We watch as she meets a young man who will become the most famous swordsman in history, Musashi Miyamoto, falls in love, and is disgraced by an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. In the dream motifs we encounter another spirit remarkably like the young Emily Kane, a Japanese farm girl who has run away from home and sought refuge at a convent in Kamakura. It's a lot for me to keep track of, but it's also really exciting. There's several plot lines that converge at the end, as well as a mysterious, dream-like story motif that sends Emily back four centuries to the Japanese civil war known as the Sengoku period. It's a really complex story, more like Girl Takes Up Her Sword than like Girl Stalks The Ruins. I'm about 40% of the way through the draft, and I hope to rediscover the excitement of exploring this material. I returned midterm papers on Friday, which means I can devote some of my time again to Girl Pays a Debt. It's not the tech that's so difficult, It's the problem of connecting with the students and keeping them motivated through a tiny window on a screen. And let me tell you, online classes are much harder to teach than in-person classes. I have been sidetracked the last several weeks, in part because of the struggle of learning a new pedagogy for my classes. I owe another book to her readers and fans, and especially to you and anyone else who inquires.

It's been way too long since the last one came out, and I am very sorry for this.

In fact, it is comforting to know that you haven't forgotten about Emily Kane.

End of the Road by Jacques Antoine