ForestMulch of Ember

It was another sunny day of reprieve. I got outside and raked up another eight bags of leaves. It wasn't as good a day for raking as yesterday, because the wind was up. That slowed me down. There was just one strip that I didn't get to, and the Sparrowhawk finished that for me. I'm in a hurry because it's supposed to start raining on Thursday and then snow. After that, I sat in the back yard and enjoyed the sun while talking to Queenie. I finished making the beef stroganoff for the Sparrowhawk and cleaned up the kitchen while he was at the gym. Then I wrote a long reply email to the ERB editor, who wondered if I had ideas about the novel yet. Still reading The Master Mind of Mars and being irritated by some of the author's plot choices. "'What think you of this plan, Gor Hajus?' 'It is splendid,' replied the assassin." No, it is not. It's a seriously deficient, idiotic plan! Still, the joy of pulp fiction is watching them just make stuff up, with verve and insouciance--something that has been deficient in my own mental univere lately. So maybe it's not that bad a plan, my fellow assassins.