Fall at Last!

It’s fall at last! That means the scorching, steaming days of summer will soon be fading into a more manageable range of temperatures both for me and for my garden. I’ll actually be relieved to toss the tomato plants into the compost pile, because even with the relatively limited harvest everyone’s complaining about this year, I still can’t keep up. I’ve dehydrated two jars of tomatoes, roasted and frozen another batch, and used them in every conceivable sandwich and dinner dish I can think of, and I still have ten fifteen large-ish cherry tomatoes and two bigger ones on the counter, staring at me reproachfully. I also have a tray of chile peppers, mostly thai chiles but a few jalapenos, doing the same thing, even after using a double handful to make chili oil. I really ought to dehydrate the rest, but that has to wait on a day when I can open all the windows….

Enough about the garden. A quick catch-up on other matters: I’m still working on the second book, and on the collection of intersectional stories that will be book 1.5. The collection of non-Kingdom stories is still pending cover art, among other items. I really need to reach out to reviewers and blurbers about that one … in any case, I’m figuring the publication date will be early 2027 at this point. Fallen City is on its second edition, with expanded content that I think readers will appreciate, and it’s finally available in both ebook and print forms. I’m not entirely happy with the formatting on the backmatter – it’s flipped to the left page instead of properly on the right – but I honestly tried to fix that four times and finally gave up. As I’ve complained about elsewhere, I’m never again going to use Word for typeset.

Barring unexpected complications, I should be graduating from J Sarge Reynolds Community College at the end of the year with an Associate of Science degree in Horticulture. Which is exciting and scary at the same time, because I still can’t answer the question: So what will you do with that degree, anyway?

I have so. many. projects I want to work on. More blog posts about maps. About gardening. About how writing intersects with those things. More fiction writing. Growing rare varieties of hot peppers so we don’t lose them. Finding more classes to take – bookbinding/repair has always fascinated me, but I’ve never had the oomph to pursue that interest. A cookbook/housekeeping advice guide to pass down or sideways, as the case may be; that’s a vanity project that I’ve been intending to get to for years and never really made headway on. Back burnered novels (three, I believe).

That’s only the ones that come to mind offhand. There are another two dozen lurking below those, swimming like patient sharks, waiting to ambush me just when I’m really focused on a time sensitive project: hey, when were chalkboards invented? What was used before chalkboards? What was used for chalk…? It’s important to know for my writing. No, really, it might be necessary at some point in the story. Better check that now….

(Answers: mid 1880s, slate, and I managed to stop myself there so I don’t know.)

Where was I? Oh, right. Projects. What to do with a horticulture degree. Graduating. Self publishing my work. Abundant tomatoes, and a craving for cooler weather. What haven’t I said yet?

Ah! I’m going to be at ‘Burg Quest at the end of the month – that’s a two day market (indoors, thank you very much). Well, the event runs for three days, but vending is only Saturday and Sunday. It looks like it’ll be a lot of fun, so plan to come on out!

And I think … that’s it for updates and ramblings. Time to start in on some of the fun blog posts I have in mind, like using some of this great horticultural knowledge of mine to talk about using plants in your fiction writing!

Onwards!