Schuyler Waynforth reports from England and Lovesettlement reprints it.

Tim posts his thoughts and memories of Scott Tolson.

Almost finished with contributors’ portraits for The Black Seal website. I volunteered for the job (heck, I invented the job) as a way to make our fictional contributors seem more real. Disquising a fiction by creating a larger one. It’s been an interesting exercise.

I don’t do portrait work generally and the few times I have I’ve usually either already known the person pretty well or had the person in front of me. For this project I’m working off a photo or two emailed to me from a far off land. I don’t know how close I’ve gotten to representing any of these guys. I’ve had to invent expressions when the ones in the photos didn’t match the mood I wanted. I’ve knocked off a pound or two. I’ve drawn more eyeglasses in the last couple months than I probably have in the last couple of years.

Once these last two are finished (hopefully tonight) I’ve got four more largish illustrations and I’m done with my allotment for issue #3. I believe that January is the intended publication date. The website will probably update sometime around then as well. I’ll make note of it when it happens.

Work continues slowly on The Cauldron. I’m debating whether I want to even commit to a regular posting schedule. I know I’ll have the first (and probably the second) page done by the First but I wouldn’t bet anything on whether I’d be ready for even biweekly publication in the first half of 2004.

I’ve promised Derek that I’d have the Dictionary illustrations for Mandate of Heaven finished by the end of the year. The work itself isn’t difficult. Finding a place to spread out my reference material and the time to work at it in between Aged Mother duty, household chores and reminding Nizzibet that, yes, she is My Favorite Everything, is the magic trick.

Letter from a Military Wife

Sometime last night the geoffdarrow mass of life support equipment keeping Scott Tolson’s body alive was shut off. Donors had been prepped to receive his organs. He didn’t need them anymore. He was declared brain dead on Wednesday.

The miracle (there are always miracles if you look at them from the right angle) is that Scott lived as long as he did. He had an unusual, unstable nerve cluster at his brain stem that should have gone years ago. So we had his big smiling face around longer than we deserved. He will be missed. Judging by the number of people at the hospital yesterday, he will be missed by multitudes. As his father said, one of the measures of a man is how many friends he has.

Scott Tolson was big man.

I could lie. I’m not that attached to the truth. Not here. I could claim that having Aged Mother living with us is a growing and learning experience, that it’s deepening our relationship in ways I’d never imagined, that I’m so grateful for this opportunity to repay her for all her sacrifices.

Uh hunh. I could say that.

I could also mention that it snowed last night. It was still coming down when I got up this morning. Very pretty. It changed to rain come the dawn and now there’s no trace of it. Just more lovely grey.

Scott Tolson is in Harbor View Hospital. He had, basically, a stroke, while working out yesterday. I don’t like to talk about odds, for survival, for recovery, for any of that. He’s still here. Nizzibet and I will be going to the hospital again tonight after we’ve taken care of Aged Mother’s dinner.

Lovesettlement Has Posted

Esteemed Brother has posted after a length hiatus. He demonstrates a suave articulation in the face of adolescent vitriol that I couldn’t begin to match.

And me? Posting will likely be light for a while. Many deadlines looming. Aged Mother requires care. Y’know, life happening.

We picked up Aged Mother and Esteemed Brother at the airport yesterday. E.B. was pushing A.M. in a wheelchair. She can still walk but not the long distances you need to cover in an airport.

Apparently A.M. was one of the designated terrorists for that flight and had to have her baggage searched. No point even being insulted by the dumbness of that. (Maybe she’s an 81 year old evil mastermind. Ya never know.) And A.M. tells us that she didn’t even realize that that’s what had happened until E.B. told the story here at dinner time.

A.M. got herself partly unpacked. There’s still a big suitcase to empty out. I’ve got the next couple of days off so that I can be here while she gets settled in. She only drove me crazy five or six times last night. Entirely to be expected. Nothing that I won’t get used to.

I take E.B. back to the airport this morning.

The Day

Aged Mother and Esteemed Brother arrive today at 2:30. That’s in a little less than four hours. People keep asking us if we’re ready for this. Of course. Of course not. You prepare yourself for the worst, hope for the best and get the unexpected. That’s what happens every day.