More changes to the blog

All:

Just a quick note to let everybody know(if you can't see it already), that I've changed the blog background.  The reason? Someone suggested it was difficult to read and caused eyestrain.  I don't want that, and believe it or not, I am responsive to these things.  If you have any likes or dislikes about this latest change, Gentle Readers, I will listen carefully

Introducing Clio's Children

I've gotten off to a late start blogging for the month of April. Part of the reason for this has been certain time constraints. But another reason has been that there hasn't been much going in in the subjects of this blog. At least not enough to excite me enough to write about them, though this is beginning to change. \


My purpose here, though, is to introduce the new blog Clio's Children,which is a group blog, devoted to historical fiction, which I was invited to join. I haven't posted anything -- yet. But I intend to as soon as the blog is better established. Those of you who are interested in historical fiction, may want to follow my musings there.
Anne G

Another fine novelist and blogger

This is the first of March,and I would like to make an announcement.  Which is to say, I’m adding another fine blog to my blog list.  It’s Sharon Kay Penman's blog.  She is a fine novelist who has written such works as The Devil’s Brood, her most recent work.  The other reason I’m adding it is, she writes fiction about medieval England.  Her works are mainly biographical fiction, which is not usually a genre or subgenre I read, but Ms. Penman is a definite exception, and I’ve enjoyed most of the things I’ve read from her.  I have certain disagreements with her about her style and approaches to certain things, but that’s not because I don’t consider her a good writer.  I do.  And besides, I haven’t blogged about any medieval stuff for a long time.  That needs to be rectified.  So thanks, Ms. Penman, for your blog.  I’ll be following it with great interest!

Anne G

A plethora of goodies on various subjects

There is an absolute plethora of bloggable subjects cluttering up various parts of my computer today, and I didn't even realize it!  I've been busy the past few days, mostly with more writing(have completed or revised two more chapters in the second book of my Great Medieval Science Fiction Trilogy With Neandertals), and haven't, lately, had much time to do any serious blogging. 

 

But never fear, there's plenty to blog about.  First, two stories from Julien Riel-Salvatore's fine blog, A Very Remote Period Indeed,  both on the presence of Neandertals in Poland north of the Carpathians, some 80,000 years ago.  Then there's an equally fascinating piece on preserving an 11th century bridge in England, with sugar, on Got Medieval.  And let us not forget My Beloved Wolves!  There are stories and updates on the Wolves of the High Arctic(in this case, Ellesmere Island -- if you don't exactly know where that is, you might want to search through Google Earth or an atlas).  Their travels are interesting.  All wolves' travels are interesting, for a variety of reasons.

 

Last but not least, I have my own thoughts about why only certain people are interested in medieval history and society, and why few readers of historical and other genres deal with "medieval" except as fantasy.  I will also have something to say about how this impacts my own history, and my writing. 

 

In any case, stay tuned.  I'll be blogging about some of this stuff, a little each day or so.  I'm not deserting anybody, though I haven't started 2010 with a huge number of blogs.  But that's another story to tell -- later.  Much later.

Anne G

State of the blog

Happy New Year, dear blog readers!

 

This is the first post of the year 2010.  It is also the first year I've decided to do a "State of the Blog" address, similar to "State of the Union"(though I can hardly compare myself to the President of the US).  2009 has been an interesting year.  While writing my Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece With Neandertals, I've also been writing book reviews.  These have mainly been mysteries, historical or otherwise, but they are all related, in some way, to what I'm doing(though I'm not writing a mystery.  I wouldn't have any idea of how to go about it).  These mysteries have been quite good, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them, and this is reflected in the reviews I've done. It's a bit odd, because while I'm writing a work of "romantic science fiction"(for lack of a better term), I haven's seen any fantasy or science fiction that I considered worth reviewing.  I think this is too bad, but I am looking forward to the possibility that this will change as 2010 rolls along. I am not neglecting anything that looks good, and there were plenty of mysteries and historical fiction I didn't review, either.  I just didn't consider these interesting enough(to me) to make the effort of reviewing them.

 

I hope, though,that the authors were satisfied with my efforts.  I have also become a guest blogger and have acquired "followers", which pleases me. I'm always happy when someone thinks my blog posts are interesting enough to follow and/or comment on. During 2009, I also added the subject of wolves to the subjects I cover on this blog. The reason for that is, although wolves don't appear in my Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece(s) With Neandertals, they appear in some other works that I have waiting to be finished, and they're an important part of the "scenery" in those places(hint:  these take place partly in a very fictional former timber and milling town in Western Washington State, and there's a convenient forest nearby where the wolves have trotted themselves.  There are Neandertals there, too, hiding in plain sight; it's in the near future).  It also reflects the fact that a couple of packs of wolves have, in recent years, begun to recolonize parts of My Fair State, and I'm happy to have them back.

 

I've gotten a lot of feedback from many of my posts, which also satisfies me.  One I recently got seemed to really like this blog, and pointed out that my efforts have much improved since I started it.  I'm glad of that, too. And I'm not surprised.  First efforts are just that -- first efforts, and they are often not as good as later ones.  I think in part, this improvement had to do with the fact that the first few posts I did, were a little less focused than later ones.  I have learned not to just "blather on", and I've learned to focus my efforts on just a few things, rather than "going all over the place".  And I am now trying to avoid writing vague posts about "creativity" and the like, unless I have something really "focused" to say about it.

 

I've also gotten a few brickbats.  In one case(and I think the person who posted the "brickbat" deserves a more thoughtful reply to the blog comment than I could give in a "comment" section.  I was also coming down with something nasty that I think I've finally recovered from, so I may have seemed a little more "intemperate" than I intended to be at the time.  But more on that later.  I will just put up another post.  On the other hand, what is a blog without some controversy?  I'm not one of those innumerable "political" blogs that thrive on controversy, and I don't generally publish such things unless they have pretty enormous significance, e.g. the 2008 elections and their results.  Still, some people may not understand or even dislike what I have to say.  I sometimes take risks, as everyone must, from time to time.  But all in all, I don't even mind this.  It goes with the territory. 

 

For the future, expect to see more book reviews, more commentary on writers and writing, if appropriate, comments on various Neandertal-related finds, anything interesting related to medieval England, and last, but not least, the state of wolves, especially Washington wolves.  Anything reasonably related to the territory covered in my Great Science Fiction Masterpiece(s) With Neandertals is fair territory, so expect these things when they start coming.  I encourage more people to "follow" me, if they wish to.  Finally, if anyone  leaves a comment, I will make every effort to reply, though some replies may take longer for me to "process" than others.  In the meantime,  keep reading my blog, throw brickbats if you really disagree with me, or don't(I'd much rather have the latter, but as I said, some brickbats are probably inevitable, even here).  And whatever else you do, don't take yourselves, or the world too seriously.  That can be depressing! 

 

Enjoy your life and your reading life while you can,

Anne G

Computers! I love 'em, I hate 'em!

IAs of yesterday, I have finished(pant, gasp!) uploading Michelle Cameron's answers to my questions, for the blog tour spot on The Writer's Daily Grind.  It turned out to be a horrible chore.  This was probably partly because I didn't really know what I was doing, when I tried to save her e-mail to a file I could retrieve for this blog.  You see, I thought I sent it to Live Writer, which is Microsoft's connection with Blogger. 

 

Well, surprise, surprise.  When I  looked for the relevant file, I couldn't find it.  Anywhere!  I couldn't find the relevant e-mail, which I always save in a special file on my e-mail.  I looked and looked.  Then I looked in just about every reasonable-sounding file on my hard drive, that I could think of.  No luck.  At last, however, I found the relevant e-mail, questions, answers, and all, in some file like "Recent activity" or something like that.  So I then tried to copy it here, to my blogging program, Live Writer, so I could send it to The Writer's Daily Grind.  Unfortunately, it didn't copy, for some reason I couldn't fathom(maybe a computer can).  All I had was a filed post with my questions.  No answers from her.  So I had to start the search again!

 

Fortunately, I more or less remembered where I"d found it before, so I went back to that file and made sure, this time, that I did a copy-and-paste.  And lo and behold, it worked!  My relief, at that point was boundless.  But what I had to go through to get it successfully uploaded to my blog, was positively enervating. 

 

And that, dear Gentle Readers, is why I love, and hate, computers!  They are very convenient beasts, but they have minds of their own,and if you don't do whatever it is you're trying to do, the way the computer wants you to do it, you end up tearing whatever hear is in your head.  And that can be very, very frustrating. 

 

However, on balance, I must say that I wouldn't be where I am today, certainly not as a writer, without the help I've gotten from people on the other side of "online", both with regard to the "prehistoric" and the "medieval" aspects of my writing.  And that doesn't even take into account, the "writing" aspect, which is help I've gotten over the months and years, from some absolutely lovely people, and for whose existence, I can only say I'm extremely grateful.  And without computers and the Internet, all of this would, essentially, have been impossible, at least in the form I'm getting my research and my writing, now. 

 

But still. . .

Anne G

Michelle Cameron's new book, "The Fruit of Her Hands"

Toda, I'm doing something a little different. Michelle Cameron, author of the recently published  The Fruit of Her Hands, is going on a blog tour.  I am one of the people she has chosen for her blog tour, and I really feel quite privileged to have been chosen.  Here, I will simply introduce her.  The Fruit of Her Hands is about one of her ancestors, a Jewish woman living in 13th century France, where she witness a mob burning all the copies of the Torah and Talmud the mob can get their hands on.  She has secretly studied these books, with her father, a rabbi or scholar in the Jewish community of 13th century Paris.  This is about her life, and what she had to do to preserve her people's knowledge, and her own integrity.  Though I haven't yet had a chance to read the book, it sounds very exciting.  So I will, in a subsequent(very subsequent) post, start asking her some questions about the book and how she came to write it, in preparation for this blog tour, which she will presumably be answering.  As I say, I feel very privileged

 

Thank you, Michelle Cameron,

Anne G

I guess the blogosphere is noticing me, for whatever that's worth

I guess I'm getting famous.  Or something.  I guest blog from time to time on one of Nan Hawthorne's blogs, Early Medieval Britain .  Nan Hawthorne is a writer, and before I go any further, I would like to put in a shameless plug for her book  An Involuntary King, which I reviewed several months ago.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and want to simply say that I'd like to share my enjoyment with others "out there".  If you go to her blog, and are interested in reading it yourselves, Gentle Readers, there will be information on how to order it.    I've been meaning to do this for a long time.

 

In any case, Nan Hawthorne writes on a variety of medieval-themed subjects, and she is particularly interested, as the title of this particular blog suggests, in early medieval England.  Basically, that is the time of the Anglo-Saxons, and since my Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece is set in roughly the same period, I consult her blog rather regularly. 

 

Not too long ago, I found an interesting little piece on one of the science news feeds I also regularly consult(mostly for human-evolution related things, but you never know what you'll find on a science-related news feed).  It wasn't very long, but it described how some scientists in California had discovered some 45 million year old yeast, which apparently was still good, and some Northern California brewery brewed some ale with it.  I uploaded a short piece several weeks back about this  experiment on her blog, suspecting that it might  be of interest to the readers of her blog.  I didn't expect any response, though the methods used might have been fairly close to those used in Anglo-Saxon times.  But lo and behold, Nan posted a very nice piece  on how ale was actually brewed then. By the way, and just a quick note, the difference between beer and ale is, ale isn't brewed with hops, and beer is.  In medieval times, before the widespread adoption of hops as flavoring, brewers, many of whom were women -- a perfectly respectable trade for the female half of the population at that time -- generally flavored their brew with a variety of flavorings.  Bog myrtle as been mentioned.  Also honey, or just about any flower or plant that wasn't poisonous.  The quality tended to vary, of course, but the flavors so produced must have been quite interesting. 

 

In any case, on top of having one of my "lupine" posts being mentioned by a Real Anthropologist, I'm thrilled!  I'm getting famous, more or less.  And I'm very happy about it!

Anne G

Somebody likes my wolf stories(yay!)

I must be getting famous. Greg Laden's blog mentioned my post about the second wolf pack in Washington State in his Blogospherics column.  I've been "acquainted" with Dr. Laden for some time now.  He's an anthropologist whose main work has been in Africa, which is not exactly known for its canids.  That is, unless you count the endangered African wild dogs, or jackals.  Well, they are canids, although the former are not very closely related to wolves.  Jackals are in the genus Canis.  Well, anyway, it was nice of Dr. Laden to do this. . . .we have our disagreements on some things, but I really appreciate this.

 

Thanks, Dr. Laden!\

Anne G

A hearty welcome to a fellow blogger

A wonderful author not many have heard of, Helen Hollick, has entered the blogosphere. Her blog, Helen Hollick -- Historical Fiction and Adventure History has recently started, and not only am I introducing her here, but I am adding her to my Honorable Blogroll.  She is currently writing a series set in the Golden Age of Piracy, about pirates, naturally, but she has also written an Arthurian trilogy and is working on the third book of a trilogy set near "my" period(late Anglo-Saxon/early Anglo-Norman). Welcome!  I hope Ms. Hollick doesn't mind too much being sandwiched in between my thoughts on the writing process, Neandertals, and wolves, though!

Anne G

Changes

This blog has been operating for a little over a year.  Well, almost two years, now. Given that it started "from nothing", I consider it reasonably successful -- I have some loyal followers, have a presence on Twitter and Facebook(for what those venues are worth, have a "network" of writers with blogs, and even some nice anthropologists. How I'm connected to all of this is probably food for another blog entry, though.  And last, but not least, it seems like almost every time I post something about writing, or Neandertals, I get responses.  Sometimes, lots of them.  But as time goes by, things begin to change. And I want to change with them. So I'm going to change certain aspects of this blog, and I'm considering some other changes. 

 

First of all,I definitely plan to add some other, though related, subject matter. In this case, wolves.  I wrote about wolves on this blog a while back, but that was in the context of the possibility that "modern" humans and Neandertals might share something more than the same genus.  Let me explain. Just recently, I bought a book by the mystery writer Nevada Barr.  It's called Winter Study, and takes place on Isle Royale National Park, in winter, when there aren't any visitors, just researchers, doing one of the longest ongoing studies in science.  The wolves(and moose that live there), have been the subjects of this study for over 50 years, and a lot of what we know about wolves, comes from the database. Ms. Barr uses this work quite extensively in her novel.  Although wolves aren't part of the scenery in what I'm presently working on, they appear, and drive some of the action in work I haven't finished, but intend to return to, eventually. These are novels that are not "medieval" but take place in the near future. Furthermore, where I live, there is some evidence that wolves are returning to certain areas. Besides that,I've been "into" wolves for a long time. If I hadn't gotten "into" wolves, I probably never would have stumbled onto Neandertals in the way I did, and if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't now be writing a Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece With Neandertals. I might not be writing anything at all. But that's probably a subject for another post.  In any case, I now feel I need to add this as a subject related to my writing efforts, though I don't know that, to begin with, I'll be writing about them all that often.  But who knows?

 

The other changes I want to make, may involve changing the look of this blog.  I haven't quite figured out how to do this yet, so that remains somewhere in the future when I have a lot of time on my hands and can experiment.  And for now at least, the "background changes" may be relatively minor,involving, most likely, background color tweaks. I'm also considering a more major change, and that is,adding Google Adsense ads to this blog. The reason for that is, times are what they are right now,.and I'm a Starving Writer.  The ads themselves are supposed to relate to the content of this blog, and I fully intend, should I add them, to keep them discreet, and follow all the rules you're supposed to follow when adding them. The only reason for me to do this is to generate a bit of possible income. I really don't want to turn people off this blog,because I enjoy hearing from anybody kind enough to drop in, unless, of course, they turn out to be spammers, and I have ways of dealing with that.

 

I really don't want to offend anyone's sensibilities here.  This is still going to be a writer's blog.  The photoshopped Neanderlady will still be here, and so will the subject matter, with the addition of wolves. But it's time for some expansion.  So, would anyone who follows me or drops in, like to voice an opinion?  I'll cheerfully listen.  Thank you all very much.

Anne G

I'm tweaking the blog

I've actually been thinking about making the blog a little more attractive and readable for some time. So tonight I messed around with it for a while. I think the results are more easily read(better contrast), yet they harmonize with the template. Unfortunately, I couldn't change the background color to a prettier shade of green(or what I think is a prettier shade).  Apparently Blogger won't allow that, and unfortunately, the number of templates Blogger allows is rather limited.  That aside,I'm as satisfied with the results as I can be under the circumstances. I hope you, dear readers, are, too.

Anne G

Not much

  I haven't blogged much this month.  I haven't really had much reason to, though there have been some very interesting encounters with other bloggers on a variety of subjects related to my writing project. And I don't see any reason to blog often, unless there's a lot "out there", as, for some reason, there was in February.  I don't even have any books I want to review.  And a steady, though small, stream of people drops in from time to time and looks at my blog.  Gee. I'm even being "followed" at Twitter now! 

 

All of this is quite all right with me. I don't have a mania for posting "nonsense" like some bloggers do(there's been a lot of complaint about this in the sphere of "political" blogs, which I am not).  I'd rather post less often, if I don't have anything much to say, than simply blather. 

 

Interestingly, though, my blogging isn't the only thing that's  slow at the moment.  So is my writing. It's not that I don't have ideas, nor is it that my story isn't going well. Both are, though the story itself needs at least one more revision,before I think it will be anything close to publishable, and that's just the first book!  It's just that, unlike some writers, the words often come s-l-o-w-l-y.  I have a scene in my head, but I don't quite know how to put this scene, dialog, and characters down on paper(or more precisely, in the computer).  This is much more difficult than one might imagine, but I keep doing it, even if I only get half a page done. In my view,that's the only way I can write at all "creatively".  I'm definitely not a "formula" writer. But I'm also disciplined.  And  lately, I've been doing more critiques of other people's writing, than I started out doing.  I enjoy that, partly to see(with the more "polished" writers),what I can aim for, partly to see where they're going,and partly, just to see what they're writing!

 

Be that as it may, you, Gentle Reader, can rest assured that I will remain a "presence" here. You may not agree with some of the things in my blog, or you may love them so much that you "lust" for more. I will eventually have lots to say, I am sure.  I might even repeat myself, on occasion. But this blog will continue,and of course,I will continue to encourage people to drop by and correspond. Who knows?  Maybe someone will stroll in here and give me information about how I can write "faster".  Someone like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling?  One can always hope.

Anne G

A quick note concerning a change

I am pleased to announce that Nan Hawthorne's blog Early Medieval England has been changed to Early Medieval Britain.  Yours Truly has uploaded a short post there, and Yours Truly, who has the old title on her medieval blogroll, will make changes accordingly.  There are only four posts at the moment, but I have a feeling the blog will prove quite interesting!

Anne G

I've found still another fantastic anthropology/paleoanthropology blog!

Today, I'd like to introduce Ethan Fulwood's  The Caveman's Corner . Like me, he is self-taught in the intricacies of human evolution and anthropology, and I suppose, like me, he started from scratch.  He is also majoring in anthropology, which is what I did when in my misspent youth. Be that as it may, if this blog is any indication of his talent, when he learns more, he's really going to shine!  Welcome, Ethan Fulwood!

Anne G

Getting even more medieval

Just to make up for my absence, enforced by my feeble computer, I'm promoting a link to another medieval site. This one is called The Crispin Guest Blog. Crispin Guest is the hero of a new series of medieval "noir" mysteries. Since his isn't the period I'm working with --- it's late 14th Century England --- I can't verify how accurately the period or the person is portrayed. But a "medieval noir" mystery certainly sounds, well, pretty interesting. And it's good advertising for the series. The author already has two blog entries up, and she just started the blog! Hey, maybe I'll steal that idea, and blog about Illg, Hardwin, et al. But only later on, when my Great Medieval Science Fiction Masterpiece/Epic is closer to completion! I've got lots of work to do on it yet.
Anne G