Uncategorized

On swords II: The vulnerability of swords

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One thing not generally known about swords, but cruelly understood by sword owners, is that the darn things are highly prone to injury and premature death.

This is probably another reason for the historical rarity of swords. Aside from being expensive and impractical for the average guy, swords are high maintenance.

One of the trials of being a Viking reenactor is that people come around and ask to look at your sword (or don’t ask, which is extremely irritating [and dangerous for them]), and then they unsheathe it and pick it up with both hands, one around the grip and the other grasping the blade.

The same blade which you have spent hours polishing with oil and steel wool, to get some previous idiot’s fingerprints off it. Continue reading On swords II: The vulnerability of swords →

Writing

The Rule for Writing

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J. Mark Bertrand writes about following the rules for writing. “The problem with the rules . . . is that they focus on the means rather than the ends. Remember, it’s all about the illusion, so why should we quibble with how it’s pulled off? You don’t berate the magician at the county fair for passing his swords through his barely-clad assistant in the wrong way. So long as it looks convincing and nobody gets killed, he’s pulled off the trick. . . .

“Ignoring the rules isn’t going to keep you from success, so long as you create and sustain the illusion.”

Uncategorized

On swords I: The prestige of the sword

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Now that I’m an author with a publisher again, and have achieved the heights of fortune and public adulation, what shall I do next?

I shall talk about swords. That’s a subject everyone’s interested in.

Every guy, anyway.

I suppose there are guys out there who don’t like swords. But I’ve never talked to one.

Feminists and psychologists—especially feminist psychologists—scoff at this. They make snide remarks about symbolism and compensation. They speak slightingly of swordfighting as a symbolic competition in virility.

You know what? Who cares? The only reason they sneer is because they can’t do it themselves.

I shall tell you all I know about swords. It will probably take a few posts to do that, and I’m not even an expert. Continue reading On swords I: The prestige of the sword →

Fiction, Publishing, Writing

Announcement

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A while ago I told you I’d come to an agreement with a publisher, and promised more details to come. Since then I’ve been silent on the subject, and you’ve doubtless assumed that a) I’m delusional, or b) the deal had fallen through.

In fact it simply took a while to work out the details.

Yesterday I signed a contract with Nordskog Publishing of Ventura, California to publish the next volume in the Saga of Erling Skjalgsson. The book is titled (for now) West Oversea, and it ought to be released in very early 2009.

Nordskog is a new publishing house with only a handful of books on its list so far. I’ll be one of its first fiction authors. I hope that this will enable them to give my book more attention in terms of promotion and distribution than has sometimes been my experience in the past.

I’ll keep you posted as the process continues.

Uncategorized

Russian Cease Fire Rages On

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Russian soldiers have been seen capturing Georgian soldiers and taking American Humvees out of a Black Sea port. This comes after a week of sightings of Russians destroying Georgian equipment in the city.

Reading

Literacy as a tool of tyranny

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The title of this post probably suggested to you one of two things. Either I’m going to make fun of some leftist academic who derides western literature and education as a tool of capitalist oppressors, or I’m going to attack some work of literature that seems to me totalitarian in its ideas.

I’m going to do neither. I’m going to talk about the history of literacy. Because it’s a fact, I believe, that historically, literacy has been a tool of tyranny (Bear with me. It moves on from there). Continue reading Literacy as a tool of tyranny →

Goofing

Possibly the most important news of my lifetime!

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Good news—I purchased a bottle of Old Spice aftershave today, and found they had made an almost, sort-of return to the old sailing ship bottles. I mourned the loss of the old ship art some time back, here.

Clearly my influence is greater than I suspected, because now I find we have a new package for “Old Spice Classic.” I looked at their web site, and see no sign that it’s a special edition. It seems to be the new design, and it’s a definite step backward (which is always, needless to say, a good thing).

The new aftershave bottle features the Old Spice name run vertically up the right-hand side, and there’s a teeny-weeny little silhouette of a genuine sailing ship, not the yuppie yacht that’s been inflicted on us over the last decade or more.

Actually, the new bottle is kind of ugly. It’s plastic, not glass, and the ship is a little red silhouette, not the lovely blue line drawing that used to suggest scrimshaw on the tooth-shaped bottle.

But it’s a ship, by golly. I’m gonna stock up, before they change their minds about it.

This, I believe, is a harbinger of better times ahead. Sanity is returning. Our culture is stepping back from the abyss.

I believe this because I’m stupid.

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McCain, Solzhenitsyn, and Implicit Admissions

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In light of the very interesting interview forum at Saddleback Church last weekend, Dean Barnett talks about a couple accusations the Left are making against McCain. One of them is that McCain tells a personal story which he supposedly lifted from one of our favorite authors, Solzhenitsyn. “This allegation” Barnett writes, “is made of course without any evidence. It’s not like McCain’s fellow soldiers are saying the story is a fabrication.”

Fiction, Reviews

Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet

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With the sequel to Auralia’s Colors coming in mid-September, I will post an overdue review of Overstreet’s first book. I keep thinking I should give a plot summary up to a point, but I won’t. I’ll give you my original loop the loop review. Perhaps you will find it readable, if not enlightening.

Many will remember that the Bible states “the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil,” but the sacred text goes further than that. “Some by longing for [money] have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10). Change that warning to the love of colorful things, and you have a fair summary of Jeffrey Overstreet’s debut fantasy, Auralia’s Colors.

The people of Abascar live in browns and grays. Many years ago they gave up every bit of color they had to please the Queen, whose idea was to collect and mature the beauty of the kingdom before returning it to the people, royally blessed by her. In this way, the whole kingdom would be glorified over the other kingdoms of the Expanse. But the Queen never returned the promised honor to her people, so anyone making or finding something beautiful is required to give it to the king for storing in the vast royal vault.

Enter an orphan with enchanting spirit and eyes for nature’s color. Continue reading Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet →

Non-fiction, Reviews

Review: Viking Norway, by Torgrim Titlestad

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I wouldn’t ordinarily review a book that can’t be purchased in this country (though you can get it through this web site, if you’re willing to pay the freight and can pick your way through the Norwegian), but I think this book is genuinely important in its field—and not merely because it has a picture of one of my novels on page 296.

Viking Norway, by Torgrim Titlestad (Professor of History at the University of Stavanger) is important because, to the best of my knowledge, it’s the first English-language book aimed at presenting to a popular audience some “new” theories about Norway and the Viking Age that are being debated in Scandinavia today.

The book attempts to refute two views that have been standard up till now, and offers a new theory about Viking Age Norwegian politics. Continue reading Review: Viking Norway, by Torgrim Titlestad →

Book Reviews, Creative Culture