"Beloved Pilgrim" Has a Gorgeous Cover!

My upcoming novel of the Crusade of 1101, Beloved Pilgrim,  which should be available  in a matter of a few months in paperback and on Kindle, has a stunning new cover!  When I hired Dave Graham to do the cover, I knew he would do a great job, but he exceeded my wildest expectations.    He so perfectly achieved my vision for the two characters and the setting and gives such a succinct artitsic rendering of the theme of the novel, I simply could not be happier.  I will share his contact information with you soon.

Beloved Pilgrim is the story of Elisabeth von Winterkirche, a young noblewoman in Bavaria who rejects the role her time and class have set for her of passivity and homely skills.  After her twin brother's death, she dons his armor and weapons and, with his former squire who was also his lover, heads for Constantinople for a crusade led by Raymond de St. Gilles, Count of Toulouse.  She learns early on that she can pass for a young man as, "People see what they expect."  What she herself did not suspect was what she would learn once embarked on this doomed pilgrimage, that honor is not always where you expect it and that love can come in the person of another woman.

Pictured is, mounted on Gauner, Elisabeth aka the Ritter Elias, and the half Turkish, half Greek Maliha with the walls of her home city, Constantinople, in the background.

The book is dedicated to the cover artist's own father, Jack, who has provided so much quality advice to me on battle and related matters in both my novels.

This is my second novel, after An Involuntary King: A Tale of Anglo Saxon England, which came out in 2008.  It is in paperback, on Kindle and at Smashwords.com, and you can find reviews on this blog.

My first book was published by Delphi Press in 1992 and is a nonfiction book on women, body image and sexuality, Loving the Goddess Within.  I am in the process of arranging for it to be reprinted.

I am excited to see Beloved Pilgrim nearing release by Shieldwall Books.  It is a novel about honor and friendship and a gentle love story.

The Development of Anglo Saxon Towns, and More From TMC

The early English peoples gathered in at most small conclaves of self sufficient farms, and few of the old Roman towns survived. But slowly opportunity made way for people creating and expanding places where many people could live and work.

See a brief overview at the latest The Medieval Chronicle in my article, "The Development of Anglo Saxon Towns".

"Canterbury, London, Winchester, and, in the north, York were thriving communities, enabling the English economy to expand and thrive, and for the new found problems of sanitation and the spread of disease in densely populated communities to become part of the familiar urban history of the Middle Ages."

Also in this issue:

• St. Vitus and St. Vitus Dance, in And the Saints Go Marching, Denise Donning
• A Day in an Animal's Lilfe, by Neia Leja
• Those Architectural Cistercians, by Anita Gordon

Preview all issues online!

Things Amazon Could Do To Improve the Kindle's Accessibility

I adore my Kindle 3.  For the first time in about 35 years I can read books that came out recently, pretty much impossible if one is reliant on recorded books "for the blind". 

I believe Amazon is desirous of making the Kindle as accessible a tool as possible.  They have come a long way.  I would like to offer some recommendations of what they can do to improve it further.

• While I am less into the Amazon Storefront on the Kindle able to be read aloud, it being so much easier to buy books on the web site and have them sent to my device, it would be great if some of the tools, like notes, for example,  were also able to use text-to-speech.
• Improve the text-to-speech application the device uses.  I don't so much mean the tone or inflection as get rid of some of the pronunciation quirks.  My Kindle always reads "lunged"  with a hard "g" and the word "mar" as "march".  Granted, som of the presumptions are downright entertaining, like "a fox in a chicken cooperative",  but a little of that goes a long way.
• Put together something to give to publishers and authors who are reluctant to allow text-to-speech on their books that explains that no one who does not have to would choose to listen to the digital reader rather than buy the audiobook, and that disabling text-to-speech prevents people like me from reading their books.  I would be happy to back them up on this.
• Go back through some of the existing content, out of print books for example, and get them onto the Kindle.

I know blind people yell at you all the time.  Not me.  Your wonderful reading device has made a huge improvement in my reading life, my life in general, and I thank you.

Nan Hawthorne

The Art of Running Online Discussion Groups

Whether an email distributions list like Yahoo! Groups or an online forum like the many that exist on the Internet, managing the activities and exchanges of the group requires a steady and restrained hand. The arena of mind-to-mind intercourse is booby-trapped and perilous, and few people have any idea what they are doing.

What makes me qualified to observe practices on this subject? For one, I have been running online discussion groups since June 1994. That's more than sixteen years, long before most people had desktop computers, no less Internet access. I started the CyberVPM group then, and in December of that year started Ghostletters. Both are still thriving. Though I handed the reins of both groups over to others at one point or another, I like to think the foundation I set up is at least in part responsible for such longevity in a medium not known for long histories. I also have made money with lists. One I sold to a professional association for a nice sum, and Yahoo actually paid for me to switch both to their new Yahoo! Groups platform. That is not what I set out to do, but it was reward for the size, effectiveness and durability of the groups.

...censor the reading, not the writing

I was enough of a pioneer in this area that I so got the joke when Donna of The West Wing counseled her boss, Josh, about interacting with moderators of such groups. He had thought he could engage the members of a group devoted specifically to him and was surprised when its moderator absolutely trashed him. Donna explained, "Moderators of these groups are chain-smoking mu mu-wearing women" for whom the group is their opportunity for power. Overstated and unfair, of course, to apply to all or even most moderators, but they are still out there. On one knitting/crochet group I started sharing my computer skills by making mailing labels out of the distribution lists. I was asked to leave because this benignity was perceived as trying "to take over the group." I think we had a mu mu in this situation.

So my secrets...what are they? I hope discussion group moderators everywhere will read and think about the following.

1. Definitely create guidelines for participation based on the core purpose of your group. I said, core purpose, not your personal druthers or desire for power. Too many guidelines stifles exchange. Too few can do the same. Be judicious.

2. No matter how many guidelines you have, communicate effectively about them. No, not just a list, but give examples, explain succinctly their purpose, then monitor adherence for the possibility that the guidelines may have been unclear.

3. To moderate or not to moderate posts? If you have no life and want to be glued to your computer day and night, fine, moderate. But it's better to "censor the reading and not the writing." No one is forced to read every freakin' post on a list. If there is someone who is misbehaving, tell readers to skip that person's posts if they don't like them.

4. Don't overreact to other group members' complaints. No, you can't please everyone. If you act on every infuriated off list communication, you will spend your time adjusting and readjusting your groups. As stated above, it is generally preferable to simply tell the complainer that if they don't like someone's posts, they don't have to read them. Another aphorism of mine is "Write carefully and read generously." If they threaten to quit, then let them. If they were getting something out of the group, they will be back. If you are afraid they will have a bad influence on your group's reputation, bear in mind that they probably do this other places and that other people will take their complaints with a grain of salt.

A hands-off policy is always preferable, since it permits the greatest vitality and creativity in a group. If your group has a broad appeal, you need to be humble in watching how they interact. Be a shepherd, not a mule driver. Quality of the product is what is at stake.

... write carefully and read generously

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Reasons to Parté Hearté in 985 AD

Fight for your right to party!

I've been trying to find information about a particular marriage in Wessex history -- that's Anglo Saxon history for you Normans.  In particular I want to write a chapter on a royal wedding for my upcoming book of stories Alehouse Tales.  I was going to get to make it up mostly since they don't actually know when Aethelraed II, he who was called Unready, married Theodir of York's daughter, Aelfgifu.  I at least thought he had... and I was planning my two bards to arrive in time to get gigs at the festival and to have the alehouse packed to the thatch and lots of fun stuff going on.

Then Helen Hollick, author of The Forever Queen, who knows all about these things told me it was likely Aelfgifu was not a church sanctified wife, in fact she suggested she might be no more than one of good old Aethie's concubines.. so there went my parté out the unglazed window.  Fortunately she relented and said just to keep the Church out of it and, as she put it, I could still have my "knees up bash".  Phew!

In the meantime, while I was still pouting, I had started thinking of other reasons my alehouse denizens could kick up their.. um.. heels and celebrate.  here are some of the ideas I had.. can you offer some more?

• Winchesterama
• Sidewalk Sales Day in The Brooks
• King Alfred Days
• Merry Men Pride Week
• The Burned Cakes Festival
• Founders Day at the Nunnaminster
• Take Your Aetheling to Work Day
• Mercian Independence Day
• Dia de los Reyes Muertos
• St. Swithin's Day... oh wait, that's a real one
• Veterans of Viking Wars Day
• Winchester  to Romsey Fun Run
• Monastic Arts Festival
• Picnic in the Itchen Meadows Day
• Bloðmothfest

And that's not to mention Midsummer, Jul, Mayday and Michaelmas!

So says King Aethelraed, ready or not, it's time to party hearty!

The Why of Cooking

Stolen wholecloth from Food Timeline, with my thanks for their indulgence.

Why did humans start cooking their food?
 
Excellent question! Food historians, archaeologists, and paleontolgists do not have exact an answer due to the age of the evidence. They do, however, have theories:
 
"For hundreds of thousands of years the evolving human race had eaten its food raw, but at some time between the first deliberate use of fire--in Africa in 1,400,000BC or Asia in 500,000BC (depending on which theory happens to be the flavour of the month)-and the appearance of the Neanderthals on the prehistoric scene, cooking was discovered. Whether or not it came as a gastronomic revelation can only be guessed at, but since heat helps to release protein and carbohydrate as well as break down fibre, cooking increases the nutritive value of many foods and makes edible some that would otherwise be inedible. Improved health must certainly have been one result of the discovery of cooking, and it has even been argued, by the late Carleton Coon, that cooking was the decisive factor in leading man from a primarily animal existence into one that was more fully human'. Whatever the case, by all the laws of probability roasting must have been the first method used, its discovery accidental. The concept of roast meat could scarcely have existed without knowledge of cooking, nor the concept of cooking without knowledge of roast meat. Charles Lamb's imaginary tale of the discovery of roast pork is not, perhaps, too far off the mark. A litter of Chinese piglets, some stray sparks from the fire, a dwelling reduced to ashes, and unfamiliar but interesting smell, a crisp and delectable assault on the taste buds... Taken back a few millennia and relocated in Europe this would translate into a piece of mammoth, venison or something of the sort falling in the campfire and having to be left there until the flames died down. But however palatable a sizzling steak in ice-age conditions, the shrinkage that resuts from direct roasting would scarcely recommend itself to the hard-worked hunter, so that a natural next step, for tough roots... as for meat, would be slower cooking in the embers or on a flat stone by the side of the fire. Although the accidental discovery of roasting would have been perfectly feasible in the primitive world, boiling was a more sophisticated proposition."
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers:New York] 1988 (p. 13-14) [NOTE: This book contains much more information on early cooking techniques than can be paraphrased here. Your librarian will be happy to help you find a copy.]
 
"Homo erectus may have used fire to a very limited extent some 300,000 years ago, but the evidence is sparse and questionable. Fire's general use, according to both paleontological and archaeolgical records, began only about 40,000 to 50,000 years ago...The use of fire, extended to food preparation, resulted in a great increas of plant food supply. All of the major domesticated plant foods, such as wheat, barley, rice, millet, rye, and potatoes, require cooking before they are suitable for human consumption. In fact, in a raw state, many plants contain toxic or indigestible substances or antinutrients. But after cooking, many of these undesirable substances are deactivated, neutralized, reduced, or released; and starch and other nutrients in the plants are rendered absorbable by the digestive tract. Thus, the use of fire to cook plant foods doubtless encouraged the domsetication of these foods and, thus, was a vitally important factor in human cultural advancement."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000 (p. 1571)
 
"Just as we do not know how, where or by whome fire was first domesticated, we cannot really tell anything about the way food was cooked in the most distant Paleolothic period. We can only base conjectures on the customs of existing primitive peoples. Bones and walnut or hazelnut shells have been found on excavated sites, but there is no means of knowing whether they are the remains of cooked meals, the debris of fires lit for heat, or even the remnants of incincerated raw waste matter...[researchers] are inclined to think the meat was roasted, from the evidence of Mousterain sites in Spain and the Dordogne..."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble:New York] 1992 (p. 90)
 
"Food has long been baked in coals or under heated rocks, steamed inside animal stomachs and leaves, boiled in rockpots by heated stones, and so forth. An oven could be as simple as a hole in the ground, or a covering of heated stones. However, improved textures and flavours may not have been the reason fire was first controlled. People could have employed fire to keep wild beasts at bay, to trap them, to scare them out or to create open grassland, where tender shoots and leaves would be more accessible. People have long used fire to harden wooden weapons, and to keep warm at night. But even these uses, while not cooking in the narrow sense, improve the cooks' supplies, expanding the human niche."
---A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons [University of Chicago:Urbana] 2000 (p. 221)
 
"French prehistorian Catherine Perles accepts that we share many aspects of feeding with other animals: other animals carry food to their lairs or transform it before consumption. However, she says, we transform food on a different level. The human species prepares its food by heat...and combines ingredients...She proposes that the culinary act distinguishes the human species, and is not just a symbol of, but a factor in, that very humanisation...Cooking is highly intentional...the culinary act is essentially sharing."
---A History of Cooks (p. 213)
 
Recommended reading (general history of cooking):

• Food in History/Reay Tannahill
• History of Food/Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat
• Food: A Culinary History/Flandrin & Montanari
• Cambridge World History of Food/Kiple & Ornelas
• The Kitchen in History/Molly Harrison