'The Ballad of Bejus Fine' is progressing well, if a little slower than I usually write.

I'm taking my time. Trying to add interesting content, atmosphere, and emotion into the story. The characters are much more complex than my usual fast paced SciFi stories. 

I find myself writing for a while, then stepping back and reading, writing, repeat. It is helping me 'understand' my characters more. I'm letting my imagination brew and percolate the story and the people living the story.

Lots more research on the 'Dust Bowl' era of the Panhandle of Texas. I was born and grew up in Levelland, Texas, about 30 miles west of Lubbock. Smack in the middle of that period where the lush prairies were devastated in a matter of a few years due to drought and poor soil conservation.

Families and animals starved. Whole towns were deserted. People had a truly 'hard scrabble' existence. Or they moved away to escape the dismals times. By some counts 2.5 million people moved away from the Plains states by 1940! It was the biggest mass exodus from an area in American history.

The dust storms would last for days, burying crops and homes and killing livestock. The skies were black with dust and debris. The Sun was blocked for days.

I can remember, in the early '60s', looking across the cotton field behind our house and seeing a brownish-black cloud on the horizon. And that was decades AFTER the Dust Bowl 'ended'! I remember eating baloney, mustard and onion sandwiches on white bread and getting a mouthful of grit from the dust that was EVERYWHERE after a storm. ;-)

I hope all my writer friends are busy working on their stories and enjoying life.

There is only now.