Dr. Gene Edward Veith gave a big thumbs-up to West Oversea today at his Cranach blog.
All posts by Lars Walker
Viking Norway at reasonable prices!
I reviewed Prof. Torgrim Titlestad’s Viking Norway, last fall. I also reported that, as an imported book, it was extremely expensive to order.
I’m happy to report that they’re now offering the book on eBay, with the opening bid at $40.00. Not a bad price for a book of this size and quality.
And if bidding displeases you, they say they’ll soon be selling it at their website.
Touchstone (not the magazine)
Tonight I have Photobucket, so I can explain what I learned over the weekend.
I knew Touchstone Magazine. And I’d heard and read the word “touchstone” many times. I vaguely understood that it had to do with testing the value and authenticity of something or other.
Sam the Viking, down in Story City, the guy who owns the Viking boat, showed me how it actually works. He does some silversmithing, and knows about these things.
Sam and I have similar whetstones. His is a little prettier than mine, but the shape is the same. Here’s mine. Continue reading Touchstone (not the magazine)
In which I punt
I was all set to write something tonight, and it depended on my uploading a photograph. Unfortunately, Photobucket appears to be out of order (it seems to be doing that a lot lately), and I’m flummoxed.
Just got word from my publisher that they’re buying an ad for West Oversea in Ted Baehr’s Movieguide. (No point looking for it, it doesn’t appear to be there yet.) That’s kind of cool, I think. Doubtless it will bring the book to the attention of Hollywood Insiders, and we’ll soon have a movie deal.
My publisher asks, “Where else should we buy ads?”
Any suggestions?
Winter Haven, by Athol Dickson
I raised a small controversy in this space a little while back, when I gave a less than enthusiastic (though positive) review to Athol Dickson’s The Cure.
I liked his Winter Haven considerably better, though I still have a couple reservations.
I criticized The Cure for offering a weak sister protagonist for whom I found it hard to root. No such problem with Winter Haven. The protagonist here is Vera Gamble, a Texas accountant whose nearly obsessive-compulsive passion for numerical balance drives her to go to any lengths to rectify the imbalances in her own life. She has lost her mother (to cancer) and her autistic brother (he just disappeared one day), and finally her father, whose abusive religious teachings drove her to never, never, never ask God why He let anything happen. Now she’s received word that her brother’s body has washed up on a beach on the Maine island of Winter Haven. When she makes her way there to take him home, she discovers that, although thirteen years have passed since his disappearance, he looks precisely the age he was when he ran away.
The story unfolds in the classic manner of a Gothic novel (and a good one). The island residents seem oddly hostile, and they are greatly disturbed when their (unwritten and unexplained) rules about where she may go and what she may do are transgressed. A handsome sea captain who lives alone in a crumbling mansion is the one who discovered her brother’s body. He has recently announced the discovery of Viking artifacts, which (trust me on this), if verified as being discovered on this island, would mean a huge historical breakthrough. But is his story true? Why won’t he show anyone where he found them? What is he hiding? And what is the strange, inhuman voice that Vera hears everywhere, speaking almost-intelligible words?
I found the mystery fascinating. Winter Haven is a genuine page-turner.
Maybe it’s just me, but I thought Dickson tied everything up a little too neatly at the end. The theme of answered questions, and mysteries explained, is central to the book, but I (personally) find too much resolution a little unbelievable. In my own books, I like to leave a few threads untied, because life’s like that.
But that’s my only quibble. I recommend Winter Haven.
The West Oversea juggernaut jugs on
Loren Eaton, at I Saw Lightning Fall, was kind enough to post a very flattering review of West Oversea today.
His judgment fails him to the extent that he quibbles with a couple plot points, but otherwise his review meets my high personal standards.
Thank you, Loren.
Update: Link to review fixed.
Weekend report, plus exclusive tunic photo!
Friday and Saturday were the days for Story City, Iowa (just off Highway 35, south of, oh, I don’t know–Clear Lake and Mason City, by about an hour).
We were in the lot by the Sons of Norway hall as before, but a reconfiguration put Denny and me (the only members of our group who came–the lodge got a discount) behind Sam the Viking and his beautiful Viking boat. The weather wasn’t bad on Friday, but the convection of the crowd currents didn’t bring many people back to us. We were able to spread knowledge to a few young guys who wandered in, but didn’t see a lot of traffic. Continue reading Weekend report, plus exclusive tunic photo!
I don’t know the words, but the tunic is familiar
Here’s the tunic now:
Looks kind of like Mr. Spock’s shirt, doesn’t it? (That is, if Mr. Spock had gained about 300 lbs.)
It will look less logical (I hope) once I add the trim around the neck piece. That’s a job that’s beyond my skill to do with the machine. I’ll be sitting with needle and thread tonight, so the thing will be ready for the weekend.
Tomorrow I drive down to Story City, Iowa for their Scandinavian Days festival. It’s a small Viking encampment; no fighting will be done. But Story City is the town where my angelic grandmother was born, and also (interestingly) where the grandfather of my publisher, Jerry Nordskog, was born a few years earlier.
Clearly all this was fated from before the foundations of the earth.
So don’t blame me that I won’t be able to post anything tomorrow.
David Carradine: Dead at 72
Actor David Carradine, best known for the “Kung Fu” TV series and the “Kill Bill” movies, has been found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok, apparently by his own hand.
Tiptoe through the tunics
How in the name of Helge Ingstad did it get to be the beginning of June already?
It feels like it was winter a couple weeks ago.
Actually, that’s not far from correct. It’s been a hard-fought spring.
Deborah asked for pictures of my tunic project.
Encouraging me is the first mistake. Continue reading Tiptoe through the tunics