Welcome to Updates

Hello, and welcome. I've added this space for occasional dispatches—thoughts on the writing life, progress reports on the Mill City series, notes from the Oregon woods, and anything else that feels worth sharing.

The first chapter is complete, and that feels like a small milestone worth marking, even if the rest of the book is still very much in motion. I keep going back and forth on the timeline—how much of the early history to lay down before the main story takes hold, and whether certain events belong in scene or only in memory. Chapters two through four are the ones giving me the most trouble right now. I have a rough sense of what each needs to do, but the order keeps shifting on me. Some days I'm convinced one thread has to come first; other days I'm sure it should be held back and revealed later. I suspect this is just the shape of drafting a series, where every early choice echoes forward and you can't always tell which echoes matter until you hear them. For now, I'm letting the chapters argue with each other on the page and trusting that the right sequence will eventually make itself obvious.

I don't intend to post on any fixed schedule. When something feels ready, it will appear here. In the meantime, you can find me through the newsletter or on X.com.

Thank you for reading. The forest is wide, and the work continues.

-C.S. Wilson