Last week was Homecoming week, and my younger two girls are both now in High School. It's really something watching how much effort the girls (and their mom and other girls' moms) put into the preparation.

Meanwhile my oldest had a rugby tournament, where they awarded her MVP. Certainly a better way to spend her time than watching that Arkansas v Notre Dame football game. Brutal. Yes, to relax, she does rugby and boxing. Any wonder I came up with Red? Really miss having my oldest girl around.

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Same stories, new formats!

I released Mother of Trees on Audiobook. I did it quietly, no fanfare, demonstrating once again my mad skillz in advertising.

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I also made a boxed set for Guardian League, ebook only. If any of you started with my newer series, you now have an easy way to grab the entire first series.

Over the last couple of weeks, the third thread of Shepherds has begun to pull together. Two and a half chapters written, plus lots of notes and a fair bit of deleted data in the virtual recycle bin.

Closer at hand, the evidence lay at the base of the crack. Broad scrape-arcs scored the stone leading from the dragon’s remains to where we stood—marks too wide for feet, too shallow for claws. Someone had hauled something massive here, then up. In the grit lay a snapped length of braided line and a shard of green resin, the kind Wood Elves use to bind ropes. That explained the grooves in the stone at the fissure—places where the lowering line had scored the rock as it bore weight.

“They’ve taken bones,” I whispered.

Speaking of bones, I'm still a long way from even having the bare bones of this story pulled together. It's been a crazy heavy lift. Or maybe I've divided my time more than with previous books by leaning into the marketing. Which has not gone well--my efforts pretty consistently backfire. I hope there's some kind of rule about how many mistakes you can make before something works.

All books by Steven J. Morris