August 31, 1999
August and Everything After
So what did I really do this month?
- Wrote: 22 journal entries, two role-playing character backgrounds, revised one short story and sent it out into the publishing world once more, started another story, innumerable emails, countless MUSH scenes, lots of ICQ, AIM and other online messages
- Read: The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell, To Green Angel Tower, Part 1 by Tad Williams. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block. Danse Macabre, Stephen King. Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist. Freak Magnet by Moira. (perfect way) by Sara. Book of the Amber Dragon by Ceit. Medea Sin by Scott Liles. perplexity & redemption by tesserae. Hedgehog Tales by The Mighty Kymm. Again, innumerable emails, countless MUSH scenes, etc, etc.
- Watched: The Blair Witch Project, The Princess Bride, The Mask of Zorro, some PBS special on Andrew Lloyd Webber, an episode of Pokemon (under duress)
- Visited: Podunk, Indiana.
- Played: Master of Orion II. Changeling. Werewolf.
- Attended: A full moon ritual, a meeting or two, I even almost made it to church a few times.
- Ate: At the Olive Garden. Twice. And I developed a fondness for iced green tea.
- Listened to: 88.7 FM. 96.3 FM. Indigo Girls. Nine Inch Nails. Weird Al Yankovic. Mission UK. Sisters of Mercy. Heather Alexander. Tori Amos. Sarah McLachlan. Violent Femmes.
What else did I do? I lived, I guess. Spent time outside, spent time alone, spent a lot of time thinking. I'm not usually much for making lists, but this was interesting, to sort of quantify how I spent my time. Of course, on top of that, I did the usual, like sleep and work and talk on the phone. So now we're going into fall, which is always the most interesting time of year for me...
Instead of just quoting a line or two of something today, I felt compelled to post the entire poem over on the left. Written one hundred years ago, it's a favorite of mine, mostly because it's about the sidhe, and something about it always sends a shiver down my spine. The good kind. I just get a picture in my mind of this army of terrible, beautiful, frightening, compelling beings riding off to... war? Maybe. Maybe the destination doesn't ultimately matter. All that matters is that they are not human, and they are riding past. I tried to find out a little about who exactly Niamh and Caoilte were, but I didn't find much. Brand, my usual mythology resource, is nowhere to be found. As far as I can tell, Niamh was one of the sidhe, but Caoilte wasn't, I think. Everything I found said he was one of the Fianna, a legendary group of Irish warriors, which I would think means he was mortal... gah. I have so much to learn about Irish mythology.
Anyway, I was reminded of this poem this weekend, while I was reading To Green Angel Tower, Part 1. At one point in the story, the Sithi (a magical, immortal race very much like the sidhe - in fact, one webpage I checked listed 'sith' as an alternate name for the sidhe) go riding off to war, and before they ride, one of the leaders calls, "Away, come away!" It was one of those very happy moments where I not only understood the allusion the author, Tad Williams, was making, but it gave me an instant mental picture of exactly what he was trying to describe. And by the way, if you like fantasy at all, go check that series out, called collectively Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.
As for me, I'm about ready to hie myself to the bookstore to splurge on some poetry.
