Fun with Medieval Europe!
Tuesday, the 29th of October, 2002 - 5 past 6pm
Current Instrumental Piece ~ "Sad Bird" by Yuki Kajiura.
My mother hath provided a book titled "The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History". This is necessary for my novel research, for certain East European characters of mine have been around for a very, very long time.
It has maps from various different years, so one can see how people moved around and conquered one another during Medieval times - and this, they did a lot.
'Tis great fun to flick through these maps, if one happens to be easily amused.
"Ooh, there's a group called the Ostrogoths! I like that - right, I'm having a few Ostrogoths in the novel! Aww, damn, they've gone... Damned Huns!! Whoo, they're back, and now they have an Ostrogothic Kingdom! Oh look, the Kingdom of Hungary has expanded... Go Hungarians!"
Et cetera and so forth.
History is more fun if you pick an invading force and cheer them on.
Making stuff up has a certain entertainment value, too. Miranda asked why one map had tentacles all over it (they're lines designed to show trade routes, or something like that). I claimed that octopuses ruled Europe in 1478. My father said that their reign was brought to an end by the invention of seafood salad. I added that after that, makers of salad dressing ruled Europe for a while.
Now, is that not more interesting than this whole truth-and-accuracy lark?
***
We are now taking a break in our regularly scheduled waffle to bring you the news that the Dreamwarder Diary hath updated.
Just thought you might like to know...
***
There are, of course, a mere two days until we NaNoWriMo-participating types have to start typing random crap in a frantic manner.
It would sound, on the face of it, not far removed for what I've been writing every day for goodness knows how long, but the crucial difference is this: November's random crap must be fiction.
Not only that, but it must be on top of the things I'm writing here.
It is for this reason that I'm incredibly glad that I have a ton of quiz result banners stored up for entry-writing emergencies.
I felt it only fair to give you all a bit of advance warning that come November, "quality" will not be a word that applies to my diary entries. Unless it's preceded by "poor", "lack of", or something along those lines.
And with that thought, I must leave you, for I have much plot-sorting to do and less time to do it in.
I am also apparently picking up phrasing from the script of "Robin Hood: Men In Tights".
Let's just pretend that that's a good thing...
Lily
