So I'm swapping emails with some Revolutionary War reenactors and will probably get to go play with their guns. Novel research, since the technology hadn't changed all that much between then and my era. I'm all, "Whee! I get to go shoot a musket! How cool is that?"
DH is mocking me. He asked if I'd think I had to have sex with another man if my book were about adultery. And he doesn't understand why a modern gun wouldn't do the trick for my research.
Not the same thing, dammit. Good authors do this, right?
At least the geeky ones?
Whee! I get to go shoot a musket! And maybe the kind of pistols they had then!
If you shoot a muskrat with a musket, does it have musk in it?
Old guns used black power, which produced huge clouds of smoke. Shooting one would give you a good idea of what that's like....
Old guns used black power, which produced huge clouds of smoke. Shooting one would give you a good idea of what that's like....
That's what I keep trying to explain to DH!
OK, basically I'm just a history geek. Why just read about this stuff when I can play with it?
And don't you know that mountains hate being caught doing stuff like that when the clouds move without warning. It's like, "Oh! Humans! Nothing to see here, look over there. Hey, what's that in the lake!" But granite can't do subtle.
gods I love connie for writing this.
to nearby green mountains, and then a couple of beats .. wait! More mountains! Far away! With ... white stuff??!? Were those always there?
I lived there for a year and after it finally really rained, was shocked as hell to find mountains where there had always been a bank of smog. Dude, mountains. Actual mountains.
Sleepy. Tired. Gronk in reverse.
My daughter is looking at obtaining a work visa to work in Australia. Do you have some idea of where she should start in the labyrinthian process of obtaining such an item?
Honestly I'm not sure how helpful this website is, but the Department of Immigration's homepage may be found here: [link] They do claim to have work visa info.
Good authors do this, right?
Yes, Susan, they do.
The town I live in was founded by Moravians, and the original settlements still stand. Some of the houses have been lived in continuously since they were built, pre-Revolution. In the late 1960s the tourism board began to wise up, and stopped razing the historic buildings, re-routed the main street into town proper so that it no longer went through the old settlement--which is still a functioning college and church, but now includes tourism-oriented businesses. The baker bakes bread by a 16th Century recipe, with 16th Century utensils and fireboxes, all within view of visiting tourists, and sells breads and cookies in the shop. Women pour candles in replica molds, work in the herb garden to harvest and dry herbs, and make wreaths, potpourris for various uses (moth chaser, headache remedy, etc.) and tisanes. Tour guides dress in authentic costumes as they man museum and shop counters, and guide tourists around. There is also a functioning forge, with an authentically dressed blacksmith, who makes iron hinges, pulls, bells, and other items for use in the village, as well as for sale and for technique demonstration.
When I had writer friends visiting from England, they stayed in the B&B in the village. He was overjoyed to have discovered the smithy while she and I were off shopping. We all went down, and I watched while the two of them absolutely made this man's day--probably his whole month--by spending more than an hour asking him intelligent questions about his tools, his technique, his materials, and his products, as well as his own background. And she took notes! The smith was in heaven. And come to find out? While a smith was a prominent character in her book, all the stuff she'd learned and taken notes on was never mentioned. It merely informed the character and lent an easy familiarity with the subject and the tools and methods of the trade.
That was the long answer, sorry. The short answer is, it's all fodder, and you never know when a bit of knowledge is going to come in handy. Enjoy your outing.
Cass has a new tag and I am gronky.
I just found out that a friend died yesterday afternoon. We knew it was coming, but in some ways that doesn't make it any easier.
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