No, this isn't that weird house where Hansel and Gretel had their infamous run-in with you-know-who. This is a cabin near Kingvale, CA, not very far from my in-law's place up in that neck of the Sierra Nevada.

On a holiday weekend, the cabins are usually bustling: kids, dogs, four-wheelers, barbecues. But this weekend isn't the typical holiday weekend in America, or any other place for that matter.

Still some good snow piles to be found, a testament to the series of storms which rolled through here in March and April. And these daffodils, which provide an excellent foreground to this photo.

I always go to the mountains with the best of intentions, as far as writing is concerned. Plotting, outlining, maybe actually crank out a few words. But after the 20K word sprint I conducted from late April to mid-May, I seem bereft of inspiration. Memorial Day and what this particular holiday means also put a damper on any sort of creative activity. But after such a huge (for me) output, I refuse to feel guilty. It's taken me a long time to accept my creative process, which runs lukewarm 98% of the time. I embrace the flaming hot 2% on the rare occasions it occurs. The story is still there. Anchioni and Heton are about to run smack into the most formidable adversary of their day and age ... Hit me up at

Here's another great cabin. And of all the cabins in that neck of the woods, this one and the one in the photo above are probably my favorite. Never seen anyone in them, either! And some people live year-round in Kingvale (I'd do it in a heartbeat), but heating a stone cabin like this would be brutal. I'd love to get a peek at the interior, but the pesky owners always have the shutters in place ...

A final shot of a dude and his dog, Luca the Graybeard, who in his little doggie dreams is a cane corso running amok in the late 14th century ... his goopy eyes are from all the pine pollen.

And if you're reading this, it is my sincere hope you and your family are safe ... And now, it's back to this ... Audentes fortuna iuvat