Hearth World

I finished rereading the sequel to Ring of Swords last Monday. It's going to take two revisions. There is a lot that needs fixing. There are structural problems, which are not going to be hard to fix. More important, I don't entirely like the mood of the novel. It's a bit too dark, maybe because it takes place almost entirely in cities and inside buildings. It needs a feeling of freedom and joy, not all the time, but there as an alternative to the problems that people in the novel have; and for me -- often -- freedom and joy are associated with being outside and away from urban areas. It's not that I require pristine nature. I am happy looking at ore boats arriving at Duluth or huge open pit iron mines. But I like water, especially big stretches of water, Lake Superior and the Mississippi; and I like forest and prairie and sky. It's probably time for Patrick and me to drive west and look at the Badlands and the Black Hills.