The recipes include a lot of interesting food, like medieval mead, garum, pirate rations, and the fascinatingly named “Hardtack and Hellfire.” Some of these items are still familiar, others not so much.
I am so down with this.
Previously, I’ve mentioned Krista Ball’s What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank, on how to feed your fantasy adventurers, but seeing these recipes come to life takes historical food to another level.
Enjoy (or at least feel happy that we have more on tap these days than sweet potato coffee)!
“Are you writing a book and worried that it’s awful and you suck and everyone who said they liked it is lying to you? Welcome to being a writer! I’d say most of us struggle with those feelings, even people who are highly successful. Keep going, you’ve got this.”
What are you doing this weekend? Maybe you have plans for an all-night rave this weekend, but if you’re free at some point between the hours of dark Saturday night and dawn Sunday morning, consider the Perseids.
The Perseids are known to treat viewers to a fantastic display, and coupled with a particularly dark sky, this year’s show is shaping up to be one you won’t want to miss…
During a meteor shower such as the Perseids, Earth passes through a large cloud of debris in space. Right now, the planet is moving amid the rocks and ice left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle, which last was seen from Earth in 1992. The 16-mile-long comet orbits the sun over a 133-year period, which means it won’t be seen again until 2125. But every August, its remains create the radiant Perseid meteor shower.
While there’s a major meteor shower every month, there’s nothing quite like the Perseid shower for those in the northern hemisphere, with the warm summer nights and better chances of clear skies. And this year, Canada is in a particularly favourable position for the peak night of Aug. 12–13.
And what do you know? I’m in Canada!
Perhaps you’re interested in a bunch of complicated graphs and a cool “activity level” dial? The Global Meteor Network has you covered.
For years, I was what you might call a desultory blogger. I’d pop on when I had something I wanted to note, or when I realized it had been too long between posts. Ironically, the first year of the pandemic was a particularly dry spell in terms of my online communication.
That changed in 2021. As a way to kickstart my output and overall creativity, I decided to post daily. I’ve talked about that goal before, and I’ve mentioned the benefits of sticking with a streak. It’s been a good move for me in a number of ways, but it has produced a significant number of posts. WordPress is a useful platform in many ways, but it can get cluttered. Or maybe I’ve just dropped the ball on the keyword tags, but whatever. It’s a lot.
My mother asked me for a list of my favorite posts the other day. I think she wanted to share what I’m doing with a friend, but didn’t want to overwhelm them with a deluge of posts.
That’s fair.
I do have a Favorites tag but it’s a bit haphazard and also still pretty extensive. So I put together a quick selection of some of my favorite posts and added that list to the sidebar. You may need to scroll down a little but you’ll see that the widget is called (very cleverly, I thought) “Favorite Posts.”
Now, these aren’t all of my favorites and they aren’t necessarily the most popular posts; that honor tends to go to the “quote and a pretty picture” post category, or ones that feature fluffy cats. (Maybe I’ll go back and tag those posts for easy access.)
I get it, some days you just need a pick-me-up.
But if you’re curious, check out these favorites. Comfortable with a little chaos? Dive right in with a random post.
As regular readers of the site know, Tuesday is my busiest and least fun day. Usually, anyway. Today I am pleased to support a Kickstarter by a fellow Writers of the Future cohort member.*
The Grim Reaper, trapped in an IRS agent’s dying body, must regain his powers before he faces Judgement for his original sin.
Did I love the short story? I did. Am I looking forward to the full novel? Yes, indeed. And are Sarah Morrison’s illustrations a captivating riot of color, character and motion? They are!
If humor and good writing and fun fantasy are your thing, check out this Kickstarter!
* Yes, another one. What can I say, they’re awesome.
The week-long Writers of the Future workshop included a number of interviews touching on topics ranging from our work, how we made it to the contest, to what it was like to win. One of these interviews was for the contest’s own podcast, and we were asked to do an episode.
Constant blogging aside, I’m actually a bit shy, and I was not looking forward to talking for an hour All About Me. As I headed up to the interview room, I realized that there were already three other winners inside. It was my lucky day: all four of us did the interview together and it was terrific. If you follow this site you’ve seen Elaine’s work before, but here she talks about her history and her writing. Sarah and April are both brilliant illustrators, and it was fascinating to hear more about that side of the contest, as well as their experiences on the way to becoming winners.
Chatting with such interesting and talented women was a great experience. Hope you enjoy the interview too.
“Stuff your eyes with wonder,” he said, “live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
Picture it: the sun has finally come out, the day is warm and the wild things have voted our little yard Best in Neighborhood. Mr Man and I are having lunch under a canopy on the deck out back. This is not a day to consider the cracked boards or the layers of pine needles or the gutter gunk. It’s a day to see the four juvenile robins play-fighting to determine who will get the upper bird bath first, and then squawk when they are all pre-empted by a grackle. It is a day to notice that we are hosting not just animals, but families. The chipmunk has two smaller companions, Mr and Mrs Cardinal are both present, a pair of mourning doves stop by, there are three woodpeckers at the feeder, and the black-capped chickadees shepherd smaller versions of themselves first to the suet, and then to the nyjer, and finally to the sunflower seeds. Squirrels also visit, black and brown and grey, including one flicking the longest, plushest tail I’ve yet seen. There are sparrows and more finches than I can count, a mix of brownish, reddish and a vibrant shade I’m calling Attention-Grabbing Gold.
The extra shot of happiness comes when I realize that our yard is doing an admirable job of being exactly what our wild neighbors need.
The yard is not particularly photogenic. The bushes are a little scruffy and what grass persists is overlong. Hastas and honeysuckle and sweet woodruff sidle up next to lamb’s quarters and dandelions, violets and goldenrod, clover and daisies and oxalis. I don’t mind. It provides water, food and shelter, and is homey and inviting in a way that over-manicured spaces frequently are not.
J.R. Johnson 
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