He's doing one night in Providence before his tour officially starts. No idea why.

Huh. While I'm not surprised he might do a night or two pre-tour to work out the material, I'm surprised he's doing it so far in advance of the tour kick-off. Oh well, your gain!

Cash, if you scroll down the page, there's a rather lengthy, witty if sarcastic reader review of that book, citing it for it's lack of pacifism. I kind of know where the writer is coming from.

Years (oy, SO MANY years) ago, when I was pre-school age, my aunt sent me a huge box of books her daughters, by then grown and with sons, had read as children. There were Honeybunch books and Bobbsey Twins, original bindings. And Nancy Drews, a dozen or more, in their blue cloth bindings with the orange silhouette of Nancy and her spyglass. I inhaled those books. And one day, I came home from school and Mom had packed every one of them up and sent them back to my aunt. Who, having no further use for them, Goodwilled 'em.

No, I still haven't forgiven Mom. But when I had some discretionary income I set about recreating my Nancy Drew library. I'd read some of the revised editions and they made me itch because of the changes. So I spent far more than I should have, but I found most of the books I'd read as a child, and some I hadn't. And settled in to reacquaint myself with Nancy, George, Hannah, and the roadster.

Oh.my.ghod. I was utterly appalled by the classism and racism and the utter careless and thoughtless use of both, and how my tiny young mind had been exposed to it, as well as generations before and after me. I'm currently trying to sell them, and feeling a little icky about it. They're worth decent money, but what I feel I ought to do is burn them so nobody else will be touched by the ick.

Also, wrt the Arthur thing? I am steeped in Arthurian legend, myth, and every aspect of life researchable: architecture of town, city, fief and cot, wardrobe of same, church and its operation and effect on life, herbal lore in medicine, textiles, dyes, paper and ink making, trades plied and tariffs exacted in various parts of Europe, travel, both method and routes, types of terrain and the seasons each would be used and/or avoided, animals grown for domestic use, indigenous animals hunted for food, classes which were allowed to hunt, and where, and fines levied for poaching, animals imported both for sport hunting and domestic use, weapons and which classes were allowed to use them, what serfs and freedmen would wear and carry into battle, how battles were staged, skirmishes, ambushes, use of items at hand to provide or deny advantage, on and on ad infinitum. All for the drawer novel. Two of them. But the knowledge lingers, and the sort of mindset ingrained along with the knowledge, which is why my white stag imagery immediately went to "Arthur!"

I'm not just re-blonde; I'm stripey! I've never been able to have stripey hair before, since my hair was so uniformly blonde. But instead of taking the brown back to allover blonde, it's *mostly* blonde, but with some really light streaks, and some deliberately left-in darker pieces.

I LOVE IT!!!!!! Seriously. Lovelovelovelovelove.

When I get home, there *will* be pictures. Oh yes.

I feel like *me* again. I didn't realize how NOT like me I felt as a brunette until I went blonde again.

I LOVE IT!!!!!! Seriously. Lovelovelovelovelove.

Hooray for hair!

Ooh, you sound pretty! Can't wait for pictures!

Hey, Beverly...regarding all that research, uh...

You got a bibliography? I, uh...could use some of those materials.

Alternately, if you could just download said contents directly into mine brainpan, that'd be super-awesome-cool.

I had a serious Arthur obsession in my youth, inspired, I suspect, by Rosemary Sutcliff. She's certainly behind the Roman Britain obsession I had in my teens. My first long trip to Great Britain was with a friend who was still obsessed, so we visited every piece of real estate remotely related to Arthur. I merely insisted on seeing Hadrian's Wall. I've forgotten most of what I knew about the Arthurian legends, although I was in conversation recently in which someone said "Lancelot did X" and my mind immediately said, "No, that was Perceval." I guess it's still in there somewhere.

Yay new-hair-of-Tep!!

re: white stag - I immediately go to a "white deer" place, and from there to Virginia Dare and Roanoke. To each their own history, I guess.

MM, I'll try and put together a list of what I have here. It may be days, you understand, and I'm not going into the depths of the creepy storage unit to look for and unpack boxes. Just what's on the shelves. And...the floor around the shelves. And under the bed. And maybe in the back of the closet.

I read a lot of fiction set in my period, too, and compared details by different authors, sorting out the commonalities and researching those. It was a way to winnow stuff down. There was one invaluable one called "How to Write an Historical Novel." I don't remember what-all I got out of it, but one thing does stand out as representative: Don't have your protagonist hear carriage wheels on the cobbled street of a medieval walled town. Stuff like that. Any Pagan Book of Days will help you get the agriculturally-based seasons and the Christian holidays that followed the pagan cycle, help you pace your timeline.

Oy. Wrong thread, right? I'll make a list.

Oy. Wrong thread, right?

Anybody gives you any shit, you send 'em to me. I'll take care of 'em.

And thanks!