Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Whitestaunton Manor

A 15th-century house near Chard, Somerset, with walls from a Roman villa built into it. How cool would it be to live there?

Sunday, June 23, 2013

From The Independent

Egyptian statuette spinning on its own accord in Manchester museum. But only in the daytime.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

And in Mycenae

http://parispi.net/articles/2013/06/20/news/local_news/doc51c31a4f23ee0668963552.txt

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

To Save the Realm Available

To Save the Realm is available at Amazon now. The used copies are still listed at outrageous prices.

Norman Smith

Wiki site for the man who engineered the recordings for the Beatles until he became a producer in 1965 or 1966. He was almost 40 when he began working with the Beatles; John Lennon called him "Normal". It was a time when recording engineers at EMI were still wearing white shirts and ties and white lab coats. He was also a glider pilot in WWII.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

From the Telegraph

Ian Anderson talking about why he gave up guitar and took up flute. Jethro Tull is doing all of Thick as a Brick at the Royal Albert Hall on June 30. I suppose it's sold out.

UFOs Above Bracknell

Lots of good UFO sightings in the skies over Britain. Here's a recent one from Bracknell in Berkshire.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Sunday, June 16, 2013

From the Daily Mail

A great place for a grad student to live for a couple of years. DM is over the top, but in many ways it's a real newspaper.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Ngaio Marsh

I've been steadily reading the mysteries of Ngaio Marsh since summer began. Very entertaining they are. A gent CID man and many colorful characters. Her best books are from the late 30s and 40s. I've read 8 or 9. My favorites are Death of a Peer and Final Curtain. In the book I'm writing now, a sequel to To Save the Realm, I'm thinking of having a Marshian mystery inside it.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

From the Bootle Champion

Sharkey's Fun Day? Strange and sad, poor Britain...

TStR Unavailable at the Moment

If you are clamoring to buy TStR, it's currently unavailable unless you want to pay $40 or so for it. I'm in the process of fixing the pagination. The book should be ready in a week or so (I have to receive and read the proof copy from CreateSpace).

Friday, June 7, 2013

Ouch...fortasse

I've just noticed today that the pagination for chapter beginnings is off in the table of contents of To Save the Realm. It seems that the pagination differs in the printed edition of the book when compared to the version I sent to CreateSpace. I've corrected for it now, and the change will go into effect soon. If TStR ever becomes very popular, I suppose people who have already bought the book will have a collector's item on their hands! Always looking on the bright side...argh.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Bell Rock Lighthouse

Built off Arbroath, Scotland, from 1807-1811 by Robert Stevenson. Oldest sea-washed lighthouse in the world. Pictures.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Ursus Etruscus

I'm watching Werner Herzog's documentary about cave art in the Chauvet Cave of southern France, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams. There's a bit about cave bears in the film, so I looked around some and found out about he Etruscan bear. This bear lived from about 5.3 million years ago up to about 11,000 years ago. It was on earth, living in North Africa, Europe, and out into the steppes, for five million years. Then it was gone. And one has to wonder why it died off, but not other large bears. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursus_etruscus

Perfer! Obdura!

Sent copies of my book out today to Addyman Books in Hay-on-Wye and to Parnassus Books in Nashville.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Rockall Island

A neat and isolated place. Some Brit is about to spend two months there. Gotta love 'em. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall