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Crazy times this semester.

As a result of the unexpected unavailability of a faculty member, we had four full classes to staff less than 48 hours before classes began. I ended up with one of them, so I’m teaching an overload this term.

Not really a big deal, I suppose, except that this is also the semester that my next book, Owain Glyndwr: A Casebook, co-edited with John Bollard, needs to be at the forefront of my mind. I’m supposed to turn the final copy to the press in February.

So I’m busy.

Have also found a bit of time here and there for other things, though. I’ve finished a couple more articles, for instance, and I’m partway through a new short story (first in a while).

Alas, the novel that I knocked out 50,000 words of this summer still sits in essentially the same place. Something had to give if I was going to get any sleep, and since it doesn’t have a publishing contract and the academic stuff does ….

Life is grand. We’re south of Montrose, Colorado now, in the last gasps of our western excursion for the year. Tomorrow we begin to drive east.

Not sure how long it’ll take to get back to Charleston (and thus back to some normalcy in my life and around this website). A week, maybe?

In the meantime, I’m taking as many deep breaths as I can. Good clean air up here!

Ran my name through an anagram generator brought to my attention by Mary Robinette Kowal.

My favorites were “Alchemist Living On” and “Logical Invents Him.” Both kind of oddly appropriate.

Because I’m still too swamped, this:

I find it really annoying that every time I update WordPress I have to deal with the “Allowed memory size of xxxxxx bytes exhausted” error.

For my own benefit, I link the solution here.

I just picked up a book from InterLibary Loan today, a much-needed tome for the Brunanburh project. The Citadel has a relatively small library, so odds are pretty good that the kind of obscure medieval things I’m usually after can’t be found here on campus — so thank the stars for El Cid’s kind folks who help bring the books I need in from other campuses around the world. Without them, I’d be up a proverbial creek.

Now to dive back into Brunanburh — using, of course, this new acquisition!

Food, that is. I remain convinced that it’s actually outside of Charleston, on John’s Island, at a little strip-mall restaurant called “El Mercadito.” Delicious. I highly suggest the chorizo tacos with a smattering of onions and cilantro, garnished with fresh-squeezed lime. It’s magnificent.

The margaritas are very fine, too, but not necessary to the experience.

I recently finished up another exercise in Chaucerin’ some speculative fiction, which is good news.

The bad news is that I’m having trouble trying to record it. I don’t know squat about how to do it properly, and I have to rely on the cheap-o microphones that have come with my cheap-o computers over the years, recording in the middle of noisy houses.  I’m sure this shows on some of my other recordings.

At any rate, my one recording so far of this latest one sounds like I’m transmitting from a submarine. I’m going to try another cheap-o microphone and see how that goes. After all, the recording is a house-warming gift for a certain special someone who’s been moving from sea to shining sea of late. I don’t want it to lag too far behind her arrival in the house!