my journey as a civil war novel writer

Had a very nice weekend break in Limburg with some friends and Nina the dog. We went to at tend the Elf fantasy fair in Arcen. It 's the second year it's been held in Arcen as well, before it only used to be in April in Haarzuilen. We arrived at the cottage Friday evening, rented in Landal green parc Roekenbosch which was close to Arcen. It is indeed a very nice location. T he castle gardens are well worth a visit ev en when there is no festival going on, I can really recommend th em. The reason that we went all this way were the lectures of Prof. Rotherham . This time the lecture was on woodland creatures. Very entertaining as always and learned some new things as well. Then for a few hours we wandered around the terrain , taking in the beautifull surroundings and of course admiring all the beautifull costumes. Some people come up with something new and wonderful for every fair, and by now there are a few around the year in the Netherlands. The grounds were so large that we b...

Saturday 25th april Finally it was the elf weekend. Especially saturday started with glorious sunshine. I was going by public transport with the train letting me down a little by being late so it was already 9.50 when I came to Breukelen station to get the shuttlebus. Huge crowds there, in luck to get sitting room in one of the 3 busses, but it took forever for them to lea ve. Coming to the castle g ate was another shock, the queu even for people with tickets started on the public road and it was another half hour before I was through the gates and only at eleven was I o n the grounds! Glad I will be going by car the second day. First stop were booksignings. Robyn Young who writes about the templars and Adam Greenwood, who writes a bout Robin Hood and faeries. Him I had already 'met' on facebook and he is a really, really nice guy. Also Raven Dane, who writes novels about vampires. I decide d against buying her book already as they are really heavy Trade paperbacks, but we ch...

May cloak is in!!!! After I paid the postman of course. And plenty, grrrrrr. Also 'inklaringskosten' on top of the tax. They sure know what to charge. But it is beautifull and long!!! As I hoped. As it is now it is too long even, which means it will cover most of the dresses with the hoopskirt under it. I also know that if I even want another one and for a dress without a hoop, I can go one size smaller. All set for the elf fair now. Some other great news about the elf, James Masters is coming this year. Spike from Buffy!!!! I can't wait until the end of april. I send out the job letter yesterday both through the mail and through email. And this morning there was already a reply that it had come through okay. She had read it and thought it looked good! And she will get back to me after all aplications have come in. I am exited, that is not a no! I am really in the running for the job trainee job. Maybe the fact that it is unpaid will keep some of the other students from rep...

I've got my cloak! I know it is a totally different one from the ones I showed you. But it is more practical. I have three to four outfits for fairs. one is purple/black, two are burgundy and the other is burgundy/cream. This cloak can go with all four of them. Most of the fairs are in times that the weather can still be a bit cold. The biggest one Elf fantasy fair is in April. Usually they have good weather but you can't could on it. If it is raining I don't go in costume anyway so they don't have to be watertight. Now the praying starts that it gets past customs without costing me more money. Bleh! This week is mostly devoted to reading. A client came up last week w ith a background that I know nothing about, luckily I was able to find some secondhand books on the matter. yeah bol.com. And have already started reading. End of the week I am going to Belgium again to celebrate Mel's birthday. So on saturday I also read some rules for games. I have a few new ones th...

Yesterday was the midwinter fair at the archeon. These festivals are getting realy popular in the Netherlands. It surprises me a great deal. From young to old a lot of folk will com e dressed up. Now I like doing that in the summer, but it was pretty darn cold yesterday and especially on saturday when I had to go to school. I love looking around and seeing all the people in their wonderfull crea tions. As I was not 100% well yet yesterday I had not brought my good camera and hardly took any pics. Normally there will be at least 100 pics on my camera at the end of the day, maybe more. The highlight here is as always professor doctor Roland Rotherham . If you ever have the chance to hear him lecture, go! He knows a great deal about medieval and older british history and he can talk about it for hours. But the special thing about him is that he is like the bards of old, he does so in a beautifull speaking voice, using facial expressions and wide gestures. And he does so with a huge dose o...