Apparently….
I entered a big chunk of text from the second Mercator book that I’m working on right now (even as I type this very word). Which I think is very promising indeed. Either that or worrying. Are Alice’s adventures in Wonderland too old for Middle Schoolers?
A copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that I found at my Grandmother's.
Not only is it a brilliant title for a chapter in any self respecting fantasy book series, Inn At The Crossroads is a brilliant food blog. Two amazingly dedicated George R. R. Martin super fans (in the best possible way) have taken on the monumental task of cooking their way through the foods mentioned in his Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. Not only that, they take fabulously mouthwatering pictures of the foods they cook which makes me both desperately hungry and desperately wish I could cook. Given the rich medieval tone of the series it is little wonder that some of the recipes should they be truly faithful to the source material might not be completely comparable to the modern palate (i.e. not what we’re used to and occasionally sort of gross) they also offer altered recipes as well that maintain the spirit of the original and are super tasty.
A fabulous example of Inn At The Crossroads tasty looking fare. (Pic from their blog.)
I was saving all of these for the new blog I’m working on for the Mercator Mapmaker website, but I’m getting tiered of all the open tabs in my browser. I have a tendency to keep “important” webpages in open tabs for months at a time, time for a bit of clean up, and as a bonus my boring little blog gets new content! Yay!
First we have a fantastic BBC Series The Beauty of Maps. It’s brilliant, check it out and see for your self the awesome power and beauty of maps!
Here are the rest of the episodes conveniently organized on a single webpage over at visualnews.com
Next is a little time-lapse video of making a map of the London Underground out of string. As with nearly everything on Vimeo, it’s beautiful and creative. Perhaps I’ll play with the idea myself someday mapping the movements of all my characters across Threa.
String map from fsm vpggru on Vimeo.
And finally a couple of super cool posters. Words and maps together at last…er…again! Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for this one!
You can buy them here along with other cool literary themed posters.
Well, that’s it for now. I’m still working on all that video from Mount Ayr and StarFest, my computer is getting old and cantankerous and my patience is limited. Hopefully I can wrangle it into spitting out what I want soon. 🙂
I just want to know where he got Mjölnir!
So I’m back from my first Science Fiction/ Fantasy Convention in Wayne, Nebraska! All in all I must say that it was a pretty great weekend. I took tons of pictures and video, which seem to have disappeared into the black hole of random data loss otherwise this post would be much shinier.
The highlight of my weekend was getting to hear Harry Turtledove read his short story “We Haven’t Got There Yet.” (Link to Tor.com) The story answers the question, “How would Shakespeare react to a performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard?” Mr. Turtledove confessed that the idea for the story struck him after seeing the play with his daughter, and I’m confident that he’s not the only one to have asked the question, but I’m pretty certain no one else has answered it nearly as well. As a Theater Geek, I was hooked from the premise and fell in love with all the little pieces of Elizabethan English ( I love the word groundlings) and Shakespearean quotes scattered throughout the story. Fantasy, history, theatre, Shakespeare, if any or all these subjects catch your fancy you’ll love this little tale. Check it out.
And if you happen to be near Wayne, Nebraska for Willy Con 14 check it out!
Monday it snowed 2 inches! It was practically shorts weather this weekend and it snows 2 inches overnight. Gotta love the Midwest.
My Dad putting on the finishing touches
Attack of the Snow Serpent!!!
Beware the Snowtooth Snapjaw! Now in color!!!
If you get dizzy easily, this isn’t the video for you.
I was shoveling snow out of the driveway earlier and it made me think of one of the stories about Gulliver Lamm from Knights of Evermore by Scott and Renee Pinzon.
I’m willing to bet that you’ve never heard of Knights of Evermore. I’d be really surprised if you had. It was published in 1994 and as far as I can tell never saw a lot of success in the marketplace. It’s really too bad, because it’s stories are great for young Christians who are interested in Fantasy. It’s fairly obvious that it’s Christan Allegory, but it’s not too heavy handed. I found the book tucked away in the store at Church Camp when I was in sixth or seventh grade. I was just starting to discover how completely awesome books without pictures could be and was quickly falling head over heels in love with Fantasy. My tastes have always run toward the Medieval and Fantasy and this book was exactly what I was looking for at the time.
The fact that there is a female knight in full armor, dressed no differently than either of the male knights (although I used to pretend the one on the left was a girl too) caught my attention right off. I’ve always been fascinated by knights and swords, but as a little girl I always felt a bit ashamed of this love. Swords, armor, and fighting were for princes, the princess had to wear a pink dress, drink tea, and be mostly useless. It wasn’t right for a girl to fight. I really hated that. So I absolutely love that one of the main characters in Knights of Evermore is a female knight.
The book is a series of short stories that follow the various adventures of Gulliver Lamm as he goes from being just a foot soldier in the High King’s army all the way to his first big adventure as a knight. I highly recommend reading it if you ever come across a copy. It’s a quick read full of fun adventure.
I love these socks! They make me feel a little like a Ninja Turtle. My old roommate got these for me when she visited Japan, which makes sense if you think about it. The best part is that I won’t have to wait as long wear my flip-flops once this spring. I think I may have to do some internet searching to see if I can’t find some more pairs. And I can still grab fallen pens and pencils with my big toe while wearing socks! 🙂
