Another great week in the Pacific Northwest. Last Sunday, I went for a hike and discovered I’m not in the wonderful shape I thought I was. The climb is quite steep though and I did swim in the icy waters of the lake once we reached the end of the trail. It felt awesome, but I temporarily lost the use of my limbs. Worth it.

I finished several paintings using Fresh Paint, but I hesitated to share the one titled Rainbow Feelings on twitter. I thought it looked too crowded. I’m glad I decided otherwise, because I received several kind tweets commenting on it.  My naïf art is now a lock screen background on someone’s cell phone. And that is priceless.

On the writing front, my latest news is that I joined a co-op on NetGalley. I have no data to report at the moment. I’m working on Elios and keeping a steady 1500 words a day, while also editing Gaia. Crossing fingers, I should be able to publish the two of them for Christmas. Meanwhile, Marie’s Journey, the fourth in The Ginecean Chronicles series—formerly known as a trilogy—is in the capable hands of my editor, Amy Eye.

From Elios:

“Now, I want you to do it again, by yourself,” Lex said.

I blinked.

“Try.”

In earth time, several hours had passed since the beginning of the session and I was mentally tired. Almost certainly, my physical body—lying naked on the bed—was aching as well.

“You must trust me.”

“Of course.” I summoned the image of when I had gone deep diving in one of the seawater pools by the Academy. Lex had asked me to find a memory that symbolized my reaching for the innermost part of my soul and that image had stood out. I shed my clothes as I had done that day and dove into the bright, turquoise waters. It wasn’t a coincidence my human eyes had turquoise flickers in them. I kept diving and the colors all around me darkened. Soon, I was surrounded by black waters, but I wasn’t scared. I felt at peace; cocooned in a warm, safe liquid. I was ready for the next step and surprised it had taken so little effort. I switched my point of view, and, as I had done in the previous sessions guided by Lex, I opened my eyes to a different scenario. I was in Seattle, but I wasn’t. I levitated over the vast expanse of the city, myself as big as the sky, floating over the roads and the buildings. I expanded my consciousness. I stretched my ego until I was no more. I looked down and I saw reality as a constant stream of mathematical possibilities. Every single action taken by the individuals living down there could be explained and predicted with great accuracy. I lingered to analyze one of the possible futures this city would live through in the span of ten years. I fast forwarded to one century. Then, I came back to five minutes from the present. A second later, I was in the now. “Amazing.”

Lex chuckled and when I looked at him I saw the sparkle in his eyes. “You, my pupil, are the youngest Observer to ever achieve the Dark Void with barely a mission in.”