Just a couple of quick notes this week.First, I’ll be away next week, entertaining friends, so

Just a couple of quick notes this week.

First, I’ll be away next week, entertaining friends, so the blog will be silent.

Second, it has recently become apparent that I’m spending a lot of time and effort producing content that isn’t the most beneficial. With everything going on in my life this year, it’s hard to keep on top of two blog posts every week, and I think one usually ends up getting lost in the cracks. So after speaking with my Facebook Group and friends on Twitter, I’m going to be pulling back to one post a week. Starting when I return, the blog will update only on Mondays. The next post will be a regular blog musing, and the post after that will be more free fiction.

Don’t worry, nothing is actually going away. I’m just going to try a little harder not to work myself to death. In light of Monday’s post, that should make sense ;)
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When I asked my Facebook group which character they’d like to hear more about, they almost unanimously chose Rose.

After my Seven Deadly Domerins series, I played around with the idea of another series of Heavenly Virtues prompts. I only ever did one in the past, and they’re an interesting group of traits to consider. But I write a lot about Domerin (as you may have noticed) so I wanted to dedicate the project to someone else. At first, I wasn’t sure if I had enough available Roses to make it work. No one has quite as many incarnations as Domerin. But after considerable thought, I managed to find just enough.

The first Heavenly Rose featured the virtue of chastity. The next one tackled humility. Next came patience. This week we’re looking at temperance, which is defined as: moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control.

I will admit to a tiny bit of cheating here. This Rose comes from the same world as the one featured in the humility tale. But she’s not exactly the same, and much further along the timeline. Someday, that will all make sense. But for now, I hope you’ll enjoy this glimpse at the future.
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On the outer edge of a distant galaxy sits an isolated star, orbited by a single, lonely planet. Oh, there are other celestial bodies in the near vicinity. Asteroids, moons and dead rocks aplenty. But the star and its planet are the only signs of life, cut off from the rest of their neighbors by a thick field of celestial detritus that makes navigating the surrounding space both difficult and treacherous.

Somewhere on the northern and western most continent of that planet, can be found the most brilliantly beautiful caldera lake. The water is so blue, it resembles the sky at noon on the brightest, sunniest of days, and so clear that a person standing at its edge can peer clear to the base of the lake bed some thousand feet below. Mountains ring the lake on three sides but, on the fourth, it is surrounded by several miles of forest, before the final set of mountains completes the ring.

On a clear day, the breeze often rustles the leaves of those nearby trees before sweeping the lake’s surface, causing tiny waves to lap against the lakeshore. Light glistens off the water’s surface at varying intensity as the bright orb makes its trek across the sky, and every puffy white cloud that wanders by seems to stop briefly to examine itself in the blue mirror’s surface.

So it was easy to understand why Valin frequented the area, sometimes even braving autumn rain squalls to take in the breathtaking nature of the lands surrounding his new home. That the caldera lake had been born from one of the most destructive forces any planet had ever known was of little concern to him. The fires that carved the lake’s indentation had long since burned themselves out. And while he was aware of the galaxy that lay beyond the bright dust cloud in the hazy night sky, and the politics practiced by most of its planets’ inhabitants, he mostly tried not to think about it. Keep Reading.

As always tagging: @merigreenleaf,@dreameronthewindand@ilioneus
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