Milk, Cheese, and Lots of Writing!
Aug 21, 2025 10:48 pm
Hey !
Author Update
I'm pleased to say that the first draft for Elf Blooded has reached just over 81%. The past few weeks have been really productive which I am very grateful for. With all the craziness of life and kids and homestead, I've managed to scrape out a good 2,000 words per day. To be fair, those words will needs significant editing, but that's a later problem.
Now that Dwarf Blooded is off to the professional editor, it means that it's time to brush the dust off of the old first draft of Book Four of the Hidden Heritage series. Fairy Blooded was by far the most challenging to wrap my mind around. As you know, Jared has the ability to hear everyone's thoughts nearly all the time. Trying to capture what it might be like to have the ramblings of other people's thoughts nearly constantly proved--interesting. I'll be dropping those chapters (6 months before the book even comes out) in Ream staring next month!
It's crazy to me that the month nearly to the end, but that means it's time to hype up the next short story. September's edition is going to be all about forbidden magic. One man who decides to make the forbidden oath and use the magic to hunt others using the same dark art. Caught between good and evil, he has to weather hate from both sides. Yet his mission is clear, he can use the magic for the betterment of humankind.
And just because it's fun, here's the cover for said story.
Homestead Update
The homestead is pretty much just coasting along. When fall hits things will really start to get crazy as we prep to clean up the garden and the rest of the property, so until then, I'll be grateful for a bit of calm. Maizy is growing really fast, and she's proving to be very sweet. As you can see, she loves me quite a bit (mostly because I am the one who bottle feeds her twice a day.)
Lucy's milk production is nearing its peak, which makes things interesting. We're up to about eight gallons per day from her. Granted, some of those gallons go to Maizy and the pigs, but still, imagine having to deal with eight gallons per day. Sarah has to plan weekly cheese making sessions to keep up on it. I have to say though, there's not much more satisfying than opening up fresh aged cheese of all kinds knowing you made it from home grown milk. ;)
And some fun family news! Our third son made the decision to be baptized at a couple weeks ago. It was a joyous time for both him and the family as we gathered to celebrate his special day. Also, our older two boys had an archery competition with the local Idaho Falls team and they each made out with a medal! They got first place and third place in each of their age and distance divisions. This was particularly impressive because they both shoot bare bow (essential a recurve normal bow with no instruments or sights) but they competed against olympic recurve (bows with fancy instruments) and compound (even fancier instruments) bows. So they killed it!
Free Story
warm regards,
Dan
