I go away and everything happens at once – which is sort of like busses (and how you wait hours for one and then three come within seconds of each other.) I’m not really back from my holidays yet, since the girls haven’t yet gone back to school, but I am at least back from the places of no internet which I have been inhabiting over the past fortnight. Cornwall – there was much bodyboarding and eating, though not at the same time. Grandparents – there was much chatting and eating. And re-enacting the Saxons in a field at the Detling Military Odyssey. Much Bayeux-tapestry-like embroidery and bone-flute playing was done. There wasn’t a lot of eating at that one, but what there was of it was all fried, so I suspect I return a half stone heavier than I was when I left.
When I got back and unpacked yesterday it was to find a notice that I could no longer keep my website with the host it has been with for the past couple of years, so a frantic day’s work later and it has been transferred over to a new host. I believe that everything is supposed to carry on as if nothing has changed, so my alex@alexbeecroft.com addy will still work, and my blog will still crosspost hither and yon. This is the first test post, so fingers crossed!
Excitingly, my cover art for By Honor Betrayed arrived half way through the fortnight, and I can now unveil it. I have to say that I think that with this one Carina continues their winning streak when it comes to cover art. I’m very happy with it, anyway 
By Honor Betrayed is coming out in early November, and will break the long period I’ve had with nothing new out. I can’t wait.
Also half way through the holiday I signed a contract with Carina for another Age of Sail novella called Poison and Poetry. So with that and the two volumes of Under the Hill, I suspect I’m in for an autumn and winter of editing. Huzzah! (As my heroes would say.)
Now I’m champing at the bit for the school holidays to end (on 6th September) so I can get down to work on the first draft of The Pilgrims’ Tale. It was nice to revisit the Age of Sail for a couple of novellas, but it will also be nice to do one of my other favourites for a change.
It may be apparent, from all the little snippets of wild and wacky information I’m coming across, that I’m doing research at the moment. Previously I’ve tended to think “nobody could be interested in this stuff. Just put the book down and walk away.” But this time around, I thought it might be fun to share some of it. So, here I am discovering that, according to the Anglo-Saxons, my newfound ability to play the whistle may come with unexpected side effects.
From this website http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/1001Lovett.htm
Since they were similar by nature, musica instrumentalis could exert sympathetic influence over a listener by appealing to musica humana, his own physical music, both emotional and physiological. According to this system of influence, the type of music played could exert specific physical and emotional responses. Soft sounding instruments were played to encourage sleep, and faster songs and dances to promote physical vigor… The musical performance in each of the above examples is a meaningful event, and intended to have a very specific effect beyond its value as entertainment. Along with the beneficial potential of music came the threat that a musician would play intervals calculated to rob the listener of his or her rational ability, leaving the listener vulnerable to the devil’s temptation. Despite sounding somewhat fanciful to modern individuals, music’s practical, physical and moral influence was treated very seriously in the middle ages.
Members of the clergy often suspected music’s persuasive powers of demonic origin, especially when attempts were made to influence the natural world through secular musical acts. As a result, instructions were written outlining punishments for the practice of sinful superstitions. An example of this is found in the latin Indiculus Superstitionum , which forbids the playing of wind instruments to influence the weather or the passing of an eclipse. (Griffiths, 100)
Damn! I’ll have to give up my plan of plunging the world into darkness by playing my pennywhistle after all. I guess I’ll have to settle for disturbing my listeners’ reason and making them run around with their fingers in their ears shouting “Argh! No! Stoppit!” instead.
I thought this was interesting, and went some way towards answering all those people who dislike Arwen because she does nothing more strenuous in the war of the rings than to send Aragorn a banner that she had made herself.
From the Viking Answer Lady’s webpage (which is just a wonderful thing in many ways)
A famous type of weaving that was used for protection was the Raven Banner: these banners were recorded to have been carried by Danes attacking Belgium and northern France in the 9th and 10th centuries, as well as to Vikings under Sigifrid in the British Isles in 878, and in the Icelandic manuscripts of the 12th and 13th century the Raven Banner is found connected with Sigurðr Hlöðvisson Dyri (the Stout), Earl of Orkney, or with King Harald of Norway. In all these accounts, the magical banner has the power to terrify foemen; the ground of the banner which at rest was seen to be a shimmering white turned black in battle, or else the figure of a huge black raven in flight appeared on the white fabric, which was seen to magically flap its wings. The magical banner is always woven by the mother or sister of the warrior in question, with the magic woven into the fabric as it was made to protect the son or brother. Victory was always assured to the man whom the banner was carried before, but the banner bearer was often doomed to fall in battle (Orkneyinga saga, ch. 6, 11, 14, 17; Njáls saga, ch. 157; Lukman, 135-150).
So probably it was all down to Arwen’s magical abilities that Aragorn won the battles at all.
In which it turns out that Freyja added a few bonus warning dreams of her own to the package. Not that it helped.
For earlier parts check the Loki or Wildfire tags.
Chapter Four.
Priests and Peaceweavers.
Raegn cursed. Aethelbald’s sword had nicked her arm and the slow blood trickled down to her fingertips. She was aware of it’s progress, as irritating as a march of ants. She cursed at herself, for acting like a wife, like a little placid woman who had never handled a sword. Too much thinking, that was the problem. Aethelbald sheathed his sword and said;
"I’m sorry. Is it bad? "
She knocked him down with the flat of her sword against his face. He was lucky he didn’t get it in the eye.
"You don’t apologise for my fault." she said. "If I was of the mettle to be badly hurt by that little scratch I would be using this sword to beat my weaving."
She walked away. Aethelbald rubbed his face, and there was a rueful look on it. Friends laughed at him sitting there in the dust, and his wife walked by and said "You look very well there, husband. You’ve never been more than a fool." Raegn sheathed her sword. She had called it Lufgifu, the love-gift. The men who had tried to get her for wife in the past had found it a sharp bedfellow…
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Following Erastes’ My list of 15 Children’s Books everyone should read, itself inspired by 15 Kid’s Books you need to read I thought I’d do my own.
Start with the usual suspects 🙂
1. The Hobbit
2. The Lord of the Rings (not technically a children’s book, but best read first in your teens.)
3. The Narnia books
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If you’re a UK GLBT romance author wanting to do a little promo, or a reader who wants to hang out with the UK Meet Acquisitions Team*authors and chat about jellied eels or some such suitably British topic (yeah, go on, you know you want to!), then come along to Love Romances Cafe tomorrow! (2nd August)
The have a session booked tomorrow at LRC for UK GLBT authors – and you’re all welcome! It’s a chance for us to twist the spotlight on to the UK, after the success of this year’s UK Meet and the publication of Tea & Crumpet, to which many generous authors contributed.
Love Romances Cafe
From 12pm EST (5pm GMT) we can introduce ourselves and post excerpts of any of our work. Then we’d love as many of you as possible to follow up with some friendly chat at 3pm EST (8pm GMT) for a couple of hours.
All contests and excerpts welcomed.
And of course you don’t have to be in the UK or write about the UK to come and join us for the fun!
*that’s me, Charlie Cochrane, JL Merrow, Josephine Myles and Clare London 🙂
(wording nabbed from Charlie and Jo – cheers, both!)
Not related to the post title, but much more interesting, there’s a month-long party going on on the 18th Century History blog, launching off with a giveaway from me. Possibly everyone who reads my blog and wants one has already got a copy of False Colors, but if you haven’t here’s a chance to get one free.
http://18thcenturyhistory.com/post/8336696361/happy-august-its-time-for-our-first-giveaway-a
Even if you’re not at all interested in that, the blog is worth bookmarking and coming back to regularly, and not just for the month of giveaways 🙂
Meanwhile, back to the post title, I’m 20K into a m/m historical novella set in Saxon times. It’s heading for 30K once it’s finished and I’m beginning to wonder if I should expand it into a short novel. It might benefit from some more buildup and more… well, everything. But if I do that it will be a much longer time before I can start on the next fantasy novel. Anyone got an opinion? Should I
a) Finish the novella. Start the next fantasy novel.
b) Turn the novella into a novel. Start the next fantasy novel later.
c) Forget writing! Concentrate on learning Coton’s tunes on the pennywhistle in time for practice season starting in September.
d) Something else.
If everything’s set up as I think it is, this should appear on Facebook, twitter, LJ, DW & Goodreads simultaneously. (My theory being that I should bring stuff to whatever a reader’s preferred platform is, rather than expecting them to come to me.)
So how come I can post to LJ from my WordPress blog, but I can’t post to LJ from LJ’s own interface?
(Previous parts available under the ‘Wildfire’ tag.) I thought I’d wait until LJ was back before carrying on posting this, but – fingers crossed – it seems to be OK this morning.
Moral of the story so far – when a suspicious stranger comes to the door immediately after your aged grandad tells you a story about suspicious strangers coming to the door and taking over his life, take a hint, for goodness sake! Don’t treat them like your new best friend. (This moral courtesy of the “Oh, Alfred, you’re far too trusting,” theme.)
~*~
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