Barbara's Blog

  Here's a Halloween costume from years and years ago. I made it for a Costume-Con way back in the day: an Elizabethan werewolf. These days, my idea of a lovely Halloween is to turn off all the lights in the front of the house and watch Rocky Horror Picture Show in the back room. I was reminded, however, that I did actually at one point spend the night - actually 3 nights - in a haunted house. It was a bed 'n' breakfast in a town in Tennessee where I was researching my Civil War novel Homeland: I arrived late, about 10 pm, and was the only guest because it was off-season. I got in my jammies, got into bed, switched off the light, and I KNEW there was something in the room with me. I had NEVER experienced such a thing before, but I didn't have the slightest doubt what was going on. I turned on the light again and there was of course nothing there. Turned off the light. There was definitely something there. Turned on the light. Nope. Turned off the light. Whatever it was,...

  Still more fun with research that has pretty much nothing to do with New Orleans at Christmas of 1840, or Hollywood in May of 1924... (or the Winterlands while I'm writing a Further Adventure for the first time in AGES...) Instead I've been reading Katie Hickman's wonderful book, "Daughters of Britannia," about the lives and experiences of British diplomatic wives and daughters - the ladies who got dragged willy-nilly to places like Constantinople in 1661 (What WAS the proper etiquette when calling on the Sultan's harem?) or Kashgar, Central Asia, in 1898 (COULD one purchase Marmite in Azerbaijan?). These ladies were not diplomats themselves, but got roped into doing everything from coping with local servants (" 'Why do grammars only teach one such phrases as Simply through the courage of the champion's sword when what one wants to say is, Bring another lamp? ' ") to sewing shirts for British sailors who have been ransomed from the loc...

  Happy Birthday, John! (Still love your work).

  While questing for a picture to illustrate what I'm reading for comfort and relaxation lately, I discovered, to my delight, that I'm not the only huge fan of Sei Shonagon's Blog From Another World, otherwise known as the Pillow Book. (Evidently there's manga and YouTube versions of her!). It really is like reading a blog from another planet - 10th-century Japan is so alien, and Sei Shonagon's voice (at least in Ivan Morris's excellent translation) is so real and present. Accounts of court ceremonies and conversations (and exorcisms, which were apparently pretty commonplace) interspersed with her opinions: the proper circumstances under which to meet one's lover (summer, and PLEASE no whining about how awful your life is!); lists of subjects for poems (lawns; hail; bamboo grass). Lists of things that give one a nice clean feeling, or elegant things (shaved ice mixed with liana syrup and put in a new silver bowl - presumably a 10th-century slushie), or unsui...

  Happy Birthday Bilbo Baggins! Thank you, and Frodo, and Professor T. for being there way back in the day when I really, really needed you. In other news, just finished reading the final page-proofs of The Iron Princess, and just got the copy-edit of One Extra Corpse. VERY busy times.

Just got the news. Here she is, as a volunteer auto mechanic and driver towards the end of WWII. What an amazing life, and time - the Second Elizabethan Age indeed.  

  Saw this pretty lady - or one very like her (I snitched this picture off the Internet, since I'm beyond lousy with a cell-phone camera) - as I took my walk before sunup this morning. She's the second mantis I've seen in the past month - I saw one of exactly her dust-brown color sitting on a wall in Chico on my road-trip. They were all over the place when I was a little kid, in several colors - usually leaf-green, but often golden, or a darker brown than this. We had them as pets. My sister had a white one. Later this morning when I went to the campus I saw a full-grown and DAMN BIG hawk flap down onto the seat of a chained-up bicycle, and case the surrounding area like he'd paid for smorgasbord there. It's still hot - the temperature plunged clear down to 106 for today, though I'll bet it tops at 108 like it did yesterday (Sunday was 112). I'm still resting between projects (though I admit I'm working on another Further Adventure). The final page-proof...