Hoo, boy. It’s actually quiet around here, tonight. *listens to the crickets and enjoys it* Nice change from the constant traffic noise, yelling neighbors and non-stop barking dogs–although, I have to say that the sudden and unusual silence is a bit eerie. It does help me work on the Old West stories, though, to have such deep quiet around me. I need to hurry up and get my horse ranch, so I can always have a comfortable layer of peace around me. Horse noises don’t bother me, and neither do other natural sounds, but car horns and engines, screechy neighbors and yelling kids, blaring televisions and radios and other typical sources of 20th-century noise pollution do bother me. I often find myself needing a break from the never-ending stress of modern life.

*sigh* Sometimes, I would like to step back into 1869 and spend the day with Joshua, Jenny and Bill, just as a kind of mini vacation from the crazy world I have to live in. Not to say that theirs is any less crazy, but it’s crazy in a different way. I would enjoy the ability to escape to a nice quiet area and still be within the city limits! The area I live in was basically nothing but a farmhouse or two and a bunch of open prairie, in that time. No one even noticed the place, until the 1880s, when the Sam Bass gang robbed a train, at a spot just a few miles from my house. Ol’ Sam didn’t get more than a couple hundred dollars from that robbery, but Mesquite got itself some notoriety that it probably didn’t deserve. I imagine nobody would notice Mesquite, even now, if it wasn’t for the fact that the big rodeo arena is here. A handful of outlaws passed through here in the late 1800s, and Belle Starr lived about 5 or 6 miles from where I live, in what was then called Scyene (it’s now part of Dallas, and the main road is still named Scyene), but beyond that, Mesquite has always been and will likely always be just a wrinkly little mole on the ample buttcheek of of the whore that is Dallas. Only now, it has a bunch of lunatic people living in it, to make the buttcheekedness of it a little harder to stomach.

Anyway, for today’s updates, in The Faraian Conspiracy, Jason and Mara prepare to leave Exedra for the start of their mission on Farai, and Mara’s antagonism toward his partner comes to light. And in Rustler’s Roundup, Jenny, Josh and Bill make it back to their cabin in Dechman, and, much to Bill’s chagrin, the two lovebirds decide to take their affection past the kissing and hugging stage.

Today’s Updates:

The Faraian Conspiracy, chapter 23 (ShadowFall novel)

Rustler’s Roundup, chapter 43 (Desperado novel)