January 2022 News

 Happy 2022 to you. Let's get into it, we're late getting started. 

As usual, I took off (day job) the last two weeks of the year. The ol' refresh button for my mental health. You understand. I made a to-do list and was able to smash 9/10s of it. 

Writing (editing as it were)

Over the break I knocked out the last of the character overhauls. What remains in edits are proper introductions and foreshadowing of persons and events, and some general tidying up. 

Assuming I can exercise discipline, development edits should be done in the first quarter of the year. Then I need to find and hire a line editor for a 285,000 word book for less than $3,000. Christ almighty it's almost enough to have me pitch this book to an agent/editor/publisher and put the expense on them. Almost. 

Paludarium

is a word I learned recently. My good friend David Floyd was getting rid of a 60 gallon aquarium. When I saw pictures, it was love at first sight. 

I bought it from him, and have gone through all the hardware that came with it and made a game plan. A paludarium includes a water and terrestrial biome. A hybrid aquarium/terrarium. It doesn't necessarily feature some exotic scorpion or salamander, but it can. What I hope to achieve with mine is low-maintenance ecological balance.

Construction will start with the geology and water flow. Once that's functional and settled, I'll add small plants. Moss, little ferns, whatever. Then decomposers like soil bugs, earthworms. Filters for the water like fresh-water mussels, etc. After that, we'll see what else fits. Crustaceans like woodlice, crayfish. By the spring, my yard is always exploding with sticky little frogs. I'll probably scoop some of those for my glass prison. Maybe a worm snake if one's forthcoming. 

Cleaning the tank

Testing the pumps

One day I found the water in the tank splitting sunlight like a prism

While my abrupt infatuation with a paludarium may seem out of left field, it isn't. It ties directly into Schala, who's been discussed but not yet defined here. She is digital. The glass prison is physical. I want to observe, adjust, and fine-tune a dynamic self-sustaining ecosystem, full of lifeforms native to this area, each complementing one another directly or indirectly. Most of that can also be said of Schala.

While writing this, I've realized the name of the land that will occupy this glass prison is Zeal. 

Lake Hartwell Kayak 

My beloved wife and I launched a kayak rental and delivery business last year and it's exploding, despite that we did no marketing until about a month ago.  

truck all dolled up for the Christmas parade

We've got a bare-bones website that suits its purpose, but I'd like to see expand soon. Have a look. Soon we'll make the Facebook and IG pages public. 

logo courtesy of the one and only Brandon Duncan,  acclaimed artist and vocalist/guitarist of award-winning Something Once Sacred

If you're in the area this summer, hit us up. We'll take care of you.

Stay safe, and I'll see you next month.

dtl