Candles, words, and web sites

[olmue]

It rained today, and I mean heavy rain. It's been very sunny for a long time, and it's right that we had some rain. But today wasn't the best day for it. My husband's aunt and uncle have been visiting Austria and Germany, and they were in our area today. We met them in Nurnberg (which is much more interesting than the town we live in) and wanted to walk them up to the castle, but it was raining so hard that we got as far as St. Sebaldus (which is just down the hill from Albrecht Durer's house) and ran in the church to wait it out. My husband's uncle commented, and I've noticed it before, too--all old churches smell the same. I used to think it was the stones, but now I think it's layers of years of candles and incense. It's a nice smell. Unfortunately, once we'd looked and smelled around, the rain was as hard as ever, so we all went home. But these sorts of days are still nice for curling up in bed with a book, which is what I did with the kids before sending them off to bed. (Flyte, the second Septimus Heap book, which I'm reading with my oldest son in German.)

Actually, it was a productive day for me. Since we were leaving as soon as the kids got out of school (12:15 for the latest kid today), my husband didn't go to his office, and so there were two responsible adults home this morning. I wrote just over 1000 words, so I'm 2/3 of the way through the third chapter of four that I plan to finish this month. It feels great to make progress.

(In case you are wondering, my husband, who is a medievalist,  has a grant to do research and write a book with that research, so he either goes to libraries and looks at medieval book collections, or sits somewhere and writes. More effectively done in a quiet office, true, but also possible at home. I LOVE his schedule. The academic life means lots of moving and stress and little job security (unless you're tenured), and it also means that during the semester you are basically working every waking moment, whether or not you are "at work." It is NOT a cushy job,  which people outside of academia sometimes seem to think. But there are perks, and one of them is being able to decide when and where you do most of your work.)

Finally, I've been perusing authors' web sites as I ponder how to build an effective one of my own. Since I'm still admiring Diana Wynne Jones (possibly the most diverse and prolific writer I know of), I looked at her site--and you should, too. She has some great things to say about writing and books and life. Her autobiography is long, but entertaining (she makes you laugh at the truly horrible things she's experienced), and you can see how so many little details have gone into her books. And hey, she's married to a medievalist, too. There's something good about these medievalists! Check out her site .

Comments

[sarah-create.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. She has a very long biography, the longest I've seen.

I love seeing old manuscripts. It is really cool to see 700-900 year old books. There are a lot of them displayed here in Iceland and I can even read some of the words. I always wish I could touch them.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

That's one of the coolest parts of my husband's job. Just, you know, picking up those ancient books. A lot of his research involves going to special collections libraries to research the originals. (Although not all of the people working in the libraries have a clue about them. We were in California at UCSB's library once, and the student librarian went back and "couldn't find" this 500-year-old book. "Misplaced," she said. "But," she added brightly, "have you tried interlibrary loan?")

What brings you to Iceland? My dad was stationed there in WWII (a hot and happening place during the war, I know), and my husband's dissertation advisor was into Icelandic sagas and ravens (DH spent a semester as a research assistant, tracking down the darn ravens), but other than that, it's not er, a common destination. Sounds cool, though.

[sarah-create.livejournal.com]

My husband is a diplomat. And Iceland is always cold, even in July and August. But it is beautiful. We move every couple years so we get to experience lots of neat places. You are lucky that you have a ward. There are very few members here.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Oh, very cool! I didn't realize you were LDS, too.

Hopefully you can at least toast marshmallows and warm your toes over a lava hot spot?

[sarah-create.livejournal.com]

I have cooked dinner in a geyser- boiled eggs, lamb hot dogs and bread. Extremely fun! And the hot pots are always warm.

[jenny-moss.livejournal.com]

Good progress, Rose!

My favorite prof in grad school is a medievalist. I v much admire her.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Hooray for medievalists!