In case you were wondering, there is no Virtual Book Tour stop today.
All posts by Lars Walker
A Voyage Long and Strange
I didn’t dislike Tony Horwitz’ rambling book, A Voyage Long and Strange. He’s a likeable writer. One assumes his political preferences are liberal, but he works very hard to give everybody a fair hearing, not just the contemporaries he meets on his journeys across America, but the historical figures whose footsteps he attempts to follow.
The germ of the book was conceived when he made an accidental stopover in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was unimpressed with the sight of Plymouth Rock, and began to wonder why, out of all the pre-colonial and colonial American settlements, we’ve chosen Plymouth Plantation as the birthplace of the American idea. He decided to follow the trail of the chief European explorers and settlers who predated Plymouth, to try to evaluate their relative contributions.
In this goal, I believe, he fails utterly. Still, the story is amusing and informative. Horwitz is good company, and has a charmingly self-deprecating voice. Continue reading A Voyage Long and Strange
How the other half blogs
I apologize for the brevity of my posts lately. I’m going through what is, for me, an unusually busy time–I’m still writing posts for the Virtual Book Tour, I gave a lecture last night, have a meeting tonight, and have to drive to a meeting 3 1/2 hours away tomorrow. I guess I’ll get to rest on Sunday. Next weekend I’m driving to Chicago, for the International Vinland Seminar.
Am I nuts, I ask rhetorically.
And yet, I remind myself, other people (notably parents of children) endure much busier schedules for years on end. Of course, I’m older than most of them, but still.
A sharp reminder of my age came last night, when I suddenly developed a pain in one knee, which remains, lo, even unto this day. I greatly fear this is something I’ve brought on myself, by letting myself be overweight at an advanced age. Stress fatigue. If it had happened last week, I’d be able to say it was an injury from our combat shows. But all I was doing last night was giving a talk on Leif Eriksson to a Sons of Norway lodge, which is not, in most cases, a contact sport.
My Virtual Book Tour stop today is supposed to be Eccentric Eclectic Woman, but I don’t see anything showing up there.
Waving as I sweep past
I gave a lecture tonight, and came home late. But I have a couple links.
Hal Colebatch, author of the Man-Kzin Wars books I’ve reviewed here and here, has an article on religion (or the lack of it) in Science Fiction over at The American Spectator.
And today’s virtual book tour stop is at Lori’s Reading Corner.
Linkage
If there must be evil in the world, let there at least be more stories like this. All hail to Victor Perez for taking action to save a child. He should get a medal, and probably will.
As did Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller today, though sadly posthumously. The story from Threedonia blog is here.
On a far more trivial note, here’s the history of that traditional nuisance, the chain letter. Tip: Mirabilis. I note that, while a Methodist missionary school provides “one of the earliest known” instances, they apparently didn’t actually invent it.
Lastly, today’s Virtual Book Tour stop is Pump Up Your Book.
And with that, I leave you.
Several links, mostly about me
OK, I’m back. On my way home from Minot, it became increasingly clear that I’d picked up something infectious and essence-sapping. I’m pretty sure it’s a bad cold. Still it was better than last year, when I drove home wounded. And it gives me an excuse for how tired I was by the end of the combat schedule.
If you’d like to see my interview, as broadcast on Minot Channel 13, the video is here. This was the 6:00 show. At 10:00 they did a shorter segment that just talked about my books. I had no objection to that.
The last day of Høstfest was crazy-making. The new family of club members who’d been helping us out had to go home early, at what turned out to be just the moment the hordes descended. People stood in long lines to have their pictures taken in Viking garb, and my own book sales weren’t bad either. It nearly killed us, but we went home laden with silver.
I’ve failed in my responsibility to keep you updated on my Virtual Book Tour appearances. Yesterday was the first stop, at Inkyblots blog.
Today I appeared at The Book Connection.
On a non-personal note, I have to mention the untimely death on Thursday of television producer and author Stephen J. Cannell, several of whose books I have read with great pleasure and reviewed here. R.I.P.
Dispatch from Minot II
OK, today the WiFi in our encampment works (and what’s a Viking encampment without wireless access?), and I think I can post a few pictures certain to fill you with jealousy over being there while I’m here, at Hostfest, in Minot, North Dakota.
The weather has been ideal–cool and sunny, and consequently the festival is seeing record attendance. Oddly, this seems to be resulting in decreased visitation at our Viking encampment. That’s because we can only be approached through a food court, which looks like this.
If one person stops and stands at some point, all movement becomes impossible for everyone else, so that nobody can get through to us without shoving, which–as you are probably aware–Scandinavians do not do. Continue reading Dispatch from Minot II
Dispatch from Minot
I write to you from Minot, North Dakota. Hostfest begins in a few minutes, so I can’t linger long. The weather is beautiful, and large crowds are expected. I am told there is reasonable chance of survival.
Just got the schedule for my upcoming “Virtual Book Tour.” The information is can be found here.
Catch you later.
The Sagas of Heidrek, and of Lars the Far-Travelled
Dale Nelson passes on this link to the blog Sacnoth’s Scriptorium, passing on information about the upcoming re-release of Christopher Tolkien’s translation of The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise.
I’m particularly happy about this since HEIDREK’s is my favorite saga, and the first one I read (back when I had to get special dispensation from the college library to check out books there, since I was still in high school). Though it came as a bit of a shock to discover that Heidrek himself was the ‘hero’ of the saga only in the sense of protagonist: a kin-slayer and wife-murderer and generally dangerous and disagreeable person to be around. The most striking character for me was (and is) not Heidrek but his mother, Hervor*, who summons her own dead father from the grave to demand the family heirloom, the cursed sword Tyrfing (made by Durin & Dvalin), which had been buried with him. This scene was one of the first bits of Old Norse lore to be translated into English** at the beginning of the revival of interest in old legends and mythologies and literatures in the mid-18th century. Tolkien fans will probably be more focused on the Riddle-game, which was surely one of Tolkien’s main sources for Gollum’s riddle-game (along with two lays in the ELDER EDDA): one of Gollum’s riddles (“no-legs”) actually appears in one of the HEIDREK manuscripts. There’s also the famous battle between the Goths and the Huns that ends the saga, although this occurs after Heidrek’s day and in fact is set in motion by his children.
In personal news, blogging will be light next week, as I’ll be heading out Monday for my annual migration to Minot, North Dakota for the Norsk Hostfest. I hope to keep you posted to some degree, as I’ll be taking my laptop and they do have WiFi, which sometimes works.
Back next Monday, but I make no promises about posting that day.
The Versatile Blogger Award
Our friend Meg Moseley has tagged us over at her blog with the coveted Versatile Blogger Award. A Major Award of this caliber does not come without a price. Here’s what we’ve been asked to do:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Pass on the award to up to fifteen deserving bloggers.
4. Contact the bloggers you chose for the award.
1. Thank you, Meg.
2. Are there seven things about myself I haven’t told you yet? Is there anything left unrevealed that won’t revolt the public and drive what’s left of our readers away? I can but try.
2.1 I weighed 5 lbs., 6 oz. at birth. I was underweight. In the time since then I have remedied that defect in rather magnificent fashion.
2.2 Technically, by the rules of primogeniture, I am the patriarch of my family, oldest son of the oldest reproducing son in the blood line (assuming you disqualify adoptees). This applies only to the Kenyon branch of the Walkers. My relatives Steven and John Book, who read this blog, come from a different branch, and so miss out on the benefits of my benevolent overlordship.
2.3 I do not care for bacon. Or much of anything smoked, really.
2.4 The first book I ever took out of a library was about early American explorers. I think it was called Explorers All, but I may be mistaken about that.
2.5 I like wristwatches with lots of little dials and functions. However I’ve given up wearing them, because they’re such a pain to keep regulated. (I still wear a watch, just not the complicated kind.)
2.6 I once punched a guy who’s dead now. The two facts are not related. Anyway, he deserved it.
2.7 Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever the hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to eat some chocolate.
3. I shall pass this on, as is my wont, to zero deserving bloggers. Why should I dilute such an honor by sharing it with lesser writers?
4. Done.