The book . . .

The book is effectively and efficiently kicking my butt. 

I'm placing itty, bitty, teeny, weeny paragraphs of inspired writing here and there in the book. Some very disjointed, out-of-place wackadoo stuff right now that I will sort out when the bulk of the book is done. I'm ashamed of my very low word count, but very proud of my gorgeous book cover, which I would share, but the 'net has greedy eyes and nasty intentions. I sound paranoid. Yuck.

To make the book writing easier for myself, I sought to reduce the number of topics covered, but it has been brought to my attention that I shouldn't. Spill it out, they say, pour it over the pages. So I will. 

I've been researching bakhoor and was feeling more confused about it than ever before, but I see light at the end of the tunnel thanks to a TikTok video I watched yesterday where a woman in Sudan demonstrated making Sudanese bakhoor. I watched that video at least 5 times, completely fascinated by it. Once I create a few batches of incense using the information gleaned from the video, I'm going to add one of the recipes to the book, as well as information regarding the history of traditional bakhoor. Years ago, someone on YouTube posted a video demonstrating how traditional monastary incense was made. I studied that video, wrote wads of notes, paid very close attention to the details, and then went on to make a few batches of a natural perfumer's version of church incense. That video has since been redacted or removed as there was a bit of a dust-up over the videographer sharing them with the public. 

Unfortunately, sometimes these 'escaped' videos and demos are the only way to get the instruction as this stuff is still very hush-hush within their traditions.