'Fat smiles on the faces of the husbandmen,' said Hugh Beringar, fresh from his own harvest in the north of the shire, and burned nut-brown from his work in the fields, 'and chaos among the kings. If they had to grow their own corn, mill their own flour and bake their own bread they might have no time left for all the squabbling and killing.'
# Permanent link to Brother Cadfael
Termessos
They say there are more Greek and Roman ruins in Turkey than there are in Italy and Greece. I just got back from Turkey and I believe it, but what is even more marvelous is that the ruins are so accessible. If we had stuff like that over here, it would be sequestered behind a…
Chugach State Park, Alaska
Photographs by Carl Batreall of Chugach State Park, edited into a video montage. Fabulous. [Some of which I saw originally in this month’s copy of Alaska magazine. You should subscribe, too.] The Chugach State Park is one of the most scenic parks in the world, with a wildlife population that would have had Pliny the…
Confessing Geekdom
[The last of my four June blogs for 49 Writers, No Moose.] I love good science fiction with a consuming passion. I loved Star Trek. TNG, I mean, not TOS. Kirk blows, Picard rocks, game over. I didn’t hate DS9 after the war with the Dominion started, Voyager worked after Seven came on board, and…
Writing History
The third of my guest blogs on 49 Writers, No Moose in June — I’m writing an historical novel set in the 14th century, and for a long time I obsessed over how to avoid anachronism, particularly in dialogue. [Example: Marco Polo’s granddaughter, Johanna, going to the stables to discover BFF Jaufre fighting off the…
Loving Coasties
Second of the guest blogs I wrote for 49 Writers, No Moose in June. — The absolute best part of a writer’s life is the research. I’ve written two thrillers, Blindfold Game and Prepared for Rage. For both novels I went on patrol with the US Coast Guard, first on Alex Haley for 16 days…
Living Alaskan
Reprinted from last month’s guest blog on 49 Writers, No Moose. I was invited to write anything I wanted, about writing or not, so I did. I’ll be posting them here for the next four Fridays. — For years I tried to get an agent because “everybody” told me that the way the publishing game…