August Update

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 A man sits on a sheer, rocky outcropping high above a sunlit expanse of land that stretches to meet a sun-dappled sea in this horizontal painting. The outcropping slopes in to fill the right half of the composition, and is partially carpeted by mustard-yellow, brown, and moss-green growth. Bright sunlight from the upper right glints off some of the craggy, steel-gray rock faces. The man is tiny in scale within the composition, and sits near the top right with his legs stretched out in front of him. He wears a denim-blue shirt, tan pants, and soft hat with a narrow brim. He appears to have red hair and a beard. He holds a white object in front of him, presumably paper or a notebook. Behind him an open box of paints and brushes sits near a camp stool with a closed white parasol planted next to it. A lower hill in the middle distance slopes in from the left side and disappears behind the outcroppingin the center of the composition. The hill is covered with muted and dark greens and yellows, suggesting a forest of pine trees. The hill descends to meet the flat, mauve-tinted land, which is crisscrossed with shallow fissures. In the distance, the area where the narrow band of powder-blue sea meets the sky, about three-quarters of the way up the canvas, is painted with a tan-colored haze. The artist signed the work in the lower right as if he had carved his name and the date into the rock. It reads, “S R Gifford 1865.”

Hello, dear Reader,

To start off, no new chapter today. Most of my off-duty time aboard I’ve spent working on the fifth draft of my novel. So I hope chapters 5-1 to 5-4 have kept you entertained. And I’m sorry I’ve left you on a cliffhanger.

By my estimation, I give it ten to twelve days until the fifth draft is done. How that short of a time? You ask. Well. The novel is separated into three parts, sandwiched between a prologue or prelude, and an epilogue. Part one and three have eight chapters in total, while part two has ten. I’ve finished part 1, after meticulously going through each chapter, a chapter a day. But now I’m looking to crank it up to two chapters a day, because from part 2 onwards things begin ramping up and I need a wider bird’s eye if you catch what I mean.

I was honestly expecting myself to cringe at my own writing, having had the thing tucked away for a year, but DAMN! Reading it after twelve months of hibernation, (though I’ve ironed out many flaws and fixed some glaring writing style errors), the novel is compelling and I’ve enjoyed reading it.

I reiterate. I was fully expecting to HATE or CRINGE but instead found myself enjoying what I’d written. (Don’t know if that’s a good or a bad sign).

This further strengthened my conviction that this book will see a shelf one day! Come hell or high water.

Of course, I haven’t gotten to part 2 or 3 yet, so maybe I’m jumping the gun a bit and some chapter will need a complete overhaul. So, I don’t want to get your hopes up too much. I promise that I’ve not shelved or forgotten about The Chronologies, even though 5-5 isn’t coming out today.

Furthermore, I’ve not forgotten nor do I tend to forsake YOU!

All of you, in your silent support, have been amazing. And checking the blog’s stats I see that you come around every day even though I only post on Saturdays, so thank you for that.

Remember, everything I do here is a passion project. I do this for the love of writing and the love of knowing that at least one person, whomever they might be, finds enjoyment in what I write. This is completely self-funded in both time and money, and I’ve come into the literary scene without any previous “official” experience other than whatever little things I’ve written for myself.

I thank you for your patience. I hope all of you have a wonderful start for August.

Also, it’s insane to think that we’re coming up on almost a year of posting come September… A YEAR! By then I’m looking to have TLC part 1, (seeing that Book V will be included), out and ready to read. Hell, If I get around to setting up a Patreon, maybe we can get TLC part 1 to print sooner rather than later.

Thank you, once again for being here. I know posts have been a little dry, but I hope there’s been at least some value in these.

See you next Saturday!

(Art from nga.gov, just so you have something to please the eyes).

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