Random Thoughts Showing 14,751-14,800 of 17,689

[Allison]

I wish autumn would show up in Michigan. It’s hot :(

It’s unnatural!!!

[May]

I’m actually looking forward to Fall in NH. Still unseasonably warm.

[Dawn]

I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Arizona, telling everyone it was Canadian Thanksgiving. :)

[Ace]

Happy thanksgiving Dawn.

So..

Napoleon had his own private librarian.
Pretty cool. Maybe if he wasn't messing around with his books, Richard Sharpe wouldn't have captured his Eagle so easily in Sharpe's Eagle...

http://militaryhistorynow.com/2015/04...

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Simona wrote: "Terri said:"have learned something new, which is great."
And that's why our Fearless Leader is great."

Haha! Thanks, mate. :-D

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Ace wrote: "Happy thanksgiving Dawn.

So..

Napoleon had his own private librarian.
Pretty cool. Maybe if he wasn't messing around with his books, Richard Sharpe wouldn't have captured his Eagle so easily in [..."

Lol.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Wow. Those California wildfires. I have never seen anything like it and I live in the land of the devastating bushfire. In Australia we have seen small towns obliterated by bushfire, but we have never seen anything like the Cal ones. With entire suburbs completely wiped out!
It is catastrophic.

[May]

Truly distressing!! Between Cat 4 & 5 hurricanes, earthquakes & wildfires, it has been quite a traumatic 2 months.

[Andy]

Mother nature is fighting back..... I'm doing a course on Eco-systems, very enlightening it is

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

May wrote: "Truly distressing!! Between Cat 4 & 5 hurricanes, earthquakes & wildfires, it has been quite a traumatic 2 months."

And Las Vegas..:(

America sure has been put through the ringer lately.

[happy]

you got that right!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Here's hoping 2018 gives you guys some peace.

[Ace]

Andy wrote: "Mother nature is fighting back..... I'm doing a course on Eco-systems, very enlightening it is"

That is an interesting topic in this day and age.

[Andy]

Ace wrote: "Andy wrote: "Mother nature is fighting back..... I'm doing a course on Eco-systems, very enlightening it is"

That is an interesting topic in this day and age."

At an online site called furturelearn.com where a few on here (me included) have done some history courses before - over the 6 weeks its been incredible to learn about a subject I wasn't overly familiar with bar man's intrusion (that covered week 5) into the Amazon & Far East destroying habitats..... a real eye opener & something I would hope the next generation is studying as the science & results are out there.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

A topic I am very familiar with. I am no environmental activist, but I am a bit of a environmentalist.

[Andy]

Me too Terri, but now I have a ground knowledge of how & why eco-systems work/fail, was an exceptional course (did a bit about deserts which is completely alien to me...... Lawrence of Arabia on camel traversing endless sand dues is (was) my definition of a desert :) ), finishes this week with a study of the Galapagos Islands & their impact.

[Ace]

Andy wrote: "Me too Terri, but now I have a ground knowledge of how & why eco-systems work/fail, was an exceptional course (did a bit about deserts which is completely alien to me...... Lawrence of Arabia on ca..."

We are hoping to get to the Galapagos Andy, I'll have to post some pics for you!

I enrolled for the King Richard course but didn't end up doing it 😐
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/e...

[Andy]

Ace wrote: "Andy wrote: "Me too Terri, but now I have a ground knowledge of how & why eco-systems work/fail, was an exceptional course (did a bit about deserts which is completely alien to me...... Lawrence of..."

That would be grand! Been watching some film of the islands this afternoon, the discussion is about tourism & how the islands have become threatened by population & feral animals like cats/dogs. Its been quite a challenging course of ideals.

Never did the King Richard one myself, jus did one on Bonnie Prince Charlie but that descended into a Protestant vs Catholic war at times, some ideals are so entrenched..... :(

Doing another on "The European discovery of China" which is great as its taking us through all the dynasties from the Zhou to the Ming which is a completely alien history for me - all we ever learnt was about Marco Polo & the Opium Wars!

They really are (mostly) good courses.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I did the King Richard one. It was pretty enjoyable, although I think they spent far too much time on medieval writing. That warranted a course all on its own.
That was the first time the Richard course had been run and I don't know if they've changed it much.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Which Richard?

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

III

[happy]

I did that one also - liked and even learned a few tidbits :)

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Terri wrote: "III"

Kind of puzzled as to why they included medieval writing. If it was Richard II I could understand it. Three of England's greatest medieval writers were alive during his reign: Chaucer, Gower, and Langland.

[Andy]

I think some of the history courses indulge the Art side of history a fair bit rather than the actual persona? Ive jus tried to do one on the Jacobite rebellion & thought it an interesting period to study but they did it via artefacts & it descended into an awful lot of leaps & supposition. Its nice to broaden ones horizons & cover diffo aspects for sure but.....

[Ace]

Terri wrote: "I did the King Richard one. It was pretty enjoyable, although I think they spent far too much time on medieval writing. That warranted a course all on its own.
That was the first time the Richard c..."

I waited so long for the first one but when they finally scheduled it in I wasn't online enough to enroll. Then I enrolled a couple of months back, but had visitors on board and we were site seeing etc and I ended up not even doing week 1.

I'm terrible at "study" in any case, so I probably would have procrastinated each week getting any assignments done!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I don't recall much in the way of assigments. Lol. I remember some suggested activities like cooking the recipes. :-)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Margaret wrote: "
Kind of puzzled as to why they included medieval writing. If it was Richard II I could understand it. Three of England's greatest medieval writers were alive during his reign: C..."

They really went into medieval aspects that I struggled to see the point of. The medieval writing wasn't really the authors, it was the actual writing. How to read manuscripts. How they were printed, where books were being made.
All very interesting if you were doing a course on it...the course really wasn't on RIII. His name is in the course title, but it was really on random medieval England stuff.

[Andy]

Think I'll steer clear of this one in future, thanks for the heads-up

[Ace]

Me too !

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I dug out an old half written manuscript of mine this year and decided to finish writing it.

I have no doubt what so ever that no agent will want it, but it will be nice just to finish it and get that yoke off my neck.

The reason I bring it up, is that once I finished the first draft the other week and I was wondering whether it was complete sh#t or not, it suddenly sunk in that women authors seem to only write hist fic about true personalities from history.

Has anybody else ever noticed this? This has to be because the readers want that from female authors.
Male authors don't seem to have this same expectation on them.
So many of the male hist fic we read in this group is not about real people. Purely fictional ones.
I mean, sure there are men who do write about real people ie Conn Iggulden, but there are as many who don't.

It is weird that I have never noticed this until now.

My manuscript is purely fictional characters. Another reason maybe an agent won't want it. haha.
I don't care though. I just want it finished, sent away, so I can move on.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Two things.

1. It is not complete sh#t.
2. It's actually bloody good.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Oh. Mate. You are too bloody kind to me. :D
Aren't you supposed to be harsh on me? Be tough on me so I'm used to the real world out there where it is dog eat dog.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Or cat eat dog.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

On the subject of authors I can think of several female authors who write/or wrote about fictional people.

Ellis Peters - detecting aside, her Cadfael books gave excellent insight into the working of a medieval monastery.

Lindsey Davis - ditto for life for the common people of Imperial Rome.

Victoria Holt/Philippa Carr - mostly gothic under the VH name, but did a wide sweeping family saga as Philippa Carr.

Cecelia Holland - also sweeping family saga.

[Mark]

Terri wrote: "Oh. Mate. You are too bloody kind to me. :D
Aren't you supposed to be harsh on me. Get tough on me to get me used to the real world out there where it is dog eat dog."

Then find some test readers, I am sure there’s a few in the group who will give you a honest review.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Yes, now I thought about this too. It seems to be a more recent thing.
I could think of a time where it leaned the other way. Female authors were writing fiction. I prefer it myself.
Prefer it in my male authored books too. I love a good fabricated yarn set in real historical context.
I love Uhtred. :)

[Jane]

Isn't it more like 50/50? One thing I've noticed is that female authors tend use initials for their first and middle names, maybe holdover of bias against women authors? For instance, I could cite M.C. Scott, J.K. Rowling [of course she's not hist fic], L.J. Trafford, C.P. Lesley and possibly one I've always wondered the gender of: Q.V. Hunter. Wasn't Jane Austen originally "An anonymous lady" or something like that?

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Mark wrote: "Then find some test readers, I am sure there’s a few in the group who will give you a honest review...."

Margaret is my guinea pig currently. :)

But I'll be writing under a pseudonym and nobody will ever know its me! lol.
(Except Lady Margaret)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Jane wrote: "Isn't it more like 50/50? One thing I've noticed is that female authors tend use initials for their first and middle names, maybe holdover of bias against women authors? For instance, I could cite ..."

Interesting though that you mention Manda, Jane. When you think about it, she wrote under her real name, as a female author and wrote a series about a real person of history. Boudica.
Yet when she wrote under a unisex pseudonym so male readers wouldn't know she was a woman unless they looked into M.C Scott, she wrote about a fictional character, Pantera. (think I got that name right?)

Kind of a perfect example there of what I have noticed about male and female authors.

[Mark]

Terri wrote: "Mark wrote: "Then find some test readers, I am sure there’s a few in the group who will give you a honest review...."

Margaret is my guinea pig currently. :)

But I'll be writing under a pseudonym..."

Well do it all by pm. 😎😎

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Haha. You offering, Mark? Maybe when I have finally dried the ink on my completed copy I'll tap a few of the old stalwarts on the shoulder and see if they want to read some.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

For the Pantera series Jane? I thought she only used M.C for that series.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

This is the series Jane and I mean.
Rome series
https://www.goodreads.com/series/5520...

I highly recommend this one.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

And this is her Manda Scott Boudica series
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4521...

[Mark]

Terri wrote: "Haha. You offering, Mark? Maybe when I have finally dried the ink on my completed copy I'll tap a few of the old stalwarts on the shoulder and see if they want to read some."

Send a couple of chapters when you are ready.📖

[Jane]

Terri wrote: "For the Pantera series Jane? I thought she only used M.C for that series."

yes, she did. If I'm too ambiguous: she did use M.C. for that series.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I may hold you to that. :)
But you must be a secret squirrel about it. lol

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Jane wrote: "Terri wrote: "For the Pantera series Jane? I thought she only used M.C for that series."

yes, she did."

Yes she did only use M.C or yes she did use Manda as well.
I looked at all editions of the first book and they were all M.C.
Was it the later two in the series that she also published them under Manda? I didn't check them.

[Mark]

Terri wrote: "I may hold you to that. :)
But you must be a secret squirrel about it. lol"

🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿🐿

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

haha. How come people get to use emoticons on GR now. :)
Must be able to on my tablet. I haven't checked. Can't on my laptop.