Painting gnarled trees for a cover. Gnarled trees are one of the things that I developed a technique for early on, so I can do it pretty much on autopilot these days. And they’re in mist! I can disconnect my brain completely! (I suppose this sounds a little unprofessional, but it’s one of those things where my brain showing up would not significantly impact things. Sort of like throwing a pot–either your hindbrain knows what to do or it doesn’t, and sitting there thinking “Okay…now pull up…and don’t chokedontchokedontchokedontchoke…” is not gonna help.)

Back still hurts a bit. The inversion rack helped, it’s nothing as bad as it was, more a dull constant ache. As people who have thrown their back out know, it’s a weird sensation, it’ll almost not hurt for a bit, and then you’ll move a millimeter, or it’ll just get bored, and everything suddenly seizes up and the world does a kind of breathless wobble-and-flop around you, and for a brief, bright moment there is nothing in the universe but you and the God of Back Pain. That’s much worse. A low, perpetual ache is peanuts.

Ordered some books off Amazon. Man. Michael Parkes collections are NOT cheap. The one I wanted started at $349. Used. Not. Gonna. Happen. The cheapest of the lot, and the one I went for, was $45. Oy. I can respect book collectors, certainly, they’re not terribly distant kin to art collectors, but it was still a shocker to someone like me, who’s usually waiting for the paperback to come out.