Break The Spine.

[Rath Darkblade]

Ha! Those two at the bottom left don't look like they're in any way ready to take on that ice-breathing dragon. If they're not a snack for him, they'll be lunch and dinner.

Then again, perhaps I'm just used to Skyrim dragons - the ones that can just whomp on you, shake you around a bit, and throw you off the mountain...

[BBP]

I'm reading the latest Murakami novel, The Murder of Il Commendatore. As always Murakami manages to write about music in such a way that you immediately want to listen to it: so I dug up my Josef Krips-conducted version of Don Giovanni to play.

I love Murakami!

For my B-day I got part 2 of this book, can't put it down!

[BBP]

I'm reading the latest Murakami novel, The Murder of Il Commendatore. As always Murakami manages to write about music in such a way that you immediately want to listen to it: so I dug up my Josef Krips-conducted version of Don Giovanni to play.

I love Murakami!

For my B-day I got part 2 of this book, can't put it down!

Finished it within 24 hours too!

[Rath Darkblade]

I've read books like that. Some books you can't put down... others are a bit of a 'duty'. Still others are a chore....... bleh.

[BBP]

I also got Fire and Fury for my birthday, which is taking me longer (possibly because of a dislikable lead character).

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm. Would you classify reading it as a 'duty' or a 'chore'?

[BBP]

Duty I suppose, I'm a historian...

Then again we've had our share of populism, back in 2002 when Pim Fortuyn rose to the ranks of idiocy, you know, basically putting people out the country, that kind of politician. He was shot dead by an environmentalist who was upset about him refusing to close mink farms. Because he was murdered less than 2 weeks before the parliamental election, his party scored 27 out of 150 seats in parliament and were set to govern.
There's next to nothing notable about them: but cabaret was absolutely fantastic for the two months it lasted.

[Rath Darkblade]

Duty I suppose, I'm a historian...

Then again we've had our share of populism, back in 2002 when Pim Fortuyn rose to the ranks of idiocy, you know, basically putting people out the country, that kind of politician. He was shot dead by an environmentalist who was upset about him refusing to close mink farms. Because he was murdered less than 2 weeks before the parliamental election, his party scored 27 out of 150 seats in parliament and were set to govern.
There's next to nothing notable about them: but cabaret was absolutely fantastic for the two months it lasted.

Yes, I remember the name Pim Fortuyn. I love your description of his party as 'cabaret'.

It's scary that the most powerful nation in the world is now led by a 'cabaret' singer. (Yes, Mr Orange is famous for doing anything on stage, from dressing up as a farmer and singing a song, to shilling for Pepsi and Pizza Hut. Incidentally, the name Mr Orange reminds me of Roger Hargreaves... Can anyone imagine Trump as a "Mr Men" book)?

BBP, you're a historian? How cool! What periods/countries do you write about? Do you write 'serious' history, or less detailed and more accessible kind? Or historical fiction? Or...?

I've been writing historical fiction for years (gee - over a decade now). I started out trying all kinds of places and times, but over time, I somehow gravitated to the ancient Mediterranean - Rome and Greece especially. I'm trying to branch out at the moment by setting a novel in Sardinia, during the Iron Age. (So it's not really Roman and not really Greek - vague influences of the latter, but its own civilisation).

[BBP]

Not anymore but I did study history and I occasionally study historical subjects: anywhere from ancient history to WW2 and beyond. Sometimes things just get to you, don't they?

[Rath Darkblade]

Absolutely. When I was just starting high school (in Israel), history was compulsory - but unfortunately, it was taught in a very dry way, all names, places and dates. When I moved to Australia (I was about 13 years old), history was an elective. I took it anyway for 2 years, but again, it was names, places and dates - very superficial and boring. The teachers just weren't interested, and it showed. From those 2 years, all I remember learning about was Joan of Arc and Gandhi - and the only way that we learned anything about Gandhi was from watching the film.

I learned much more about history from playing the Civilization games and Age of Empires games, to be honest! It was because of those games that I became interested in history in the first place, and started reading more and more about it. That was... IIRC, about 15 years ago? And then I learned that history didn't have to be boring. So I thought, "I'm going to write stories that teach history the right way! History isn't boring, it's just the way that some teachers teach it!"

Naturally, I did my research, and still do. After all, no-one would believe a story about an ancient Roman called Fred who drinks cappuccinos and fights in a tank.

What got you interested in history to start with, BBP? Before you studied it, I mean. *curious*

[BBP]

My interests run wide, I suppose, for my birthday I bought a college textbook about genetics and I often do math. At school I was about 2 chapters ahead of everybody else with math. I was often in a disruptive class, my second grade was a bunch of hellions, on 17 occasions somebody was sent to the principal. Taught me to learn by myself rather than waiting for a teacher.

Luckily I had one great history teacher for three years, mr van Brunschot. He was incredibly lazy, I've never seen him write anything on the blackboard and when asked to write a piece for the highschool yearbook he declined and gave an interview, but he managed to catch people's attention.

As a college student, I learned paying 20 times as much for tuition and text books does not mean you automatically get better schooling. My teachers on the Middle Ages, 20th century history and renaissance were all too bad quality to really learn much of. My 20th century teacher, Maarten van Rossem, was a sort of celebrity and is even more famous now for his cranky intellectualism and his knowledge about USA politics; but he was easy to detour. We had 6 weeks to deal with 20th century history (= 1914-1991) and by the time the last class started we yet had to start on WW2. Skipping most of the Cold War including Vietnam and the Middle East. He just preferred to talk about his distaste for the KPN (Dutch phone company) commercials with Maarten Spanjer (TV-host and writer) and Rijk de Gooijer (now dead actor).

[Rath Darkblade]

! Yes, well, I know the feeling. The novel I'm currently writing is still in the planning stage - I wrote a lot of it before I started planning, so it's kind of chaotic. To make things worse/better, while I'm writing the plan, new steps in the plan suggest to me how to write the scene - so while I'm distracted by that, I forget what I planned for the next scene...

Yes. When you start writing a story, and really get into it (either writing or planning), ideas are flying off left, right and centre. Unless you write them down, you get easily distracted...

[BBP]

Just read the first GK novel... can't say I'm impressed.

"Germany is surrounded by land."

[JasefWisener]

I love the two GK novels, but The Beast Within is the only one that's well written.

[Rath Darkblade]

Just read the first GK novel... can't say I'm impressed.

"Germany is surrounded by land."

It's been a long, long while since I read the first GK novel. I can't remember reading that!

Any land-locked country is, obviously, surrounded by land. Take Lichtenstein, for instance. But Germany definitely isn't land-locked, and I can prove that on an Etch-a-Sketch.

Um. Who wrote that? I don't blame you for being unimpressed, BBP ...