And even more fun with research...

Between finishing up the semester, reading research papers, prepping the final lecture of the course (which has to change every semester, since the last part deals with, "Where are things now?"), getting enough sleep, and doing the necessary maintenance (exercise, physical therapy, meditation to keep myself more or less sane), it's been a daily choice: Do I write, or do I do the dishes?

This is being written shortly before bed-time, after I've finished school-prep for tomorrow, which got pushed back into the evening so I could do some actual work, i.e. writing. (I'm sorry to say the dishes are still not done).

I did have a lovely Thanksgiving with my family, and a second lovely Thanksgiving with my friends. Saturday, as I said in an earlier post, was the LosCon science fiction convention near the LA Airport. It was an easy Lyft ride in the days when I lived down there. Now... not so much. At least it wasn't raining. And what with one thing and another, the convention - always on the small side - was smaller. It was good to see friends. I've always looked on LosCon as a chance to see people I generally don't see much of, and I pretty much spent the convention having some very nice conversations. 

In the few minutes available to me before bedtime - and while I'm eating lunch - I've re-read a couple of my favorite research books: again, none of which have anything to do with New Orleans at Christmas of 1840 (or Paris in 1824) or Hollywood in 1924. One of them is The Sarashina Diary, another memoir of 10th-century Japan. Not  funny and snarky like the Pillow Book, but beautiful, with a sense of hearing Takasue no Musume talking across the years: "However it was that I first became enthralled with them, once I knew that such things as tales existed in the world, all I could think of over and over was how much I wanted to read them."

Me, too, honey. Me too.

The other research reading IS snarky and funny, and can be picked up and put down easily without losing the thread. EXCELLENT nuts-and-bolts for writers. Krista Ball's "What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank" is something I think every fantasy writer should read: How long DOES it take to forage food while you're traveling in rough country? How much water do you need per day if you're outrunning orcs? How do you cook bread on a campfire? What berries are in season when? One of the things I've always loved about Tolkien is that he was aware of this kind of thing. (Hey, he came through World War One, you betcha he learned about the importance of rations). When Our Heroes get to Lothlorien, what does Galadriel give them? A flashlight and a case of Cliff bars.

The other book I've read recently is Susanne Alleyn's "Medieval Underpants" - again, a writer's guide, this one for historical fiction. Simple stuff like what plants and animals were New World so PLEASE don't write about medieval Irish peasants eating potatoes, to the best technical description I've ever encountered of how of a guillotine worked - Ms Alleyn writes a mystery series set during the French Revolution and REALLY does her homework! (And yes, she does explore the issue of medieval underpants).

And now it's past my bedtime. Thank you all for your patience!