Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion
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How is everyone's summer so far?? Is anyone able to get away on vacation?? I am staying close to home this year. Lots of kayaking. Been a little warm but pretty good summer so far.
We are finally enjoying a stretch of sunny, dry weather. Our soggy gardens are much happier. However, the extremes in the US are worrisome… as is the rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19. Wishing you well & happy!!
We’ve had soooo much rain and the mosquitoes/bugs in general are AWFUL but very few hot, humid days. Thank goodness. 85 and over is too much. Can’t believe it’s only a week left until August. Been busy busy and hardly any time for reading :/
Speaking of mozzies...My wife and I found an unbelievable bargain for an investment property a few years back. Absolute waterfront, nice neighbourhood... It was a knocker downer but we couldn't believe the price for such a great location.
So we entered negotiations and were fully intending to go ahead, when just by chance we rode past on our bikes one evening. It was summer, and the precinct was utterly filled with clouds of mosquitoes. I don't just mean lots of mozzies - I mean billions of them. I've NEVER seen anything like it.
We wren't going to live there ourselves, of course, but there was no way we could expect renters to stay there. Horrific. We blessed our luck that we'd happened by and pulled out ASAP.
I hate those bloodsuckers! We live on the east coast of the US, with hideous humidity and lots of those little vampires. I should have been born in the Arctic, because I love cold weather.
I lived in southeast Texas from age 9-19. Those varmits chewed me to pieces. Nobody else was affected as much as me. We used to joke how those mosquitoes could invariably pick me out from a large crowd for special attention. Recently, I just read that scientists have revealed that those varmits have the ability to “smell” their preferred victims and that those with O negative blood are one of their most preferred choices for a meal. I now live in So California. Not that we don’t have mosquitoes but few in number and they don’t bother me.
Marilyn wrote: "I lived in southeast Texas from age 9-19. Those varmits chewed me to pieces. Nobody else was affected as much as me. We used to joke how those mosquitoes could invariably pick me out from a large c..."I believe it!
When I spent 9 miserable years living in Florida on the Gulf of Mexico coast, they tore me to pieces. Down there they bite through clothing! But when I was pregnant with my second daughter, they left me alone. My chemistry must have been unappetizing ;)
I really wish that we wouldn't get a summers worth of rain in one storm!!!! Last week some spots in Utah got more than 4 inches of rain in 2 hours. Lots of local flooding. We weren't hit as badly, but in a town about 10 miles south of where I live, the manhole covers were popping off of the storm drains there was so much water. Our annual trip to Cedar City, Utah to take in the Utah Shakespeare Festival had to be postponed for a month (we were scheduled to go this weekend) because the AirBnB we were supposed to stay at got flooded.
One good thing that came out of the storms is it is a lot cooler - I actually had to get a blanket last night :) Hopefully the AC will get a bit of a break
We had the rainiest July in years ; I believe we broke a record :(and it is raining all day today. We live in a Seacoast Community where Tourism has a major economic impact. All this rain has made this Summer worse than last Summer even with the limited opening from the Pandemic. Wish there was a way to share all this with the West Coast!!
Yah!! Because I am drying out here, could totally use some rain and cooler weather. Going for walks is now an endurance exercise, it is still so hot at 9pm at night! That said, it is supposed to cool down this weekend and with maybe a few showers.
We just had 2 1/2 inches of rain dump on us yesterday. At least it broke up the oppressive heat!
A couple of rainstorms of late (the first rain in 3 months) but not nearly enough and still broiling….109 F today. Was in Oregon last week and in the high ‘90’s there as well.
I wish it was possible to lasoo some big rain clouds and drag them to California. There was a Disney cartoon movie I saw once when I was a kid that they did that; even though that I knew it was fantasy, it still made an impression me.
So, shall we make a trade? Our sunshine for your rain.
Okay, in the spirit of totally random things to post about...........After 2 months (remember, these are the same 2 months where we had a 'heat dome' and several heat waves) my heat pump is finally fixed and I have air conditioning again. Just in time too, as today is the hottest day of the current heat wave.
I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I am about this.
Hot, heavy air today!! Grateful for our AC!!!
Birds of a feather flock together. 😊 Our AC protested it’s heavy use and went on the fritz, too. Will be fixed tomorrow though: 7:30 am. Yea!
We are getting the smoke from the California fires. I live at the foot of a 5000 ft mountain and I could bare see it!!! Yesterday, the radio was reporting that SLC had the 2nd worst air in the world - worse than places like Bejing, China. It doesn't help that we have our own 1000 acre fire in the mountains above Salt Lake City. I-80 between SLC and Park City is closed because of the fire and more that 8000 homes evacuated.Today the smoke is quite as bad - only 10th worst air in the world :)
We are supposed to get storms tonight that will blow it all out.
Happy, did you get the storm & did it clear out the smoke? How is your air quality today?We were talking about a trip to Tahoe… not anymore!!
Was that tropical storm at New York this week normal for New York? Seems so weird to have such a tropical storm in the same State that can have a ice storm in winter. Such extremes!(sorry for being MIA again for a few months. I have personal reasons, although I have no note from my parents to prove why I have not been in class :-) ..)
Terri, the weather across the US has been extreme. The rain you saw in NYC was from Hurricane Henri. First hurricane to directly hit our NE states in decades. And, yes, the NE has also suffered serious ice storm in recent winters. Proof of our climate crisis, IMHO.
BTW - you are excused. No notes required 😉
hah, thankyou! I was going to have to forge something. :-DI agree, proof of the climate crisis. it's all very worrying. When I saw the NY weather on the news I kind of did a double take, because the last time NY was in the news for weather it was ice storm! I was very surprised.
May wrote: "Happy, did you get the storm & did it clear out the smoke? How is your air quality today?We were talking about a trip to Tahoe… not anymore!!"
Yes we did - It rained pretty steadily for over two days no less. The wind was frightful and blew all the smoke to Colorado (I think). but nothing physical blew away, just some tree limbs do down :) The temps also dropped. It has actually been quite nice.
The smoke is building back in however :(
Send all your ice, rain, coldness to Michigan, please! I’m dying here. Two weeks of 90+ degrees….I friggin’ HATE summer!!!!
These fires distress me beyond words. I can hear my mother asking “what is this world coming to?”
Our temps in So Cal are in the 90s heading for 100s but, what the heck, it’s August. I know it’s the other way around in Australia but my mind has trouble wrapping around that fact.
We FINALLY made it down to Cedar City and the Shakespeare Festival, our lodgings for our trip earlier were flooded out. A good set of plays this year. On the outdoor Theater they put onRichard III
Comedy of Errors
Pericles
On the Indoor Theater
Pirates of Penzance - The Gilbert and Sullivan classic
Rag Time - musical based on the Novel by E. L. Doctorow
Comedy of Terrors - I thought it was going to be a take off on Shakespeare, but it is a two person British Farce set in a theater - very funny if a bit bawdy :) The actors were a husband and wife team.
Black Box Theater (200 seats)
Intimate Apparel
Cymbeline
We attended six plays in 3 days, weren't able to get to the Black Box shows - they were supposed to be really good though. If we have time Mrs Happy and I might go back down.
The Richard was excellent - the actor they had playing Richard looked pure evil, They didn't give him the hump that normally is part of his character/costume, but did brace his right leg and arm so he couldn't move them.
They powers that be set "Comedy of Errors" in the 70s. The costuming and set and incidental music really brought back some memories :)
I can't remember seeing Pericles performed before - it was a bit uneven. Scholars feel that this was a collaboration with another playwrite - you can really tell were the collaborator leaves off and Shakespeare takes over!
Ragtime was also excellent - very powerful statement on Racism, anti-immigrant bias and the American Dream.
Pirates was just a hoot. You could really tell the cast was having fun!
We saw the closing nights of the three plays in the outdoor theater. During Richard, they had to stop the play just before intermission - someone in the audience tripped and fell and had to be transported to the hospital. The actors picked up right where they left off and delivered an excellent performance.
Can't wait till next year!
Sounds impressive happy! Glad you enjoyed it!
Oh, Happy, I am sooo pleased for you & Mrs Happy. It sounds like an incredible weekend!! It had to have been wonderful to be back at that venue!! We are still hoping to get back to Broadway this Fall…
I'm just popping in to say hello and to say I am still around.I am head down working on two books and I am also having to look for somewhere new to live as the landlord doesn't want to give us another fixed term lease.
Hello Margaret, good luck with a new lease!
I've long taken the view that this is a token civilisation; token in the sense that for the most part we pay lip service to things we don't really hold close to our hearts, or believe in,; token in the sense that doing this is a passport to acceptability. This view developed after reading works by Philip E High (a long, long time before Goodreads). As I grew older I graduated to the works of Philip K Dick , and those works reinforced that view. It's when you look at manners and behaviours that the inevitable question arises: do people prefer a polite fiction to the truth? As an aside, this must also provoke the question: what is truth?
If you write fiction, the layers you garb it in serve to make 'a thing'. Whether it's real or not is determined by your art: (competent writers of this day and age instinctively get this or there wouldn't be any great Science Fiction). Classical Greek playwrights and poets not only got this; for their pains, they came under the scrutiny of Classical Greek philosophers, of whom Plato was held to be unsympathetic. Story Plato and you see echoes of that influence even now.
But to name a thing and give it life... well do I remember Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ... and in a moment of genius, the central theme of the work became a bleak, noirish future: Bladerunner. An anime style adaptation is coming soon (from Adult Swim I believe). I'll have to watch it - if I can spare the time. Meanwhile my collection of Philip E High works remains disappointingly slim... however, as far as Phil Dick is concerned, I have every volume I intend to collect, with the exception of 1976 Pan edition of Galactic Pot Healer which disappeared one house move ago, along with a somewhat rare copy of L Ron Hubbard's Slaves of Sleep ( yes that L Ron Hubbard). I used to constant dip into Galactic Pot Healer - my favourite Dick work I guess..... and Slaves of Sleep I never finished.
On which note I'm off to bed. :-)
Michaela wrote: "Hello Margaret, good luck with a new lease!"Thanks Michaela. :)
Margaret wrote: "I'm just popping in to say hello and to say I am still around.I am head down working on two books and I am also having to look for somewhere new to live as the landlord doesn't want to give us an..."
May wrote: "Oh, Happy, I am sooo pleased for you & Mrs Happy. It sounds like an incredible weekend!! It had to have been wonderful to be back at that venue!!
We are still hoping to get back to Broadway this F..."
May wrote: "Oh, Happy, I am sooo pleased for you & Mrs Happy. It sounds like an incredible weekend!! It had to have been wonderful to be back at that venue!!
We are still hoping to get back to Broadway this F..."
Good luck with the home hunt, can't be easy these days.
I’m so glad I don’t have to move anymore. When we bought this house I told my husband “This is it! The only way I’ll be moving again is feet first!” So far, that’s been 33 years ago. I hope you find your “forever” house.
Just got back from moving my youngest daughter to Cincinatti for Grad school - loooooong drive :) (covered just over 3300 miles in six days of driving and 3 days getting her settled in, including the driving around Cinci) I forgotting just how green and HUMID that part of the country is. We didn't do much sight seeing, but did stop at the International Quilt Museum at Lincoln, Neb - its by the University campus (The youngest and Mrs Happy are quilters). Some really nice quilts there from all over the world, including panels from a quilt made to commerate victums of 9/11Yesterday, my brothers and I drove part of the old Pony express trail (from Old Camp Floyd/Fairfield, Ut to the Nevada Border. Beautiful drive, if a bit slow. You forget just how desolate the Great Salt Lake Desert is! Over 120 miles of it is on improved gravel. Luckily?, we had storms the last few days, so the dust wasn't bad. While driving the route, we ran into a 50/100 mile ultra distance race. At the turn around point of the 100 mile portion we met one of the race directors and he said they had been running it for 12 yrs - I'd never heard of it before. There were racers and their suport teams spread along 20 miles of road. Made for some slow going :)
I've also completed a couple of HF books since I last commented, but I'll report them in the proper threads.
I vicariously enjoy your travels! You offer insights to places I haven’t visited, yet! Thank you.
Marilyn wrote: "I’m so glad I don’t have to move anymore. When we bought this house I told my husband “This is it! The only way I’ll be moving again is feet first!” So far, that’s been 33 years ago. I hope you fin..."Thanks Marilyn.
Just read this in the Medievalist Newsletter:https://www.medievalists.net/2021/10/...Thought you might enjoy the news!
Michelle wrote: "That's really cool- thanks, May!"Glad you enjoyed!
I read about this in our online news too. Astonishing how much was found, esp. a whole woman´s head! Thanks May!
May wrote: "Just read this in the Medievalist Newsletter:https://www.medievalists.net/2021/10/...Thought you might enjoy the news!"
fascinating! - Thnx May
Mark, this is sooo fascinating! Thank you for sharing!!
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)
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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)
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I hope the darn thing will just go away at some point. At least there is the option of keeping the old way.