It’s a highlight of the spring every year—my first constitutional walk down by Crystal Lake. It was too warm at the beginning for the sweatshirt and cap I wore, but I was glad I had them when I got down by the water. Spring isn’t actually spronging yet—we haven’t gotten enough rain—but the sun was shining, the air was mild, and it all made even Hugh Hewitt’s relentless optimism on the radio seem not entirely delusional.

What else is going on? We’re near finalizing the cover for the new book. I think. It will not, as I’d been given to understand earlier, resemble the cover of The Year of the Warrior in any way. They fired that artist. The new guy has put together a yellow-dominated cover with a misty Viking ship under sail in the center, and the title done in an Anglo-Saxon/Book of Kells sort of font. My name will be in a runic font, which is just fine.

I’ll keep you posted as the process crawls on.