Crystal Blade Episode 31: Happily Ever After? is live at Kindle Vella. I also realized last night that I am currently at 61,569 words and according to my outline I’m eight chapters away from finishing. If I knock out a chapter a day I could have everything wrapped up by midnight next Monday. Huh.

In other news, Happy Juneteenth to all Americans, and maybe if Gavin Newsome gets the constitutional convention rolling and we add a gun control amendment we can tweak the 13th amendment and remove the bit that allows slavery “as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convincted.” Just a thought.

Locally, it’s going to get hot here this week in the clavicle of Texas. And yes, we’re used to hot weather, but we’ve had so much rain recently that it feels like Florida when you step outside. The humidity is going to drop back down to normal levels on Saturday, thank Cthulhu, but in the meantime the heat index is going to be miserable and my heart will be in my mouth every time the AC units go off (which they do periodically. That’s normal. But now I’m wondering if they’re going to start up again). Don’t even get me started on the Texas grid.

But I’m in a privileged position. My heart goes out to all the lawn people, pool cleaners, and construction workers who are going to have to deal with this nasty weather while they’re working (and my governor, good Christian that he is, just signed a law repealing mandatory water breaks for construction workers. What a peach).