The Ramblings of an Artistic Equestrian

I made it through quite a few books in the last year. A lot of them were recommended by Morgan, which I have really appreciated and almost all of them have been absolutely fabulous.

I did finally finish "The Omnivours Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. It was very interesting learning about the many ways food gets from from where it is grown or raised to the table. The American food system is so weird and broken. I don't get how it can be cheaper to send food overseas to be processed and then send it back here for consumption. Also, corn. All the corn. Between corn and the preponderance of pesticides in processed foods, no wonder gut issues are high.

It was an interesting and enlightening read. Each section was focused around a meal that was a product of a specific food chain. From a fast-food meal, to your standard grocery store fare, a meal made from all locally sourced and organic ingredients, and the last one was foraged/hunted. I may not have all of them right, because it's been a couple months.

Morgan's first recommendation was "To Shape a Dragon's Breath" by Moniquill Blackgoose. It's about colonization and a fantasy world where there are dragons bonded with people. The colonizers have a lot of German and Danish flavor to them, which amused me greatly. The main character, Anequs, bonds with a native dragon, a species that had been extinct in her people's area for generations. To keep her people safe she enrolls in a dragon school run by the colonizers and has to navigate the space as a native young woman among the colonizers. I found it very engaging and enjoyable. The chapter titles told their own story. Anequs was smart, opinionated, but not infallible, but she learned from her mistakes and found her own strength.

These aren't going to be in any type of order. I allowed myself to get sucked into the free month audible subscription. This time I'm not going to get stuck paying for multiple months before I quit it, though. I also took advantage of one of their sales and a few of the free books, too, so I have a nice list I've been working through.

I got the first three books in Mary Robinette Kowal's The Glamourist Histories books. "Shades of Milk and Honey," "Glamour in Glass," and "Without a Summer" were all very enjoyable. They are mostly as advertised "Jane Austen with magic," but there's additional intrigue and other themes going on in the subsequent books. Very enjoyable, lovely worldbuilding and fantastic, complex characters. I'll eventually get through the rest of them.

I also tried the first book by Brandon Sanderson, "The Final Empire," the first of the Mistborn books. It was good. It was long and had some interesting twists and turns. I'm not interested in continuing on with more of them. Too many other compelling things to read.

"A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking" by T. Kingfisher was fantastic. I love Ursula Vernon's writing. I've loosely followed her career for over 20 years, since before "Digger." Anyway, her wit and sense of humor and touch of weird just hits me squarely every time. I love it. Mona was an engaging character with a fantastic voice and I love how creative and inventive she was in addressing her problems. Even if she was woefully incapable of dealing with her first problem.

"The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry" by C.M. Waggoner was recommended after T. Kingfisher's book, but I stopped during chapter two because there was more cursing than I wanted to keep listening to.

"Tess of the Road" by Rachel Hartman was a lovely wandering fantasy. Tess, the protagonist, runs away from home to avoid being shunted off to a convent by her parents. It was a lovely story about growth and change and finding your path. I have some of Hartman's other books on hold through the library.

Yes, I've discovered the digital audiobooks through my local library and couldn't be happier.

"Daughter of the Bone Forest," by Jasmine Skye was another recommendation from Morgan. It was pretty good, it ended rather abruptly and is part of a duology. The second book is out later this year. The magic was interesting and so was the world. I did roll my eyes a little at the practicality of 21 hand horses.

I listened to "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin. I had heard quite a bit about it and knew some of the spoilers, but it was still quite good. There was cursing, but not enough to put me off. One sex scene I skipped through. I'm willing to skip over one, maybe two, but more than that and I put a book down (I'd rather there be none).

The latest one I just finished was "Howl's Moving Castle" by Diana Wynne Jones. It was absolutely charming. The main character, Sophie, was also quite charming and very likeable herself. There were little mysteries to solve and I got some of them answered, but others were surprising, but inevitable.

I'm going to try and be better at both posting and being involved here. I blame getting distracted by Discord and also writing like MAD. When I'm not working I'm most often poking at my manuscript(s), even if it's just bits and bobs and little snippets here and there. It feels good and I'm close to finishing book one, but I guess it isn't going to end there because I have three more planned, but! Yes. Anyway! This wasn't going to be me rambling about writing.



This comic pretty much sums up some of the feelings.

But yesterday! The little spaces in the physical journal aren't enough to cover it all.

I had my montly Rio Verde/Scottsdale grouping. They didn't want to start until 8am so I still got up around 5am and fed the herd and myself before striking off just after 6am. I had errands to run! I had left my bit bucket at Linda's Thursday so I needed to acquire that. From there I ran up to Amaris' place to pick up shaft tips that will hopefully work for Linda's cart and replace the shaft that Panda bent when she spooked early in her training.

I forgot there was no Mesa Drive entrance on that part of the 202, but wandered through Lehi/the Indian reservation to get to Gilbert Rd and swing up to Rio Verde. I made it just on time and managed to avoid most of the traffic.

We started with Kris and Carmella. The little Quarter Horse mare is coming along nicely and we're starting to get Kris on the lines more. She had some nervous moments, but that's okay. Carmella did quite well and is settling back into the job.

Knight was up next. We swapped out his bit to a 6" and while it took a bit to persuade the bridle on his head he warmed up really nicely in the new bit. He drove well and Brian and I discussed that maybe part of his bit-taking issue was the bit having become too small for his mouth. They're going to try out the glroy/victory mouthpiece as well and see how that goes over the next few weeks. There was a huge difference in how Knight long lined and drove over last time when he was very sour to the NW corner of the arena. He was much easier to maneuver this time and barely thought of falling towards his favorite corner after an initial correction in the warm-up.

Theresa got to drive Sharan's Welsh cross mare Ginger since Buttercup is currently waiting to hear back from the vet on her bloodwork. They suspect cushings. She had some pretty obvious sinus swellings last month and her energy wasn't up to where it usually is either. Theresa really enjoyed the chance to drive Ginger and feel out a four-wheeled vehicle as well as playing with cones and more precise work in the arena instead of just down the road.

Jenny and Galaxy were next and Galaxy put in a pretty relaxed drive. We even asked for the trot and did some work with the cones as well. He's slowly improving in how he handles the turns, but it does take a lot of concentration to be sure he carries himself through the turn instead of dive-bombing.

Sharan and Ginger were last. Sharan is pretty funny because she gets what she wants and doesn't want to belabor the lesson. She doesn't need to suck up the full hour and if she gets what she wants 30 minutes in she's perfectly happy. Fine by me!

We worked on precision to the cones and how to set herself up to come through them, even when they're just a few inches outside of her wheel base. The big thing for her was thinking about steering and setting up for the rear wheels because the front of a four-wheeled vehicle are so mobile and you have to line it up for the hinds and can change the front at the last second to make it through. She was starting to get it and was pretty happy with ther homework assignment to do inbetween.

From there it was to Pam's to deliver the wheels and axle she bought from Sue and Henry. The axle was the right width so we didn't have to worry about taking wheels off and on, however, it wasn't a simple matter!

The axle connection to the body was strange, a series of four bolts and plates that wedged against each other to hold it in place. I managed to get those pieces off and we went to slide the axle off and ran into the upright holding the seat up. Bugger. Ok, take out the four carriage bolts there. One of the bolts broke as I was unescrewing it so we sent Pam off to get new bolts.

Seat support removed, we moved the wheels back and ran into the support backe at the back of the vehicle between the floor and the base of the shafts. Crap.

I tried undoing the bolt at the last floorboard only to realize the piece of metal runs ALL the way to the front of the vehicle and includes ALL of the floorboards. So the top it was! It was only a 2" brace point, but it was that point that was supporting the top of the seats, the fenders, and the whole of the shafts. This made maneuvering the axle up and over it a trial. We ended up removing one of the fenders and still had to fight and wrestle the dang thing to get the old axle off and then more muttering and wrangling and resetting of the vehicle as it's trying to fall apart to get the new axle and wheels on. Those fenders are beastly things to deal with. We got the back end put back together in time for Pam to return with the new carriage bolts for the seat.

She missed the fun part, but also the slight heart-attack that may have been enduced by seeing her beloved cart handled so brutishly as we dismantled and put it back together.

Cart re-assembled I headed home. I made a stop to deposit money and made it just in time to do my 4pm art lesson.

I also got the idea for a new podcast episode featuring The Meadowbrook Cart: Carriage Driving Right of Passage.

Running total: 19,781

Well, that's a fun number to end up with.

( Bouncing around )

Running total: 18,492

"I should never have taught him how," Teigan muttered, glaring into Kallon's empty room.

"He comes by it honestly,"Kayrin said.

Teigan frowned at her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Sneaking off to spend time with people or do things your parents don't appreciate? We've both done it."

"That was different. It's more the what than the who," Teigan admitted.

"O, yes, crossing borders and potentially causing an international incident is much more beneign than spending time with friends that your parents already know."

He shook his head. "If he isn't careful, we could lose everything we have here. We can't assume anyone here is like you, Kayrin."

"He has more control than you give him credit for, Teigan." She rubbed her hand along his back and rested her head against his.

"I hope so," he pressed his head against hers.

"What do you mean you can't hide your heat?"

"That's possible?"

"Yeah, it's essential," Kallon said. "If you want to sneak up on something or someone sensitive to temperature shifts you have to be able to. It also allows you to pass undetected, so long as the wind doesn't change. I imagine the Brehtsold and Zegdaen can do something similar with the electric pulses the body makes, but I don't know anything about that."

"See, that's what we need you for, Kallon. You know things that we don't. The Mothers purposefully kept that from us, and the six didn't spend enough time among the Brehtsoln to really learn what it is to be klamon, or at least Brehtsoln."

"I am not all klamon. I barely feel Getier right now."

There were only so many places they could hide their supplies on the boat. Four days into the voyage they found Prisha. The captain wasn't as angry as Kallon expected, but he did make it clear that Prisha would be staying on the boat and going back to Lunais on the return voyage.

"Prisha," Kallon whispered and nudged her shoulder, "it's time."

She got up quickly and followed him, a hand touching his shoulder as they carefully snuck above deck.

They only had the dim light of the stars to go by. Kallon was feeling more than seeing his way along. It took a lot of concentration to both feel where everyone else was, and mask his own heat. Prisha was holding steady, she had been a quick study in figuring out how to mask it, having very little Zegdaen and Brehtsoln in her background probably helped. He had had more practice that he should have sneaking in and out of the house in Jon. That felt like an eternity ago and he gave a small shake of his head to refocus.

They made it to the long boat and stealthily crept inside it. Prisha tucked the supplies neatly under the seat and helped let out the ropes slowly, doing their best to make no noise above the sound of the water against the ship.

"Which way, Kallon?" Prisha whispered when Kallon pushed them away from the ships side and took up the oars.

He looked up at the stars, trying to remember what he had learned about the constellations. The great dragon pointed south with his fearsome jaw. He found it. "This way, the land should be that way. If you feel into the water, it should get warmer towards shore."

They took turns rowing. As the sky started to warm in the east a distant bell rang from the direction they had left. Kallon strained to see the white sails that had grown small.

"Do you think they'll come after us?"

"They might try, but I think we have enough of a headstart that we'll beat them to shore, and I don't think they'll risk making land."

The boat did get closer with the rising sun, but so did the land. There were trees and cliffs looming above thin, rocky shores. They aimed towards an inviting inlet and landed a couple hours after sunrise.

Running count 17,317

Low count today, but also undercounted because I did some work in the master document I didn't bother counting.

I don't know what Lithadon studied (other than seduction...). I'm pretty sure she was six years and out. I suspect the girls are encouraged to do six years and out, but some, like Ishsobet, will go longer. Ishsobet may have excused herself with the fact that Yuri was well-occupied and not coming home any time soon.

The call for the incoming ship buzzed through the town. Everyone that was able turned out to the dock, and a few that weren't were assisted to make it. With this ship, it would be the most Lunaisan hybrids that had been home at one time in more than a decade. Anyone who could come home, had.

Many eager hands helped dock the ship and started unloading. The excited buzz died somewhat when he announced that Yuri and Kallon had disembarked at the Landing instead of coming to the harbor.

"Yuri wanted to show him where it started. They should be here within the hour."

Prisha's first view of Kallon was that first evening. They had prepared a performance, a celebration, both of the safe return of so many of their number, and to welcome the first newcomer among them.

Running Total: 16,380

(  Mishor and Nelendor )

( M. Nelendor )

Morgan gave me a prompt about what frustrates various characters the most about the bureaucratic side of the Brotherhood of the Meim.
( Danrick Mishor )
( Zekkarran Illendis )
( Silfiya DeTauwr )
( Alekandler Triden )

Running count: 10,374

( More of Mishor and crew in Kamenlohn )

Running total: 9,777

Of course, as I attempt to aim my efforts at the gaps in Fire Forged Key, I find myself plunking down nearly a thousand words in Depths of the Forge because I can't write in a straight line to save my life.

It's a good thing writing is so malleable.

( An interview with Punntel Dobenhyuns )

( Kallon's haircut )

A slow day for writing.

Running total: 8,343

The use of constructs to reinforce the hooves of the working animals was fascinating. It wasn't something Sray would be asked to do until she could consistently and easily work construct within other things. Illendis was still having her dismantle constructs, taking apart what the others had built.

"You're just going to stand there until I eat it, aren't you?" Sray asked, looking at him again.

"It would be nice to know if I got it right." Tos conceded.

"It smells like I remember."

"Well?"

She pushed back the wrapping and bit into it. Her teeth sunk into the dense, semi-moist cake. The myriad of flavors met her tongue. Sweet with the cool sharpness of savory spices wrapped around each other. Memories of her mother making the same thing came back, unbidden. The smell of them baking filling the air throughout the maze of cliffside dwellings.

Her cousin, Meilah, also had a strong liking for them. If felt like they took turns getting into trouble trying to snatch more than their fare share.

"Is it that good?" Tos asked, pulling her out of the memories.

She stared at him blankly for a moment before blinking, inhaling and standing up a little straighter. "It has been a long time."

"Your mother said they were your favorite."