Today is release day! Hooray!

I think I will celebrate with coffee and chocolate an a bit of sitting in the sunshine...






... before I continue working on all the other stuff that needs to be dealt with today. (This, I am sure, includes checking the sales rank of the book now and then.)

Things I already did up until now? Work with Margit on the pattern of a scarf for a joint-venture knitting pack. Work with Gillian on blogposts about the Beast. Rescue a sparrow that the cat dragged in (the bird was unharmed apart from a good scare, but the cat was a bit miffed that I took it away from her). Answer a few emails... and check the sales rank. Obviously. (But only once!)

Today is one of these days where I got sidetracked by stuff - in this case, learning some more about the functions of my book-keeping programme. There are definitely new possibilities to do things that will make this part of work easier and quicker in the future, but it ended up eating most of my morning (or at least most of it).

So, before I go to frantically do all the things I wanted to have done before noon (such as drafting blog posts for the blog tour, and finishing a paper that is due, and finalising the English version of the spinning instructions, and hanging up the washing), here's a link for you:

A fully dressed noblewoman from the 17th century was found in France.

This week was taxes week for me - tax day in Germany is the last day of May, and it looks like I'll actually finish a day early this year! So tomorrow will be a very relaxed Saturday...

Apart from going over all the books and wrangling all the data necessary, not too much happened this week. I'm still waiting for more rain to refill the rainwater cistern (it drizzled a few hours ago, but that was all).

Friday? Really? Does that mean I'll get special treats today?

 
Planning for the gold embroidery kit is progressing, and now I'm waiting for some things to arrive so I can go into the next stage. The prototype is all finished - more on that on Monday!

The sun is shining, all rooms are freshly aired, there is hot tea on the table, along with a large stack of freshly-fired spindle whorls (that need to be entered into the shop system soon). Outside, flowers are blooming, and there is still some hoar frost on the grass in the shady spots, making a splendid contrast. The cat is outside enjoying the sunny weather, and in about half an hour, three ladies will stop by to get a private lesson in how to spin with a distaff, medieval-style.

All this makes for a lovely day, and thus a lovely start into the week. Plus it's a shorter-than-usual week, which does not take away from the loveliness! (Though with the wool festival at Backnang, it will turn out to have normal length for me, with Saturday being a full work day. Never mind that, though... I've been promised by very reliable folks that Backnang will be an immense amount of fun, and I'm really looking forward to it!)

Terry Pratchett died yesterday, aged 66, and the internet is full of eulogies for him.

I'm sad that he passed away. He was a brilliant writer, and his early Discworld novels gave me many hours of both contemplation and fun, a wonderful mix of the utterly hilarious and the deeply philosophical. If you wanted to think about religion, or what makes humans tick, or about the impact that belief can have, there was a lot of things to spark thoughts. He made puns that I deeply appreciate, and wrote characters that were at once over-the-top and absolutely believable.

I did not read a lot of his later works from Discworld; I felt that they lacked the lightness of the earlier novels, bringing the formerly hidden deeper thoughts more to the front and sometimes even pulling out a hammer to drive things home. I very much enjoyed the YA books, though, and I know a few people who remained avid fans of Terry Pratchett right through his career.

This development of his books and my taste in different direction actually made me realise that authors change, and novels develop, and readers change too. Like any other relationship, things can develop to make you grow closer, or make you grow apart, and it's perfectly normal not to love somebody's books over years and years. Or love them all the time. Terry's books and writing taught me that, and I am thankful for that as much as for his books and the hours of reading pleasure they gave me.

Thank you for your books, Terry Pratchett. Your stories will live on for a long time, and I hope that knowing this made facing death easier for you.

Writing this blog is a perfect excuse to look at stuff every day, calling it, you know, "blogging research" or "keeping up with things for the blog". It is nice, it amuses me, sometimes it's frustrating, and sometimes I stumble across something that really touches me.

That happened to me yesterday, after I finished watching the paper about the medieval bread experiments. I clicked on UCD's youtube channel, looking for more nice stuff like it, and this one came up.



It started up on its own, and I would not have watched it otherwise. But it started, and the beginning sounded interesting, and it only got better from there. So I stayed with it until the end. It's a lovely, lovely piece - if you have a few minutes, do watch it. And thank you, dear readers, for being my excuse for doing blogging research, resulting into finding things like this!

While I was busily writing on the Beast, Springer has been active and the Special Issue of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences is finally live. It's an issue focusing on Experimental Archaeology, and it features an article I have written about the dearly beloved and never ending spinning experiment. If you'd like to read the Editorial (for free) or have a look at the articles (paywall), the special issue is here.

More reading? Jim C. Hines is doing a guest post series on his blog, about those not mainstream in SF/F - people of colour, people of non-binary gender, people otherwise not corresponding to the privileged multitude. It really is worth reading, so head over there and take a look. (Who knows, you might end up with some new authors to try.)

Even more reading? Gillian Polack is having guest posts too, in honour of Women's History Month. Also worth taking a look - these are very personal and very interesting stories.

I, however, have done enough reading for now, and will instead sit in the sun while working. (Sewing work has to be done, and what better colour to sew today than green, when spring is coming, and the sun is shining...)