"I will stick to Christ as a burr to cloth."

- Last words of Katharina von Bora, widow of Martin Luther,
on her deathbed, December 22, 1552.

"When people are impoverished, of course they can become thieves, but sometimes they randomly gather together and violate the law. Then they ride tigers that they can't dismount, so they brave death and conduct plunder."

- Chinese grand secretary Xu Jie, lamenting the dramatic increase in banditry
accompanying the decline of the Ming Dynasty.

In the year AD 1552...

• Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible conquers the Khanate of Kazan bringing an end to the Khanate's more than 100 years of existence.
• The Second Schmalkaldic War breaks out in Germany between German Lutherans, aided by French King Henry II, and the Catholic

                                                                                 It is not a cliff,  it is not the end of a continent 

it is, instead,  an abstract idea- the cusp of the horizon

We consider it at the beginning or end of long trips,

headed out or headed home

It has been over two months since I came back to the United States, and if you are wondering how long it took between my plane touching down, and casing a Dollar Tree for ironic Young Adult novels, the answer is about 30 hours. Having a never-ending supply of free-to-cheap books is one of the highlights of being back.

Speaking of timelines: 12 years ago, while writing about a Nancy Drew book, I mentioned that the series was 82 years old. Meaning it is currently 94