Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion
General Discussions
>
Random Thoughts
message 16901:
by
Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd
(new)
Jul 19, 2020 06:15PM
Wow, happy, what a moment! Congrats and enjoy!
reply
|
flag
Well done Happy. Best wishes for many years of contentment.
Sorry I haven't been around. I had to get tested for COVID-19 due to contact with a possible case and was self isolating at home for the last 5 days.
Margaret wrote: "Sorry I haven't been around. I had to get tested for COVID-19 due to contact with a possible case and was self isolating at home for the last 5 days."Wouldn't that mean you'd be around much more than usual?
Adrian wrote: "Margaret wrote: "Sorry I haven't been around. I had to get tested for COVID-19 due to contact with a possible case and was self isolating at home for the last 5 days."Wouldn't that mean you'd be ..."
No, because I cannot get the mobile version of GoodReads to work properly, so when I am away from my computer I am not on GoodReads.
Well got good news, start back at work this Saturday. Looking forward to it.
Congratulations!!! Does that mean your wonderful gardens will be open to the Public??
May wrote: "Congratulations!!! Does that mean your wonderful gardens will be open to the Public??"Have been for a month now, but due to my personal and family obligations with the virus, we decided I would be one of those to wait the extra month.
Glad you are feeling up to heading out to work!! Enjoy!
Mark wrote: "Well got good news, start back at work this Saturday. Looking forward to it."Yay!!!
pleased for you Mark, hope it doesn't rain on yet first day lols
Mark wrote: "Well got good news, start back at work this Saturday. Looking forward to it."Fantastic, Mark! This is great news.
Mark wrote: "Well got good news, start back at work this Saturday. Looking forward to it."How was it??
Allie wrote: "Mark wrote: "Well got good news, start back at work this Saturday. Looking forward to it."How was it??"
Well Saturday was busy, have to get used to the COVID rules. Legs were killing been 5 months got to get use to it.
People have been great in the most, brilliant In fact. But not everyone is happy with things.
Thank you, Mark! There are a few Smiths in our Family tree. This article made me smile out loud!
Smith is the most popular name in Australia.In other news, our new deck is just about finished and looks amazing.
Adrian wrote: "In other news, our new deck is just about finished and looks amazing."
That moment when a reno job or add-on build is finally completed is priceless.
I've had a great year of reading. I made a promise to myself that I would try and read mostly Aussie authors this year, and I would read whatever appealed to me. Try and read outside of my comfort zone. it certainly worked. I've mostly been into historical fiction, for example, that is what I loosely call 'pre gun'. But I've read a few books this year by Australian authors that are indeed set later than my previous tastes.
It's fun, I am now discovering, to spend sometime out of the comfort zone. I still have no interest in pre gun set in other countries. But having them set in Australia during, say, convict era, or Victroian period, has been enjoyable.
Andy wrote: "Lia wrote: "Simona wrote: "Andy, I was browsing this thread while being very sleepy and I mixed all the posts in my mind until it seemed you were worried about the condition of your brows and waxin..."Andy wrote: "Lia wrote: "Simona wrote: "Andy, I was browsing this thread while being very sleepy and I mixed all the posts in my mind until it seemed you were worried about the condition of your brows and waxin..."
I am well Andy, thanks. Hope you too. How's the waxing project? LOL
On the Aussie reading theme, I'm reading The Yield, the 2020 Miles Franklin award winner by Tara June Winch. This is in part historic fiction, set in "Massacre Plains" told from an indigenous point of view. Highly recommended.
Andrew wrote: "On the Aussie reading theme, I'm reading The Yield, the 2020 Miles Franklin award winner by Tara June Winch. This is in part historic fiction, set in "Massacre Plains" told from an indigenous point..."I'll be skipping
I don't mind some literary reading, but The Yield doesn't interest me so much. The sadness is too much for me. I avoid books that will rip me to pieces. Life's hard enough!
Interesting point Terri. (And no reflection at all on Andrew...I'm sure The Yield is a really excellent book.)The older I get and the more dysfunctional the world gets, the less interested I am in sad, dark books or films. That's probably why it's taken me so long to watch Breaking Bad - I have just one episode to go. I'll bet the butler did it!!!
I think people should give "The Yield" a go, there is a lot of darkness in the background, many bad things happened. However the author is telling a story of our times, which ends on a note of hope with the main characters intact. What takes some getting used to is the way the story is being told by three methods: Through an annotated dictionary written by an Aboriginal elder who set out to record the language that is rapidly being lost; by a Lutheran Missionary who set up the mission but who also became a protector of the community before he was imprisoned in WW1 for being German; and the contemporary narrator, a young Aboriginal woman who returns home from England and picks up her life again, helping to save the family home in the process. It is a fine read.
Mark, this is awesome. Provides so much context for HF I’m reading!!
Adrian wrote: "Interesting point Terri. (And no reflection at all on Andrew...I'm sure The Yield is a really excellent book.)The older I get and the more dysfunctional the world gets, the less interested I am i..."
Me too. Although, when I think about it, I've always been this way, even as a kid. But I do think as I've gotten older its intensified. I don't need happy go lucky viewing and reading, but I just don't do sad. I can do serious and dark, but not sad and heart wrenching.
For this reason, I can't do
The Yield and I can't do
The White Girl.But I have read the novel in verse
Ruby Moonlight by Ali Cobby Eckerman
Which reminds me... I better rate Ruby Moonlight.
I've had to up my Goodreads Challenge from 20 books to 30 books. I'm on fire. :-) ... I mean, compared to what I was reading over the last three years where I went from around 50 - 70 books a year to none and then about 10.
I don't think I am going to make my challenge this year.
Terri wrote: "I've had to up my Goodreads Challenge from 20 books to 30 books. I'm on fire. :-) ... I mean, compared to what I was reading over the last three years where I went from around 50 - 70 books a year ..."Yay! Go, you!
Well, THAT was fun - the last couple of days, we've been having a "wind event". That is where the east winds out of the canyons start blowing at hurricane force. When the weather is just right, the canyons act a wind tunnels. Gusts up to 114 MPH were recorded at the University of Utah. Here in Layton it is reported that the sustained winds were 65 mph with gusts up to 80, Scary stuff. We have them periodically, but normally not this strong. I-15 between Ogden and SLC was closed most of the day yesterday due to the winds. Something like 25 Semis were blown over before they could get it shut down. Thank heavens there was not much rain with this.Lets just say - I NEVER, EVER want to be anywhere near a hurricane!!!!
On the plus side, all the smoke from the California fires has been blown back to them and we can now see the mountains on the other side of the Great Salt Lake :)
On my walk this morning, I was surprised at just how little damage there was. There some trees blown down (mainly pines and spruces) and whole lot of branches down, but I didn't see any shingle littering the yards or sidewalks. Even the people with solid (vinyl or wood slats) fencing running N-S didn't fair tooooooo badly. I only saw a few 100 feet of fences blown out.
As for me and my house - there is no obvious damage, a lot of tree litter all over the back yard, but none of it is from my trees that I can see. Even most of the apples managed to stay on the tree :)
Tomorrow will be clean up day. The event is supposed to over. Well see tonight.
So glad to hear that you have no serious damage. I have friends outside of Seattle who also had extraordinary winds & lost a tree said to be 100+ years old.Be well. Stay safe!!
Well how do like that? For some reason I thought Happy was from Northern England.
For us in SoCal the big news is the heat wave; very hot; very dry. Riverside where is live got up to 117 degrees (F) and Woodland Hills (western part of the San Fernando Valley) got up to 121 degrees F. I don’t have my metric conversion notes handy but I’m pretty sure we’re talking 45 C here. Yes, the humidity was low but at a certain point Hot is HOT. Compounding the problem is California’s desire to cut down on fossil fuels as an energy source to turn the generators to produce the electricity needed for the air conditioners to work. Or anything electrical. Hence, the Valley went 2 days sans electricity. Turns out the states alternate sources of energy were insufficient. The windmill farms failed to produce because the wind was insufficient on non-existent (we shared it with Utah) and the solar panels laid out in the desert are too expensive to provide enough energy for our needs. So, as they say, It’s back to the drawing boards.
P.S. I have been thru a hurricane and, trust me, no, it’s something you don’t EVER want to experience. I’ll take an earthquake any ole day.
Adrian wrote: "Well how do like that? For some reason I thought Happy was from Northern England.":D - half my ancestors (great grand parents on both sides) are from Scotland (Sterling and Glasgow) - Does that count ?
The other half are from Denmark - all crossed the pond in the 1880s
A couple of more comments on the storm - we get this "Canyon Wind Events" every 10 or 15 yrs, but in the 45 yrs I've lived here, I don't remember any quite this strong. The wind woke me up at about 3 AM and it blew hard 'till about 10AM or so and then "died down" (30-40 mph) til evening about 6PM they picked up agan then blew hard til 10 or so and then calmed down. Today hasn't been bad, just really breezy.
The News is reporting up to 200K people in Northern Utah lost power and it could be as much as a week till it is completely restored. Ours flickered a time or two, but stayed on. Also School Districts all up and down Wasatch Front canceled the first day of school - due to the wind (that is a first for me :)) and power outages
May wrote: "So glad to hear that you have no serious damage. I have friends outside of Seattle who also had extraordinary winds & lost a tree said to be 100+ years old.Be well. Stay safe!!"
Up at the Ft. Douglas Military Cemetery next to the UofU campus, the News is reporting that they had 8 100+ yr old trees blown down - Maples and White Oaks - not evergreens.
These wild climate events, including those West coast fires, are outright scary!!Be well! Stay safe!
The winds are over - it was down right nice today. California's smoke is returning though :)
Happy, I guess that make it: good news; bad news!! 🥴
Hi all, sorry I haven't been round much. I've been doing the final checks of the proofs for my third book. Looking at a February 2021 launch date.
Those fires in California look terrible. Those winds with the dry. looks like the west coast is in for what we downunder went through in the lead up to Christmas.I hope the Redwood forests will be all right.
Terri wrote: "Those fires in California look terrible. Those winds with the dry. looks like the west coast is in for what we downunder went through in the lead up to Christmas.I hope the Redwood forests will be..."
It is supposed to rain sometime next week. It can't come soon enough for those folks.
May wrote: "Congratulations, Margaret!!"Thanks, May. We have a publication date of 11th February 2021. The paperback is already up for preorder on the various Amazon sites.
Margaret wrote: "Hi all, sorry I haven't been round much. I've been doing the final checks of the proofs for my third book. Looking at a February 2021 launch date."Damn, my friend is the real deal! Congrats Margaret!
Terri wrote: "Those fires in California look terrible. Those winds with the dry. looks like the west coast is in for what we downunder went through in the lead up to Christmas.I hope the Redwood forests will be..."
The redwoods are mostly OK; they are right on the coast. Which is not to say that the fires are not horrible. I live in Eureka, right on the coast, and we have not been hard hit by smoke; but I have friends in Oregon, much of which has been devastated.
Bobby wrote: "Margaret wrote: "Hi all, sorry I haven't been round much. I've been doing the final checks of the proofs for my third book. Looking at a February 2021 launch date."Damn, my friend is the real dea..."
Thanks Bobby :D
Gosh we've all been quiet. Me included. You'd think with the pandemic and all the lockdowns, that we'd all be more active. But for some reason people have gone inside themselves more.I think this has happened a little with me. Even though we have no restrictions here, I haven't even been reading.
I hope all our members and their families and loved ones are doing well.
All is well here in my state. We have no Covid because we have kept our borders shut.
Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
The Berry Pickers (other topics)Fortune's Child (other topics)
Hild (other topics)
Sharpe's Command (other topics)
Edenglassie (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Amanda Peters (other topics)Nicola Griffith (other topics)
Bernard Cornwell (other topics)
Bernard Cornwell (other topics)
Allan Hands (other topics)
More...
