Conventions, Fiction, Music, Rush, Shijuren, Weekly Update

Weekly Update: New Beginnings

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Editor’s Note: I don’t know why I didn’t start out posting my updates on my blog but I’m adding the ones I’ve done so far and will add them each week.

Greetings all

Welcome to my brand new mailing list. This email will give you an idea of what to expect. I’ll be looking to post each Monday or so.

Quote of the Week

This quote symbolizes my life as a writer. At times, I have rued not starting writing professionally sooner, but my mother has pointed out that the challenges I’ve faced along the way have helped make me a better writer. Don’t tell her that I agree with her.

Anyway, this comes from the title track of Clockwork Angels, the most recent album by Rush. And yes, the first quote had to come from Rush.

“All the journeys
Of this great adventure
It didn’t always feel that way
I wouldn’t trade them
Because I made them
The best I could
And that’s enough to say”

– Clockwork Angels, Rush

Works In Progress
– I am working on adding wiki links to The Eyes of a Doll. This will be completed early next week.
– I am also making progress on the next Edward novel, which will be called Where Now the Rider. Tentative release date is 30 November.
– Catching up with WorldCon contacts.
– Baby steps made on arranging for an audiobook. It’s still vaporware for the moment, but I made contacts at WorldCon that should help.

 News

– You’re looking at the big news. I’ve added a mailing list.
– My WorldCon After Action Report is up at: https://robhowell.org/blog/?p=427

Upcoming Events
– 27 August: Cattle Raids in Lincoln, NE
– 2-5 September: Valor in Wichita, KS
– Tentative 10 September: King’s Company of Archers in Smithville, MO
– 16-18 September: Dodecacon in Columbia, MO
– Tentative 23-25 September: Gryphon’s Fest in Warrenton, MO
– 30 September – 2 October: Kansas Author’s Club convention in Lawrence, KS

– 8 October: Calontir Fall Crown in Omaha, NE

Let me know if you have any suggestions at rob@robhowell.org.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rob Howell
Author of the Shijuren-series of novels
Website: www.robhowell.org
Blog: www.robhowell.org/blog
Shijuren Wiki: http://www.shijuren.org/World+of+Shijuren+Home
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/robhowell.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhodri2112

Currently Available Works
A Lake Most Deep (Edward, Bk 1)
The Eyes of a Doll (Edward, Bk 2)
I Am a Wondrous Thing (The Kreisens, Bk 1)

Weekly Update Archive

Scroll Texts

Scroll Text Sunday – Ashir & Maerwynn Fyrd Preprint

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Greetings all

Today’s scroll text is one of a series I wrote for Ashir and Maerwynn when they reigned. In Calontir, there is a set of preprinted texts and scrolls made with the names, dates, and other relevant information filled in as needed for nearly all AoA-level awards. These are the most common awards, and in order to make life easier for the Royal Scribe, they are, as mentioned, done ahead of time to create a library of available scrolls. This is especially important should the King and Queen decide, on a moment’s notice, to give out another award, which happens frequently.

In any case, this was one of my favorites out of my favorite set of preprint texts. All of this reign’s preprints were inspired by the Secret History of the Mongols, since that was the was the persona they reigned with. This was one of the two iren fyrd texts.

If I’m remembering correctly, Yama was the first to receive a text with this wording.

Iren Fyrd Text 1

You have made Our foemen’s hearts empty.
You have cut out parts of their liver.
You have made their beds become empty.
And you have made an end of their descendants.
For this, We Ashir and Maerwynn, Qan and Qatan
Join your spear to Our ranks of spears
And name      person’s name        a Fyrdman of Our Calon Ordu.

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Kansas Author’s Club Reading AAR

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Just finished my reading at the Kansas Author’s Club District 2 meeting this morning. Many thanks to club president Ronda Miller for inviting me.

My choice of reading was the section of A Lake Most Deep near the end as Edward leads everyone into the Gropa Mansion and begin the Agatha Christie-style ending. This is the same section I read at Ad Astra in April.

I wish I’d realized, though, that I had more time. I could have done the section from I Am a Wondrous Thing I read at LibertyCon, which, though about 20 minutes, is a much stronger piece. Perhaps if I read it a few more times I won’t always cry while I do so.

In any case, while I don’t think I read the snippet from ALMD poorly at Ad Astra, I think I did a much better job of reading it today. Every time I do a reading, though, I really appreciate my theater experience and time in the SCA as a herald and performer.  I’m still not sure if I’m choosing the correct snippets to read, but I’m confident I’m presenting them reasonably well.

The other headline performer, Mark Scheel, read a snippet about becoming a writer that skillfully wrapped a core of good advice inside a humorous shell. Then he read one of his poems.

I then mentioned that I had a poem in IAAWT, the riddle at the end, and they graciously gave me the opportunity to read it as well. I have the opportunity to submit up to a page for the 2017 KAC yearbook, and I think that might be what I put in.

There were 12 of us total, While Mark and I were the headliners, each person had the opportunity to read what they had available. Many of the other readings were quite good. The most powerful one was a gentleman named Mike who read about his experiences on 9/11. As a historian, the most interesting actually came from Sally Jadlow, who is fictionalizing a series of letters about her father and family in the 30s and 40s. I was reminded of the song Kilkelly.

District 2 is in charge of the 2016 Kansas Author’s Club convention, so there was also a goodly amount of discussion about the logistics of the con. Since I don’t really have a ton that I have to do because I got in late, I’ll be helping some in the book room. I also added my name to do a reading in the evening on that Friday.

It also made feel a lot more confident going into the KAC convention as I now at least have an idea of some of the other attendees, including putting faces to emails.

All in all, a very pleasant way to spend the morning. I got to talk about my books with a collection of readers, hear quite a bit of well-written stuff, and talk about writing in general. I’ve created quite a full list of things to attend in the rest of 2016, but I know I’ll be back when I can.

SCA, Scroll Texts

Scroll Text Sunday – Catalina’s Laurel Text

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Greetings all. I’m a day late for Scroll Text Sunday because I was at Valor over Labor Day. Today I’ll put up one of my favorites of all time, the Laurel text I wrote for Catalina de Arazuri.

The Laurel is one of the highest awards given in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and is bestowed upon people with great skill in at least one art or science.

I chose to write her text in the muwashshah style, a style of poetry that appeared in the 800s or so and was popular in Andalusian during Catalina’s period. It is structured as stanzas of rhyming couplets separated by a chorus that is held together by a rhyme throughout the poem. Usually, as I’ve done here, there are five stanzas.

One of the reasons I have chosen this style is that in period it was seen as a representation of the ornamented belt worn by dancers. The idea is that the stanzas are ornaments hanging from a belt formed by the refrains. This seemed too appropriate to Catalina not to choose.

Catalina – Laurel Text

A squall came over the river
When the moon was but a sliver
As if Andalusia weeping
Sent her tears to river sleeping
Each bead of shimmering water                           5
The land’s love of golden daughter

Asking all from Mecca to here
To view bright pearl of Calontir

Alqsar gardens in their splendor
Crave her steps so soft and tender                    10
The elegance that in palace dwells
Envies her pace swift as gazelles
Arches and columns sadly stand
Missing those adorned by her hand

They ask caliph to lend his ear                               15
Hear of bright pearl of Calontir

Through flowing pines a wind so soft
Calls those Allah has held aloft
Matsu Caliph the falcon’s sword
With Elena Calipha’s true accord                        20
Ask Their lords and ladies renowned
To list words of justice profound

Spoken by crafters of things so dear
Attest well bright pearl of Calontir

Garlands of laurels she has earned                      25
With flowing skills both taught and learned
We cannot list the gifts bestowed
As lovely as December’s snow
She has increased your kingdom’s worth
As though she brought heaven to earth           30

They now pronounce for all to hear
Reward due bright pearl of Calontir

Caliph and Calipha both agree
Such gifts must thus rewarded be
Let her be adorned in trappings old                     35
That recognize such brilliant souls
When horses prance and falcons soar
Fifty years since the lions first roared.

Behold forever the leaves so dear
That adorn bright pearl of Calontir                      40

Behold forever the leaves so dear
That adorn bright pearl of Calontir

Annotations

Lines 1-2: Translation of The Guadalquivir in Flood by Ibn Safar al-Marini, a 12th-century poet. The Guadalaquivir is the river that flows through Seville, Catalina’s persona’s home.

Line 8: The pearl appears all the time in period Andalusian poetry. Hence, I used it as the way to refer to Catalina in the refrain.

Line 9: Alqsar is the Arabic spelling of Alcazar, the famous palace in Seville.

Line 14: This is a reference to the gardens in the Alcazar. As a side note, you’ve seen these courtyards and gardens in Kingdom of Heaven.

Line 28: A pun on Catalina’s real name. I thought of using Dujambir, which is how the Moroccans say it, and I thought of using the Arabic name, but December flowed too well when spoken compared to the options.

Line 30: Another pun, referring to her daughter. Again, I thought of the Arabic term, Janna, but heaven flowed too well when spoken.

Line 37: A reference to Horse and Falcon, the event where this award was given, and in this way I have dated the event.

Line 39: 1437 AH is almost impossible to put into verse form, so I settled for using the year of the Society for Creative Ananchronism  in metaphorical form. The lion’s roaring is a reference to a gate in the Alcazar which, though not period to Catalina’s time, is still cool, at least to me.

 

 

 

Conventions, Fiction, Personal

News and Notes

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Greetings all

Time to clear the decks for a number of small notes.

My big news of the last week is the creation of a mailing list. If you are interested in joining it, please go to my website: www.robhowell.org and fill in the blanks in the upper left corner. Or, if you prefer, you can email me at rob@robhowell.org and I will add you manually.

I will be doing a reading at the District 2 Kansas Author’s Club at the Corinth Library, 8100 Prairie Village, Kansas from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 10th. If you’re local, come on by. I’ll be reading a portion of A Lake Most Deep.

On the weekend following, I’ll be at a small con in Columbia, MO called Dodecacon. I have no clue what I’ll be doing there other than talking about writing and meeting people.

On the final weekend of September / first of October, I will be at the Kansas Author’s Club convention in Lawrence, KS. This will be a much different crowd, I suspect, than at other conventions. Very curious how this will go.

I talked to two different producers of audiobooks at WorldCon. I’ve gotten no solid numbers back nor are there any details to pass on, only that progress is getting made on that front.

I have a bunch of other irons in the fire, so many that I can’t really recall what all of them are off the top of my head. Lots of things happening, especially with regards to upcoming cons and independent bookstores.

I think that’s all for now except to mention that the above post is the sort of thing I’m including in my mailing list. I’ll be sending out an email to that list every Monday or so, detailing works in progress, upcoming events, news and notes, and a quote of the week. Again, to join the list either go to my website www.robhowell.org and fill in the two fields of the form or send me an email.

Have a great day.

SCA, Scroll Texts

Sunday Scroll Text – Chiara’s Cross

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I’m going to start putting some of the texts I write for SCA scrolls here on the blog. We’ll call it Scroll Text Sunday because why not.

For those who are not in the SCA, scrolls are provided whenever a person is granted an award. Many are written based on the time and place the recipient chooses to focus upon. From my perspective as a writer, I am constantly challenged to write in a different style to match that time and place, giving me a great chance to expand my skills.

Today we’ll start with one that was presented yesterday. The Cross of Calontir is an award representing years of service to the kingdom.

Cross – Chiara di Paxiti

Chiara’s persona is of a 15th-century Florentine, hence I looked to Lorenzo di Medici for inspiration. He was not only the ruler of Florence from 1469 to 1492, he was also a patron of the arts and a poet himself. I wrote the text in ottava rima style, which originated in Italy and was used for heroic poems. It uses iambic pentameter and ABABABCC rhyming scheme. Medici used this style in some of his works, and I also used some of his other poetry as inspiration for some of the word choices.

The falcon soars across the shining sky
with swiftest wings to claim a northern breeze
Zephyr that lifts him is the softest sigh
as he circles over towers and trees
and to the wind he sends a searing cry                                  5
when thus with eyes aware a prize he sees
below him is a sweet daughter of peace
performing deeds that seem to never cease

Oft she appears when giants make their wars
as fierce as brinded cats with flashing swords                 10
for golden crowns the reddest blood they pour
their greatest joys and deeds she right records
then she to those with deepest wounds succors
with water sweet relieving wounded hordes.
When she completes such deeds, what spies his eye? 15
why tis but sweetest purple butterfly

The falcon’s eyes not only ones that see
for Logan king and Ylva queen are wise
so Chiara di Paxiti must be
for deeds so collected clearly comprise                                20
a Cross of Calontir now must decree
and title given not her only prize
from Pontmerci bestowed ten saccato
and her sworn lady’s love now all shall know

Line 7: di Paxiti means daughter of peace

Line 9: she is a fan of the New York Giants, and I’m combining that love with the fact she is often helping out at tournaments and battles

Line 10: she is also a fan of the K-State Wildcats, and Shakespeare uses “brinded cats” in Macbeth as a reference to wild cats

Line 11-4: this is intended to cover both her job as listmistress and scroll text writing

Line 16: her device includes a purple butterfly

Line 23-4: Issabell wanted to make sure that Chiara, her protege, got land from Pontmerci, her own holding. A saccato is a Tuscan unit of area that is about 1.389 acres

Conventions, Fiction

WorldCon AAR

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What a tiring week. WorldCon stretched from noon on Tuesday for dealer setup to Sunday evening. I’m ready for a beer. In this case, my last Nickelbrook Headstock from Pennsic.

I got to the South Dock at Bartle Hall on time. There really was no organization for checking in dealers, but I found my table easily. And setup was a dream. They provided pallets and forklifted the pallets by our tables. I was arranged and nested by 2pm.

The rest of Tuesday was helping Kate Paulk set up. We went running hither and you and back to hither. Then we organized the room just as Jonathan and Betsy Lightfoot joined us. I’d never met them before, but they’re a wonderful couple I enjoyed chatting with throughout the con. We then went to Jack Stack’s for food and soon dropped Kate back off because she was “stick-a-fork-in-her-done-done-done.”

As a side note, Jonathan has Rhodri as his RenFest stage name, which caused a double-take when I saw his badge 🙂

In general, I spent the entire con at my booth. I had one quick pass mostly to look at how other people were doing their booth to learn how I can improve mine. I saw a few things I can improve upon, mostly notably something I’d already seen and that’s the creation of a mailing list. I don’t know why I had not thought about this two years ago, but I didn’t. Better late than never. Expect to hear about that this week.

Overall sales were slow. I heard that from a number of vendors that it was much slower than they expected. I attribute my own slower than hoped for sales to two main factors. One, WorldCon consisted of a high percentage of people who flew to the event and did not want to carry books back. I should have anticipated this and expected to have higher e-book requests. I handed out a ton of bookmarks and I’ve already seen increased e-book numbers. I’ll know more in the next few weeks.

The second reason is the expense of the con. Depending upon when you bought entry, it was something like $200 to get in. I think that hurt sales for two reasons. One, it reduced the number of attendees. Two, it reduced the ready cash for the attendees. From a financial perspective, I doubt I’ll ever sell at WorldCon again, unless by some chance I’m living in the same city it is being held at again or someone else pays for it.

From a publicizing perspective, I think it was worth the $420 I spent for table and entry fee. I made a large number of connections concerning a variety of topics. I also think I got my name out to quite a few fans who may not have bought anything now, but will remember me. We’ll see. It’s hard to tell, of course.

Overall, I’m glad I went, even though I barely saw the con. I did one pass prior to opening with Nic on Saturday. I never had any energy after the day’s work at the booth to do much with the things scheduled afterwards. Because of that, I’ll leave it to others to discuss the events of the WorldCon. I really only can tell you about the vendors around me 🙂

I will say I wish they had been more welcoming of indie authors on panels. They rejected my application to be on panels, so I had no other responsibilities besides the booth. I suppose I can understand their hesitation if only because none of the decision makers had ever heard of me. However, organizers at other cons have not known who I was and given me a chance. I’m actually really good on panels because of my stage training and herald experience in the SCA. If we want to grow SF/F as a genre, that means supporting new authors. LibertyCon people understand this. Ad Astra people understand this. Many other cons understand this. It’s disappointing that WorldCon decided to reject my application completely. Seems short-sighted to me, as I’m sure there were others much like me that they did not use.

Nevertheless, I got my name out. Handed out a bunch of bookmarks. Met a lot of people. Sold a few books. Ran myself ragged. I’ll take it. Now for bed.

 

 

Conventions, Personal, SCA, Shijuren

Pennsic 2016 AAR

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On June 14 I left for SCA 50 Year. Exactly 2 months later, 61 days, I’ve returned from Pennsic. In the intervening time I have been home for 8 days. It’s so nice to be in *my* chair.

I took some extra time on the trip to do something important, and that was have a wonderful picnic with my apprentice Judith. Between my schedule and her health we haven’t had much time since she accepted a belt from me last November. We went to a park and watched ducks and talked about all sorts of things. She’s been working on lacework. Beautiful, intricate, and something I could never do. She’s amazing.

Also, by traveling slower I can stop and work along the way. If I schedule an extra day or two I really don’t suffer much loss of productivity.

It’s important to get to Pennsic early for me because of the bardic circle I sponsor on the first Monday at Pennsic. I can’t remember if it’s been five or six years since I decided to do it, but it’s been something I very much look forward to. Apparently, I’m not the only one, as this year the circle was huge. Lots of great performers. Lots of great people.  So many people I ran out of chairs. Many thanks to His Highness Atlantia for sending his people for spare benches. So many people I ran out of water. Many thanks to Her Excellency Belanna for loaning me a flat of water.

Really pleased so many people showed up, though, and I’ll have more of both next year.

On Tuesday the 2nd, we opened Drix’s booth. From Wednesday through Friday the 12th I spent most of my time there, arriving 10ish each day and leaving 6ish most days.

Overall, my time there was extremely productive, though I did not reach my sales goal. There is context, however, last year was Drix’s largest year ever and this was towards the slow end so I probably had much more traffic last year. Also, last year had significantly better weather, and book sales at events are affected dramatically by the weather.

I got a lot done when I wasn’t selling, though. I worked through what I’m discovering is the hardest part of writing books, the 5-20k word range. This part involves a lot of writing – cutting – rewriting – cutting – and so on. I’m taking the basic idea and forming the exact pattern with all of this rewriting. I think I have the structure for Where Now the Rider going.

I have to take this moment to thank Nicolaa. She reviewed The Eyes of a Doll in the Pennsic Independent. Last year, she gave me a great review on ALMD in the Independent right when I needed the emotional boost. I was pleased to receive another good review from her, and I had at least one person buy a book because of it. Thanks much, Nicolaa.

As traffic increased in the second week, I shifted to retrofitting  ALMD and TEOAD to include links to wiki entries for all the people, places, and weird stuff on the e-book versions. I completed ALMD and it is now live in updated form. I also made progress on TEOAD. The feedback I’ve had both from people who have already bought I Am a Wondrous Thing and those looking at it has been, without exception, positive. I’ve been really anxious to get these done, and editing wiki entries is great for higher traffic days as I can step away at a moment’s notice.

A side note. My new package through Verizon is expensive, but I now have a ton of data and the wifi hotspot feature allowed me fast wifi even at Pennsic. I’m excited about some of the possibilities that this freedom will give me.

As for Pennsic as Pennsic, I had a reasonably good time. I’m really glad I’ve lost some weight, as between my job, my responsibilities to help around the shop, and the things I contribute to the party, I was swamped. I did not have energy to go out and seek parties after working, but I did have the energy to hang out in the Royal Pavilion most nights. That’s perhaps my favorite part, anyway.

My big highlight of the war was the opportunity to herald TRMs Logan and Ylva into opening court. As we chatted beforehand, I made a whimsical comment, and Logan said, “I like that.” and so I heralded them into court as “Logan the well-beloved and Ylva the one we actually like!”

Prior to court, in the waiting for things to start, was another highlight when Ealdormere and Calontir sang songs back and forth at each other. Really good time, especially since Garraed made a cameo.

Wednesday through Friday was still extremely hard. I was in the shop for 14 hours on Wednesday because of Midnight Madness (We’re MAAAAADDDD!). I really like Midnight Madness, but it *is* exhausting. Thursday I tried to work, but barely had an hour and a half there. I came back in time to see Dongal beg the boon for Gavin, which is wonderful.

The Calontir Party is usually a lot of work for me, and this year was no exception. I cleaned the lamps, organized the incinetrons, and set up the bar. There’s no way I could have done all of this if I had not had help. Jack brought me lamps. Ian put them back. Tim Leatherhand helped move the heavy stuff. Emma, the baby huscarl, got the alcohol on Wednesday so I didn’t have to. But my big hero was Demetrios, who volunteered to do the town run to refill the propane bottles we use and get ice. This gave me the chance to get a nap before court.

I needed the nap as I was also TRM’s herald for court. Really happy to see Halvgrimr get created a Laurel in a drive-by ceremony. The best part, I have to admit, is watching Sibilla’s face the moment she realized Fionnuala was begging her boon to make her a Laurel. One of the highlights of being a herald is getting to know what is coming so you can know where and when to look.

After court was the Calontir party. We think it wasn’t as well-attended as some, and the potential for rain might have been a reason, but we still had a great time. Wohlgemut got there fairly early and, as usual, were awesome. We had a good singing circle later on. Really liked Gwen’s new drink, which consisted of lingenberry juice, vodka, and tonic water. I’m calling it the Ikea. Next time we need to garnish it with a meatball stuck on an Allen wrench.

Friday was tough. I was still tired from Wednesday, and I had gotten to bed at 3am after closing the party. I was hoping for a lot of traffic of people following up on their plan to buy books later in the war. However, I only got a few doing so. Ah, well.

I knew I was going to pack down on Saturday morning, so I went to bed fairly early. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep and barely got two hours of sleep before waking up 7ish. I was packed and ready to go by 10ish, but I was exhausted. I never once had the idea I would make the drive in one day, though I have done so in the past. I took a nap in Mansfield and I got to Terre Haute at 7:50, just in time to get a hotel so I could watch the Cowboys v. Rams pre-season game. Perfect timing.

Today, I drove the last 7 hours and now my car is completely unpacked. I’ve a ton to do to clean up after a wet, humid Pennsic, including a boatload of laundry, but progress is being made.

Overall, I would call Pennsic another moderate success. I’m definitely making progress in sales, but it’s still tough sledding. I can’t thank Drix enough for giving me the space.

Looking forward, WorldCon is this week. I’m hoping for some sales there, though I don’t anticipate much. I can still hope. After that, I’ve got a few events scheduled, but I’m going to plan out my schedule for the next year. I need to get west of the Rockies to both SCA events and cons, and I need to do so as cheaply as possible.

So I had a good time when I could, worked as much as I could, and got to see cool things happen to good people. I’ll take it.

 

 

Conventions, SCA, Shijuren

Pre-Madness Post

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Midnight Madness at Pennsic is almost upon us.

I must be MAD! because I love these kinds of sales. It will be a night of constantly being on stage and talking to people. Tomorrow, I’ll be exhausted, but hopefully with fewer books and more money.

Pennsic so far has been extremely productive. It’s hard to judge sales compared to last year, because I did such a poor job of tracking sales. My processes are getting better every time I do a show. I haven’t sold what I did last year, but I seem to recall sales picking up the last 2 days. Which will start soon.

Mostly, I’m writing this post to talk about Where Now the Rider and A Lake Most Deep. I’ve made good progress on Where Now the Rider, especially since I’ve gotten past the hard initial steps of a book. I like where it’s going, though I need to add more action. Six chapters in and only one murder? What am I thinking?

As we’ve gotten busier and writing has become more challenging, I’ve switched to adding the wiki links to A Lake Most Deep. It’s now complete and the new electronic version is available.

If you have already purchased A Lake Most Deep and want to be able to go to the wiki entries while you are reading the books, you can get the new version downloaded to your Kindle by asking Amazon to send it to you.

To contact via phone:
http://www.amazon.com/clicktocall

To contact via chat:
http://www.amazon.com/clicktochat

Be warned, however, that if you have Amazon update to the latest copy, it will erase your bookmarks and notes. This, by the way, is why Amazon will not force feed the updated version.

Remember, the only change I made is in the electronic version of A Lake Most Deep. This change adds links to the wiki at www.robhowell.org/shijuren the first time a name or place or new word is mentioned. If you will never use the wiki, don’t worry about the update.

In the coming week, I’ll have finished adding these links to The Eyes of a Doll.

I’m adding these links because the response to the links in the electronic version of I Am a Wondrous Thing has been overwhelmingly positive. These links will be standard for all of my e-books in Shijuren.

With that, it’s time to prepare for MADNESS!!!

SCA

New Castle, PA

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For the last 17 years, with one exception, I have come to New Castle, PA in early August. My reason is, of course, Pennsic War. Over the years I’ve gotten to know this town, and the surrounding area, pretty well.

Yes, Beer4Less is programmed into my phone. I often arrange for kegs for Calontir’s party. That’s my reason and I’m sticking to it. I’ll be going there in about an hour and filling up the nooks and crannies of my van with cider. It’s a yearly pilgrimage to get “all the beer I’ll need for the rest of the war.”

But New Castle is more than simply a place to buy beer, ice, and groceries, it’s one of any number of Pennsic friends that I have. There are any number of people that I see only during these two weeks, and we catch up, note the changes in the past year, and enjoy hanging out when the swirling Pennsic schedule allows. It’s like that with New Castle, too.

Each year I try to find new places. Now, I’m eating at a nice small town diner, Hazel’s Restaurant. It’s nothing terribly innovative, but it is well executed. The Super Hazel omelet does not include the kitchen sink, I’d know because it would have been so crunchy, but just about everything else. Tasty. Also inexpensive.

It’s one of the joys of being on the road that I get from my dad. He always wanted to try small town restaurants, and every once in a while you’d find a gem. You never knew, like you’d never know if the cat is dead until you open the box. Call it the Howell Uncertainty Principle: “A small town diner exists as both an epicurean delight and a purveyor of wretched garbage at the same time until the door is opened.”

I’ve gotten lucky a couple of times this trip, having enjoyed the Yellow Brook Inn last night. I’ll probably try the Iron Bridge Inn, which several locals recommend, for dinner tonight.

I really enjoy this part of Pennsylvania. It’s lovely country, and there are all sorts of hidden gems off of the interstates. It’s not in fantastic shape, economically, like most of the Rust Belt, but people seem to make do.

I got in another Amish traffic jam this morning, by the way.

Now, I think my parking meter is about to expire. Plus I need to buy cider. Have a great day, I’m going to go get in line for troll.

Opinions and fiction of person misplaced in time.

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