Meanwhile,

before she ever submitted to me.

Um, Amy, shouldn't this go in Bitches? Sorry. Yes, I'm twelve.

Mwa hah hah...

Drums:

The lyrics, in ragged harmony but perfect unison, spin tales of daring camaraderie, of love lost and won.

The berimbau gunga's grand, spare note dictates my mood. Angola, twisted and low, full of malice and trickery, or exuberant Regional, feet pounding out the pattern of the ginga's triangle, sliding, skipping, flipping and leaping. Berimbau viola spins and careens, mirroring the backflips and cartwheels.

But - atabaque. Atabaque tells me how to breathe - tanned goatskin expands and contracts with my lungs. Driving my pulse, controlling my ventricles, grounding me in the heart of capoeira, as my spirit soars above the roda.

Oh, ita, that's lovely. I saw some boys doing capoeira in a park in Orlando one Saturday, and went back every Saturday for 3 or 4 weeks in a row, hoping to see them again. It was amazing.

War, with Wind

If it wasn't a tornado that came through the campground, it was close enough. I watched the roof of our dome tent try to spin off counter-clockwise.

Giant royal pavilions down, telephone-pole supports snapped. Tents half-burnt when lanterns fell. The wind roared down the mountain side, flamed the fires. The following downpour put out the fires. People yelled for help or asked who needed help.

Then ... the drums. One, two, half a dozen, the familiar deep rhythm from the far side of the field.

We sighed in relief. If Rolling Thunder was drumming, then all was right with the world.

Argh. Three questions:

1. Am I nuts if I email an existing regiment of the British Army to find out the exact dates one of their ancestor regiments served in the Peninsular Wars? IOW, is that a stupidly frivolous thing to ask people who are presumably busy being a 21st century armored unit?

2. If I am nuts, where the hell am I supposed to find someone who can find me a cavalry regiment that was in the right places at the right times?

3. If I can't find such a regiment, is it kosher to make up a cavalry regiment when I'm using a real infantry regiment?

Further searching, with swearing at Google here and there, revealed that the Light Dragoons let you make historical inquiries from their homepage. I just sent them a nice note asking if any of their antecedent regiments were in the right place in the right time for the story, and promising a donation to their charitable trust if they help me and a mention on my acknowledgements page.

What I did NOT tell them was that I'm proposing to saddle one of their regiments with a pompous misogynist who dies offscreen in the first chapter so that his widow can learn the joys of hot NCO infantryman lovin'. But I can always apologize in the acknowledgements and say I'm sure the real officers were all much nicer.....

What I did NOT tell them was that I'm proposing to saddle one of their regiments with a pompous misogynist who dies offscreen in the first chapter so that his widow can learn the joys of hot NCO infantryman lovin'.

spits coffee all over keyboard

Seriously though, I have to think that the regiment archivist, historian, or what-have-you is probably going to be delighted to receive your enquiry. You may end up receiving lots of interesting tid-bits that you can use in the novel.

ita, that's gorgeous.

What I did NOT tell them was that I'm proposing to saddle one of their regiments with a pompous misogynist who dies offscreen in the first chapter so that his widow can learn the joys of hot NCO infantryman lovin'.

Like Anne, my morning beverage is now on the keyboard. Hopefully tea is easier to clean up. I want to actually say "hot NCO infantryman lovin'" to someone today.

Susan, what Anne W. said.

Susan, not nuts at all. I spent an hor on the phone with a verger at a parish in East London, as he obligingly read me snippets of the chuch records from shortly after the Great Plague; I was researching how plague victims were buried (wrapped in gauze and buried shallow, a REALY bad idea).

Research is never frivolous. But if you can ask the specific regiment specific questions, it's a help.