Wrapping Up and Cutting Loose

[shanmonster]

I feel swathed in a blanket of negativity, but I have scissors and am not afraid to cut holes. My scissors are made of activity. Today I took a pole dancing class, taught a belly dance class, and have yet to take another pole dance class and teach another belly dance class. I also want to get my office into shape. It's a disaster area, with projects in various stages of incompletion laying about willy-nilly. And maybe I'll post some of my recent photos. I went on a click-happy rampage the other day, and took a few macro shots I'm rather pleased with.

I didn't get to game this weekend, which has left me jonesing something fierce. Still, I've been putting more thought into my novelization, and have been getting the character of Bogdana Balcescu fleshed out quite nicely. This is one old lady you probably would never want to cross paths with. She's crazy, and not nice little old lady with purple hats and far too many cats crazy, but tear you apart to see what pretty designs the blood spatters make crazy. I'd like to say she means well (at least sometimes), but I'm afraid I might be fooling myself.

f00dave gave me some money to buy an ice cream today, but I spent it on a book, instead. I've been reading a lot of war-related non-fiction lately (most recently Radu Florescu's In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires and R. P. Lister's Genghis Khan), and this new book is no exception: Peter Arnett's Live From the Battlefield. I enjoyed the Dracula book, but I think I'd like to read a book about him as a general, to get a better idea of how and why he used such extreme tactics.

I'd also like to track down a biography of Elisabet Bathory again. I read one years ago and thought it was fascinating. And someone recently told me a movie about her is in the works.

Comments

[fourcorners.livejournal.com]

Bathory was in a movie a couple years ago (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441796/)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Wow! That looks like a stinker. I hope the new one will be good....

[tdj.livejournal.com]

It may be nothing new to you (and if you've posted it already, go me!), but I thought you might be interested in: http://www.wbur.org/news/local/dancer/

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[goth-hobbit.livejournal.com]

I love In Search of Dracula! I actually have two copies: one is the first edition paperback (which I'm sad to say is held together with a soft hair elastic these days; I read it obsessively as a kid), and the other is the revised Gorey cover which Prof. McNally autographed for me. I was the only person at the signing who was asking questions about archaeological digs and restoration around Poenari and the keep at Borgo Pass, rather than whether or not the professor thought that vampires are real. Go figure.

If you're interested in more historical background on Vlad Dracul, I can recommend Dracula: A Historical Biography of the Impaler, 1431-1476 (Hawthorn, 1973; LJ 2/1/74), also by Florescu and McNally, but years out of print. However, Amazon has the follow-up edition Dracula: Prince of Many Faces (http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Prince-Many-Faces-Times/dp/0316286567/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/104-8258467-8381512), which is an excellent historical overview. There are also a few books available on Romanian history, also by Florescu, which can be found here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/104-8258467-8381512?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Radu%20R%20Florescu).

No, I don't have a lifelong fascination with this particular voivode; why do you ask? ;)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll check these out.