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First, the excitement: my UK publisher’s publicity person emailed to tell me that BBC-Radio wanted to contact me, inviting me to participate in a discussion of future war. Now I’ve done future war panels at SF conventions (the funniest, to me, was the one where I arrived just in time, in costume from having done a SFWA Muskteers fencing demo, and turned out to be the only woman and only veteran on the panel. ) But this is different because the other panelists are not other SF writers or SF fans…but people in entirely different disciplines. Early in the morning (my time) on May 16 I will go to the assigned studio in Austin and all those lovely electronic connections will be made–and the other panelists and I and the moderator will dig into the topic, each in our own way.
When I know the time it will be broadcast, I’ll definitely let everyone know. I was able to listen to an earlier program online, so it may be available even later for those who can’t listen to the broadcast.
Book V, stymied for several days while this excitement was going on (a matter of email-tag and finally a phone call from London) took off again today, showing that I hadn’t neglected it too long. Where have we not been in Paksworld? On an ocean (other than in Kieri’s memory of his flight from Baron Sekkady.) Well…there’s an ocean voyage coming up in Book V, though I can’t tell you the outcome. The POV character is already aboard, though, and action isn’t far in the future. My naval history adviser is already feeding me terms and specifics.
Right now Book V has several “growing nodes” and I’m working on them all. Major characters whose strands have entered the story so far include Kieri, Dorrin, Mikeli, Camwyn, Arcolin, the Marshal-General, Arvid. Those were expected, amd I know Alured the Black is coming, but I have the feeling more will show up for the finale.
Mac-the-horse hasn’t gotten loose again, but a friend of mine had cardiac surgery last week (she’s doing fine.) My county political party convention was Saturday, and I went to that (and knitted, to the fascination of several people.) Sang two anthems each at two services Sunday. And someday must get more than five hours’ sleep.
Comment by AJLR — May 2, 2012 @ 11:28 am
Looking forward to hearing you on The Forum, Elizabeth. I hope you enjoy taking part in the discussion as much as I’ll enjoy listening to you. 🙂
Comment by Elizabeth D. — May 2, 2012 @ 11:51 pm
Karen, and others that think knitting is new:
It was around in the 12th century, at least Middle-Eastern, but also in Europe. It was usually stockinette (plain looking flat on one side), although using every color possible, and highly patterned, using very tiny needles and patterns, sometimes used for decorative edging on vestments for very important persons. There are some books on the subject, and you can google more information and the designs. I have some friends who make things using these multi-colored patterns, although with modern-sized needles and yarn much larger than the Medieval needles and yarn.
There were other very old fabric arts that some people think are new, such as beading with very tiny beads, and also couching which is using a thick gold thread over canvas, the gold thread only as a background and the stitches that fix it down to the canvas making a pattern. In some examples (in the Cleveland Museum of Art permanent collection which is in a vault at the moment) the couching threads are multi-colored too, making an intricate embroidery picture over a gold thread background, much more classy than painted or cut velvet.
Comment by Sam Barnett-Cormack — May 3, 2012 @ 10:22 am
Older varieties of apples kept for very long times – hence barrels of apples for ships. Nowadays, breeders all want to make tastier, juicier, thinner-skinned apples, so the lifespan of them has dropped horribly.
Citrus fruits also keep well, but I don’t know if they exist in Paksworld.
Fresh meat was sometimes available on sea voyages by the simple expedient of keeping livestock on board – their dietary requirements being met okay by dry grain. Water would be the bigger issue there, and the availability of fresh water is basically dependent on climate and weather. All of the long-lasting things used on sea voyages straight from at least as far back as the 16th century to the early 19th needed fresh water to prepare – dried pulses, grains, salt meat. Usually, for the men, prepared in a big cauldron or kettle with sufficient water for everything and cooked into a mush and served with biscuit (which also needed to either be soaked or eaten very slowly, we’re not talking digestives here – and when eaten slowly, it increased the need for drinking water).
I’m more impressed by the fact that ordinary sailors in the Royal Navy, for centuries, were operating on the basis of being constantly tipsy. Don’t know if anything like that would carry over to Paksworld.
Comment by Richard — May 4, 2012 @ 3:57 pm
Maybe beer both tasted better and was less contaminated than water when both had been 2 months in the barrel in a ship’s hold.
Back in Elizabethan times (and I don’t know for how long afterwards) people ashore must have been just as tipsy. A recent Channel 4 “Time Team” special, on some recent archaeological investigations at Shakespeare’s house in Stratford-on-Avon, mentioned in passing the large quantities of beer the servants were given, and explained how beer-drinking had the great (for those days) advantage of the water having been boiled early in the brewing process.
“Cooked into a mush”: one of the interesting details, though maybe one passengers would not see, is just how sailors managed the galley fire without burning the whole ship down around themselves.
Comment by Richard — May 4, 2012 @ 4:01 pm
P.S. Knitting in Paksworld: in the “Judgement” short story, there are skeins of wool twisted on wooden knitting needles. (I just found that by chance.)
Comment by Tracy — May 18, 2012 @ 10:50 am
The story in which the regenerating steak occurs is “The End Of The Line” by James H. Schmitz. He is one of my very favorite authors, not least because he wrote about strong female heroines long before anyone else did. He would have loved Paks!
Comment by elizabeth — May 18, 2012 @ 11:28 am
Tracy: Thank you! I read the story in an anthology in our public library, and it was not there when I moved back over a decade later (the anthology wasn’t–the library was)…by then I’d forgotten both title and author and never found it again.
Comment by Tracy — May 18, 2012 @ 4:25 pm
I read the story in Junior High School in an anthology rejoicing in the title of “Space, Space, Space”. The story has since been reprinted as part of a complete re-issue of Schmitz’s work in the volume entitled “Agent of Vega and Other Stories”, from Baen Books. I did go out to the A Libris website a few years back and managed to score a copy of “Space, Space, Space”, which has several wonderful stories in it including another favorite, “Dear Devil” by Eric Frank Russell. But Schmitz will always be close to my heart. I know I will pay a penalty in the next life for not writing him a fan letter while he was still alive..sigh.