader, I’m coming at you a little fuzzy today. I just woke up and my right hand’s wrist is very much in pain. I slept on it weird, I guess. The fuzziness and wrist pain, and the little headache that is being presently managed by paracetamol, hydration and caffeine, are all caused either directly or indirectly by last night: It is Juhannus, dear reader, or Midsummer for you purely anglo folk over in the Northern Americas and the British isles, the festival of light! (And no, the depiction of this long tradition by the movie Midsommar is not accurate.) Midsummer is and has been celebrated for a long time during the summer solstice which in the Nordic countries is called the ‘nightless night,’ or the ‘longest day of the year.’ In Finland it received the name Juhannus through John the Baptist, whom the day was given as a birthday by the church. (Other Nordics and some Baltics have Midsummer too, but I am not up for going into detail about them. Go read about it here )....
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Book Five!

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  Hello dear Reader, I’ve been enjoying my holiday for the past week and boy oh boy how the time flies. Already the first week is over and done with. Five left and then I’m back to making the bread that allows me to write on these blessed six weeks. Here in the north it’s a mix of rainy with a chance of sun. As I write I’m once again looking out the window where gray skies and a light drizzle greet me. I don’t mind the rain, especially during the summer. But! But, but but! The Chronologies The longer opinion piece, a badly constructed essay, that I’ve been promising you is on hold for the time being because… I’M BACK TO WRITING TLC! An overwhelming spirit took hold of me two days ago on the tenth, and the first chapter of Book V began spewing out of me in a torrent of new and colorful words! I don’t want to spoil anything yet, but the first chapter will not be starring the cast you’ve come to know. Hell, the entire milieu is different (but similar). Think ...
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FREEDOM! For Six Weeks

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Hello again, Reader, I am home! Forty-six days later I’m back in the north, where summer has come humid and rainy. As I look out the window of my lovely girlfriend’s rental apartment window, the sky is a mix of brilliant white and dark gray. Trees are fat with emerald leaves, and a fleet of summer birds hop from canopy to canopy, competing in their personal song competitions, creating a wonderful choir that is the tune of summer. The air is sweet with pollen and the calming scent of wet everything. I’m the type of guy that sweats on humid days by just sitting and taking it easy, but I’m not complaining. I can’t express how wonderful the sound of rustling leaves, (one of my favorite sounds in the world), and birdsong is after six and a half weeks aboard a hulk of iron and electricity; constat vibration and, at times, rocking and rolling to the waves. I do believe in grounding in some measure, for the feeling of plopping my bare feet into a patch of dirt and/or grass just does wo...
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3 Years To 30

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Hello again, Reader, May is ending! I turned 27 on the 27 th and had an amazing birthday all things considered. The cook made a delicious Biscoff cheesecake and I had my guilty-pleasure food for dinner. (Mac and Cheese!) Also, an officer and the 8-12 watch, (both my age), made me a horrendous AI slop image using an old army photo of mine for a birthday card. It was hilarious and my heart was warmed from the thought they put into it. Even though I don’t condone use of AI in creative endeavors, I do give a pass for gag-gifts such as this. Also, by next week’s post I’ll (hopefully) be home. Original crew change day was second of June, but due to delays and scheduling issues we’ll have change on either the 5 th or 6 th , which means, if the former and not the latter, come next Saturday I’ll be posting from the comfort of home. And MAN am I in need of a holiday, a very long holiday, as a certain Hobbit once said. And to paraphrase him another time, after six weeks, (and a few days w...
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On Imagination, I.

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Hello again, Reader, As promised, this week’s post will have nothing to do with the Chronologies as such but rather it will be a different piece of me that I’m going to share with you. Now, I shall get a little vulnerable here, so be nice. The topic at hand is imagination, and the fear of its loss. There are times as a writer when you sit down and you stare an empty page, be it paper or digital, and nothing comes out. The mind is in a state that monks from sects all around the world train their whole lives to achieve, that state being entirely blank… I cannot express to you how vacuous my thoughts sometimes are, and on those days, if the phenomenon were to stretch by, say, a day, and at worst into a week, a sense of loss comes over me. It is a curious loss; one I’ve struggled to bring into words. If you’ve ever broken an arm or a leg and subsequently had had to live for weeks with the unfortunate limb entombed in a cast, you’ll know, in some measure, what that loss feels like. ...
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The Limbo Chronologies, Part 1. Draft 1.0

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Hello again, Reader, This post will be the shortest to date, and for a reason. This has been long in the making, and I’ve been promising it for you for too long. So without further ado:   Art by Leo Nuutinen Draft 1.0 PDF   Here it is. I sincerely hope you enjoy the amount of effort I’ve put into this project, and all the effort I shall put into it in the future. I shall now be moving all the chapters of book four to the Table Of Contents page, where you will also find another download link for the PDF.  Remember, you are allowed to share, but not to sell, if you need a refresher on the rights, check this Link. Please do share this story. The best way you, Dear Reader, can support me now is to share this to as many people as you can. Let The Limbo Chronologies be seen by as many eyes as possible, for, as I’ve said before, though you are only numbers in my statistics, I know you are there, and it is the only way I can track that someone is reading what I put d...
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I'm Running Out Of Title Ideas...

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  Hello again, Reader, It’s nearing the end of my third week aboard. I’m on a steady sleep, work, write/rest/read, work and repeat schedule. Even though I say I’m writing, to be honest, I’ve not been working on book five AT ALL. Instead, I’ve tickled my imagination with other things. The fifth book, first in part 2, remains in the aether, in the mental ZIP-file, and I know from experience that the longer I wait the more I have to wade through the data to catch hold of the string that leads to the end. But, that’s why we’ve notes. So, presently book five is in a bare conceptual stage of one line images that will come to pass in one way or another on the page. That’s not to say I don’t know what will happen. I do. I know the end of the story, all the way from the beginning with all its permutations in between. It’s a long one. So, I’m not particularly worried. What does this mean? It means that I’m taking a little break from working on TLC. It doesn’t mean I’ll take a break fro...
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