Good morning from Caffe Nero in Station Square, Cambridge, on a cool, autumnal morning. Summer blazed out in a final burst of glory on Friday. I think that’s it for this year. It’s been wonderful. I shall miss complaining about the heat. 

Last Sunday’s trip to the coast passed without any major mishap. The Queen of the Road, confident as ever, drove faster along the twisting country roads than I was comfortable with. 

“I drive very well now!”

And she does in her ‘Saddle the horses! We ride at dawn!’ kind of way.

There were only a couple of times I pushed back hard into my seat, squeezed my eyes shut, and uttered a quiet OMG.

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I said in an earlier newsletter that putting together ‘Now is the Time of Monsters’ was like sliding sections of a jigsaw together.

Well, this week, the first 30 chapters slotted into place. It’s the third book in my Portals trilogy, and I had been expecting it to be around 75,000 words, like ‘The Half-Life Girl’. But it seems the story will take more time and space to unfold. At least 80,000 words.

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Finally, something I’ve never seen before and will have me wondering for days.

A beggar standing outside the local supermarket holding a large white paper bag and offering free cookies. 

Interesting.

He was trying something new.