Soon this computer is packed—and tomorrow I leave, having skipped an entire book of travel writing in order to complete two history projects while in a Baltimore home where books may be kept. It truly feels now, that life is passing this one by.

It may still be taking the train hung between crutches, as high activity has taken a toll. The kindnesses of friends and the misfortune of our families, suffering many illnesses, has been sobering.

Every day has been beautiful blue, crisp and cool in the morning, the moon clear in the sky.

The rain clouds then roll in, pile high, and rain, every day—unreported on the news.

The clouds scatter at nightfall, revealing a cobalt sky, the soft coolness contrasts with the warm May nights of my youth.

We are told SHE is heating up.

The plants and birds are thriving. Their singing reminds me of the Great Hope of USG, that, as Alice B. Sheldon wrote as James Tiptree, that birds might finally be used to spread a plague to reduce mankind by 95%. As Gene Wolf declared so artfully in The Shadow of the Torturer, the population has only one chance, one trump—it’s vast numbers. The steerage cults have only one fear; we are that fear, manifest in flesh.

We must be reduced.

We will be reduced.

We are being culled.

It is sad to see so many herded into oblivion.

It does not lift a finger or raise a single word, cowering in my rabbit hole.

Life passes it by.

It coached until midnight last night. Tomorrow noon is the final knucklehead rite.

The yeti trajectory takes it in single stages to brief stops in: Jersey, Lancaster & Pittsburgh PA, Joliet, Washington State, Portland Oregon, San Jose & Emmeryville California, Salt Lake City Utah, Chicago and back to Pittsburgh.

Those 11 train and bus tickets, with six connecting drives of from 1 to 4 hours, get me from Baltimore June 1 to Baltimore September 5. Only Utah will I have more than a brief visit.

Travel writing will be at a minimum, with one volume reserved as journal covering April thru December.

Having slogged through two histories, with 7 books done on the year, from most recent to first:

-Ball of Fortune, a history at 25,967 words

-By Zeus, a history at 18,300 words,

-Nihil, novel, at 14,497 words

-Battle, a game at 19,278 words

-Fay Away, a journal at 31,772 words

-Shrouds of Arуas a history, at 135,446 words

-SPQR, Novel, at 58,221 words

It intends to complete the following while moving about:

-1. A Gaslight Knight, novel, in Jersey, PA and on train

-2. From a Heavy Gravity Planet, memoir, in Illinois

-3. The Warriors, novel, in the Pacific Northwest

-4. Good Morning, novel, in California

-5. I Could Not Kiss Ass, memoir, in Utah

-6. King Klan, novel, in Pittsburgh

This will probably encounter the fan of Fate at high speed. It is, though, a tragic habit to hatch a plan.

Thank you all for your help: to Nadia Howell for her poetry book, and Marckus Mickus for Let Them Look West, a novel to consider on the train, and to Black Master Roshi for my medicine bundle and Big Ron for that blackberry moonshine.

I’ll try not to yuck it up.

-James, the Brick Mouse House, Friday Morning

…

PS:

the site is scheduled out with weekend fiction posts to September and weekday nonfiction into October.

It will be leaving the email machine behind and just taking this, which, in a few locations has access to the back end of my website. If you have a prompt for an article you wish to be written, text it to Flop the Zero Phone at 443-686-0598. If your query is about training It will post the answer on the next open Tuesday or Thursday where It has internet access. History and such will post in November or on substack. If you are a substack or patreon reader, let me know so that It can direct your answer there.

Outside, in the soft sunlight under the bright blue sky, inset with the moon, is a fine rustling breeze. I will be on the bus in 2 hours, with hopefully nothing worth writing about.