random trip pics

These are still from the drive to Pennsylvania. Pics from the war itself next post.


More Montana geology. On the return trip we went through Wyoming and Nebraska and Utah, where I took more photos of landscape than of geology.


The rest area at Moorhead. Elisa and I recognised it as one we'd slept at two years ago, and very nice it was, too. Grass, trees, recycling, all good things. Do feel free to make your own Bewitched joke at this point.



In the restaurant (Brigid's Pub) at the hotel in South Bend that was our last night's stop before the war. I'm not sure why there's a callbox in the corner, but there it is.

briefly present

Am home.
Am tired.
Am driving out to pick Mark up from airport about midnight.
Am working tomorrow.

for you the war is over

Was ritually said to prisoners of war in WWII, to discourage them from escape attempts. In this case, it's simple fact, as I'm on my way home from the Pennsic war. South Bend last night, rolling in about 3 am, Cheyenne tonight just before midnight. Tomorrow is Baker City. Then home.
Typing from Springhill Suites, Marriott hotel in Cheyenne. This little suite is so nice that I harbour thoughts of just staying here for a few days instead of going home. It has not just the usual desk, but a mini sitting room with couch, chair, and coffee tables. Two closets, the microwave & coffee set in a sort of mini kitchenette so they're separate - the layout makes very effective use of space.
And as you know, I don't stay in hotels that often, so it's always a bit special.

Pics of Pennsic when I'm not asleep on my feet (well, on my bum, since I'm sitting down, but you know what I mean).

promised pics

Just some from the Montana leg of the trip, a rest stop under a hill, with a terrific view from the top. I climbed it because I needed a stretch after a few hours driving. Forgot to photograph or note the informative sign naming which rest stop it was, sigh.
Took a fair number of photos, but I don't want to strain my available upload time.

One side of the rock formation at the top. I do love the geology in Montana. We did North Dakota in the dark, so I don't have any clever observations to make about it.


I took a few more photos of the plants as I walked back down. I don't know the names of any, so I should try to bring a wild plants book and a bird book the next time I make this trip.



And while I forgot to photograph the actual place sign, I couldn't resist this one. If you're wondering, no, I didn't see any snakes of any sort as I walked up the narrow asphalt trail to the top of the hill. Would I have stood about like a nitwit and attempted to photograph a rattlesnake if I saw one? Hm. Hope not.



If I can make this all work again (or rather, if my wonderful husband can make it work, since this is done on his laptop) I'll post some Pennsic War photos next time.

promissory post

I'm in Pennsylvania, at the Pennsic War, very temporarily online with borrowed equipment. I have some cool photos from Montana that I can't post yet because the thumb-drive won't show up on this machine, and I have a pre-written post about the trip that is stuck on my EEE, so much will have to wait for free wifi.
Things have been purchased (books, linen, ink-making supplies, parchment). Classes have been circled in the schedule. Sweat has been sweated. Wine and cider have been drunk. People have been hugged. And so on. I have even gone for a brisk walk in the early cool and done some writing on Not a Fairy Princess (working title). Haven't worked on Maenads at Band Camp yet.
More later.

amoeba book reproduces by fission

A strange and sudden freedom has fallen on me. As you may recall, I've been
struggling along with the ever-expanding expansion of Cost of Silver,
occasionally despairing of it ever being completely filled in, and repeatedly
extending my self-imposed deadlines. Well!
Over the last few weeks, I'd been comparing the almost-completely-filled-in
first 'half' with the much-left-to-go second 'half' and realising that if I did the
English Civil War justice, I was going to have a novel of at least 180k,
probably more.
Also that, although I had tightened the timeline considerably, there was
still a natural break between part one: fen-draining and vampires, and
part two: war and witchfinders.

As part one crept up past 90k, I began to believe that either I had two books
on my hands or I needed to stop expanding and start trimming. Yikes! But this
is what's great about having an agent who started as an editor. I emailed her
and asked 'how about I send you part one and
you can give me an opinion as to which way I should handle this?'
She said 'great, send it to me.'

After some Adventures in Formatting, followed by Adventures in Printing,
The Cost of Silver part one: The Astrologer's Death, 94k,* is on its way to
my agent for her considered advice.

And its author is on her way to Pennsylvania for two weeks of mostly-offline life.
I've brought actual paper notebooks and pens, so I'll still be writing. I'm planning
to mess around with a YA story idea riffing on the YA paranormal romance genre,
most easily summarised as 'Maenads at Band Camp". I think it will be fun.

Posting from Missoula Montana - goodnight!

*part two stands at 55k, which is a little under where the sketched-out first draft
stood when I started expanding it in January. So I must have written about 90k in
7 months. Maybe I really am a 'book a year' writer!

making our own fun

Last weekend I helped build a clay oven, in hopes of using it during our upcoming Living History Week. We've had ovens from time to time, the first being built of broken bricks on site, covered over with clay and straw then disassembled with a hammer at event's end, the later one being built of clay over a tall basket and fired by burning the basket inside it. That one lasted a couple of years but was a bit delicate for moving back and forth to the site. Eventually its makers smashed it up cathartically.
After that we did without. But an oven is such a handy thing to have, and opens so many possibilities, that the idea was never quite given up. At last Joan bought clay and offered her patio as an assembly site, and Ina, fresh from a course on cob-building, offered her expertise.
I brought the basket.


Here Ina directs her two lovely assistants in preparing the sand-and-clay cob mix.


After the base has been covered in clay, the inner frame of the oven is established. Rowan is eagerly squishing clay into a sheet to begin covering it.


Halfway up with the first layer. Ina works up more clay and sand. We covered the frame with an inch-and-a-bit of cob mixture, then left it overnight. The next day we painted it with slip, then added a thinner layer of cob mixed with short-cut straw.


Some decoration to the top, as with some of the English examples, in a rope-twist pattern, and the youngsters could not be deterred from painting it over with slip once more.
It has to dry for a couple of weeks before we even think about firing it. We'd like to be able to put on a hand-cart and wheel it around, but we might have to settle for standing it on a couple of trestles.