Off the grid

February 17, 201416 Comments

My computer died last week. It’s my own fault; I left it out where Thumper could reach it and he finally succumbed to temptation and decided that Mommy’s computer needed playing with. When Daddy busted him, he dropped it and broke the charger cord. But since my husband is the handy sort, he patched it up with some electrical tape and it was good as new.

For a while.

Last week, my computer decided it no longer wanted to recognize my adapter and instructed me to use the correct adapter for my computer because, until I did as it suggested, my computer was no longer going to charge. I scrambled to get some things printed for our taxes and get my photos backed up to my external hard drive, but my last-second backup failed as my computer finally lost power. *sigh*

So now I’m in the market for either a new power cord or a new computer. The new cord is clearly the cheaper of the two options, but my computer really needs replacing. It’s five years old and showing its age, but I’m not holding my breath on getting a new one any time in the near future. At any rate, my posts may be a bit sporadic until I get one or the other (new cord or new computer). While WordPress has some fantastic mobile apps, I much prefer an actual computer to mobile posting. It’s just easier, at least at the moment. Maybe one day I’ll be so used to mobile computing that it won’t be an issue, but for the time being, I’ll stick to mobile posting as a last resort.

And who knows? Maybe I’ll actually get some writing done! 😀

How do you handle techno-glitches?

An interview for the ages

February 10, 2014October 12, 20219 Comments

Today I’m excited to be interviewing Irene Soldatos, author of the wonderful book, Bad Bishop. It really is a fabulous read, and I jumped at the chance to learn more about it. Share my curiosity? Then pull up a chair, relax, and get ready for a little fun with history!

KK: What inspired you to write this story?

IS: That’s a difficult question. There was no one moment of inspiration, rather an idea that slowly developed. I read a lot of history. And there are three historians in my family, so I’ve grown up steeped in it, and I suppose I am more conscious than most of the enormous differences, cultural, social, ideological, technological between the people of one historical period and those of another, but also the very many similarities. I found myself often wondering what someone who was born and grew up in classical antiquity would make of the middle ages, for example, if he or she could somehow see it. I suppose this book is a thought experiment on that concept. I wanted to bring together and juxtapose people from various different time periods, in one story. One way to do that would be time travel. But I didn’t like that idea, because it would mean they would have missed the process of history. And the process is even more important than the time period they would arrive at, i.e. the one I set the story in.

KK: The amount of research needed for this book must have been incredible. What did that process involve?

Review time!

February 7, 2014February 7, 2014Leave a comment

Today I’m reviewing Bad Bishop by Irene Soldatos. But first, the blurb:

August A.D. 1120
Dijon. A headless corpse is found in a room with shuttered windows and the door locked from the inside. The man’s name was Salonius and he was the Duke. His young heir’s grasp on the throne is precarious, yet a new alliance is made to safeguard his position.

November A.D. 1120
Barcelona. Alexander, the Prince, learns that the emperor Enmerkar is looking to add Barcelona to his territories.

January A.D. 1121
London. Julian, the Governor, finds that Enmerkar has turned his hungry gaze toward England.

April A.D. 1121
York. Medb, the Queen, discovers that Enmerkar hungers for the whole Isle.

Many now recognize the threat posed by Enmerkar’s continued expansion, so a game of politics begins…

It’s crazy, man

February 5, 2014February 5, 2014Leave a comment

I’m here to tell you that it’s okay to fall. It’s human to fall. And it’s okay to forsake a thing for a while — perhaps for even five years, as I did with The 33. But don’t you dare walk away from it, not for good. Don’t turn your back on the shaggy thing, and that soggy first-draft copy. Don’t you dare ignore what you were born to do: to herd words.