Write, write, write...

"He knew that the sort of exuberant badness which so often achieves perfect popularity cannot be faked ..."

Gore Vidal had it sussed. Writing is actually not that tough, if you're freed from the fear that it will be bad. It's the desire to write well that makes writing so hard.

Who Loves Ya, Babe?

We practiced with these

Because I want nothing but the best, most accurate prose for you, my faithful readers, I took a sword fighting class on Tuesday. Broadsword, specifically (although we practiced with katanas). I learned about true edge (the one opposite your supporting thumb) about upper and lower lines, and about not going to the hospital. Cool!

There's something deeply satisfying about holding a weapon - and I say this is a committed gun-control proponent. Also the instructor was really cute - she had this Callie Thorne thing going on. But the next day, my ankles - hoo, boy! Yikes. That's why middle-aged men are generals, not swordsmen.

What I do for my fans.

Let's Open This Up

Hi, Melissa!

When I started blogging, I kind of intended to talk just about things related to fantasy, history, science fiction, and The Wrong Sword. But you know what? Heck with it.

I am vast, I contain multitudes. I'm going to blog about whatever sets my little heart a-flutter, from Melissa Rauch to deconstructionist textual criticism to the latest goonery and thuggery  from our Fearless Leaders. (See if you can guess which FLs I'm talking about as the posts progress...)

By the way, j/k about that deconstructionist thing.

Get the Word Out!

If you've read The Wrong Sword, review it on Amazon!
If you haven't read The Wrong Sword - well, why the hell not? It's fun!

I know, I know-
I'm just a bottomless sucking vortex of neediness.

But seriously - reviews are GOLD. If you read TWS and like it...YOU HAVE THE POWER.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

A Guest Blog!

Today, our guest blogger is Peter Lukes, whose novel Perchance To Dream is now out. (Hurrah!) Peter is (among many other things) on the board of trustees of the Higgins Armory Museum, in Worcester, MA - a Mecca for those of us who are tourney enthusiasts, joust fans, or members of the sword-forging classes. 

First, I’d like to thank Ted for inviting me to guest-post on his little piece of the Internet.  Since Ted’s latest release, The Wrong Sword, is a medieval fantasy tale that includes a rather famous weapon, I thought I’d discuss one of my favorite places on earth that also happens to be a museum of medieval relics.

It’s called the Higgins Armory Museum, and it’s in Worcester, Massachusetts. Higgins Armory houses over 4,000 historic items, a collection that includes arms and armor dating from Ancient Greece and Rome to Medieval and Renaissance Europe, with additional pieces from Africa, the Middle East, India and Japan. It has hundreds of swords, staff weapons, lances, and even some of the earliest firearms. Most notably, Higgins has two dozen full suits of armor on display, along with fully mounted knights on horseback. If that isn't enough, there is also plenty of artwork from the age of chivalry.

Character Interview - Henry the Rat

You want to get to know the protagonist of TWS a little better, don't you? Of course you do! He's so sunny and optimistic!

Q. We're here with Henry the Rat, one of the protagonists of Ted Mendelssohn's The Wrong Sword. So, Henry, why do you think Ted chose you to represent him?

A. Just lazy, I guess. I do the work while he takes the credit. Writers! Oh. You mean, why did he choose me instead of another character?

Q. Um, yes. For instance, why not the Princess Mathilde? We understand she was very eager to do this interview.

A. I’ll bet. She never met an audience she didn’t like.

I've enabled the comment feature.

So comment if the spirit moves you.

So. New Background.

Shiny, yes?

Slight Change of Plans

Looking back on my recent posts, I can see I've been getting all medieval on your a***s.

Which is okay in moderation. But really, I'm not a professional historian (in fact, once The Excalibur Trick comes out, the case might be made that I'm kind of an anti-historian) and there are plenty of medieval blogs by history pros who actually...you know...know what they're talking about. Or have at least worked a couple of RenFaires.

So I'll dial back a little on the Sarah-Vowell-meets-BBCAmerica posts, and intersperse them with some writer stuff, some sex stuff, some violence stuff, some NY vs. LA stuff, some genre stuff, some pizza stuff...typical blogging. The tough thing with most writers' blogs, though, is that they're all about agents and publishers and the next book coming out (or worse, their quest for an agent, publisher, or finished novel)  and I wanted to get away from that a little bit.

(Although, for the record, I have the world's greatest agent, Michael Carr, and a new editor, Dr. Matt Teel at Urania/Musa, for whom I have very high hopes.)

So let's see what happens.