A.M. Offenwanger's Blog, page 54
July 22, 2015
Medieval Marriage, or, I Thought I Just Made That Up
The things you find out…
I was watching a really cool BBC documentary yesterday called Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death. Specifically, this one was episode 2, “A Good Marriage” (at the moment you can watch it here, although it might not stay up forever. Canadians can also stream it off Knowledge Network, which is what I did). And I learned something really interesting: up until the 12th Century in Europe, all it took to get married was for two people to make a commitment to each other....
July 14, 2015
The Old Villa
I just ran across this quite interesting article and video: a mini-documentary on abandoned houses in Europe (filmed in pursuit of a book trailer for the filmmaker’s new book).
And it brought up a memory.
When I was a teen, we lived in a Bavarian mountain village, right across the street from a house just like this – a small country villa with gables and ivy, yellow-stuccoed with a red tile roof, on a large property completely overgrown with trees. It used to be the weekend country house of...
July 12, 2015
Random Imagery
Apologies for the Funkstille (radio silence) over the last week or so. I’ll spare you the excuses; suffice to say they involve busyness, weather, not-feeling-well, editing work (yes, Checkmate is being beaten into shape, and will be coming to an online bookseller near you! Soon. Well, soon-ishly. I’ll let you know.) and stuff like that.
I was going to write an erudite post about Story, and narrative structure, and why I don’t like it when silly, fun movies use Queen Elizabeth or Queen Victori...
July 4, 2015
Things Are Such
A dear friend gave me a book of poetry by Rumi as a present recently. And this morning, I opened it at random, somewhere in the middle, and found this. Couldn’t help but share it.
THINGS ARE SUCH
Things are such, that someone lifting a cup,
or watching the rain, petting a dog,or singing, just singing – could be doing as
much for this universe as anyone.Rumi
(translated by Daniel Ladinsky)
Filed under: life Tagged: hope, poetry, Rumi, sunrise
July 3, 2015
Post-a-Quote Day 3
Borage flowers. Another edible (the leaves taste like cucumber). Aren’t they pretty? They’re only about as big as my thumbnail. I love that shade of blue.
So here we are, Day 3 of Post-a-Quote. (Thanks again for the nomination, Kate M. Colby and Zach Chopchinski). To remind you, the rules (which I’m breaking) are:
* Post one quotation a day for three days (they can be from other sources or one of your own).
* Nominate 3 other bloggers to participate per post.
* Thank the blogger who nominated...
July 2, 2015
Post-a-Quote Day 2
So here, people, is my quote for Day 2 of the Post-A-Quote challenge (which, once again, I was nominated for by Kate M. Colby and Zach Chopchinski. Thanks, guys!). To remind you, the rules are:
* Post one quotation a day for three days (they can be from other sources or one of your own).
* Nominate 3 other bloggers to participate per post.
* Thank the blogger who nominated you.
Point #3, done; point #2, don’t wanna today; point #1, here goes:
Even if the world were to end tomorrow, I would s...
July 1, 2015
Post-a-Quote Day 1
I was going to show you my dragonsbane plant, but it’s looking pathetic right now. So here’s a shot of the purple peavine which grows right next to it.
Happy Canada Day, and Happy First Day of Camp NaNoWriMo!
And on that note, Zach Chopchinski and Kate M. Colby , who just happen to be two of my Camp Nano cabin mates, have done it again: they’ve both nominated me for yet another blogger challenge. This one’s a bit easier: it’s the post-a-quote challenge. I can do that, yup, not a problem. Thes...
June 26, 2015
Reading Habits
There’s been a fun reading quiz going around the blogosphere (last to pick up the challenge: Kate and Zach), and even though I wasn’t specifically named by anyone, I’ll pick up the gauntlet anyway. I’m also not going to peg anyone else, in a “Tag! You’re It!” fashion, but if this is something that looks like fun to you, consider yourself tagged.
The quiz is about your Reading Habit. Okay, yes [scuffs shoe in the dirt], I’m afraid it’s true. [Mumbles:] Hi, I’m Angelica. I have a Reading Habit....
June 22, 2015
Camp NaNoWriMo
Camp NaNoWriMo is upon us again! In case you don’t know, Camp Nano is the “light” version of November’s NaNoWriMo, world’s greatest yearly online writing event. During November, crazy writers all over the globe pledge themselves to writing a 50,000 word novel in one month, from Nov. 1st to 30th. If you’re not up for that level of insanity, or, conversely, if you’ve done NaNoWriMo and it has you gasping for more but you can’t stand the wait until November, there are a couple of easier events h...
June 16, 2015
Allergic to E
So I’ve been nominated twice for this challenge – thanks so much, Kate M. Colby and Zach Chopchinski. But seeing as I was a little busy graduating last week when they posted this, I didn’t get around to it then. But I guess I better buckle down and meet this challenge now.
The idea is to write a paragraph, in the English language, without using the letter e. So it can’t be about Extraordinarily Exciteable Elephants, absolutely none; or Effusive Elves, either.
I’m not very good at treating wor...
