Category: general

2015 will always be a special year to me. I finished Hidden Gold, and shared it with the world, and people discovered my music. We have raised over $1,100 for The Therapeutic Nursery. And a few other key events came to pass that I wasn’t necessarily expecting.

One of these I never got around to sharing, because it happened in the middle of a month that was full of other good news and it felt a little unseemly to share at the time. But I don’t want to leave the year behind without mentioning it, because in its own way it was just as exciting as anything else that happened. In late October, my wife and I received an invitation to Ellen Kushner’s birthday party, which she and her wife, Delia Sherman, were hosting in their home. I have name-checked Ellen several times on this site, since her phenomenal novelization of Thomas the Rhymer was a touchstone for me as a bard, inspiring several of my songs, most notably “Tam Lin of the Elves”. She is one of my all-time favorite authors, and one of the great blessings of having Jess in my life is that she and I ended up becoming personal friends with Ellen.

Ellen greeted us warmly, and asked me at the door if I would be singing for her at the party. Needless to say, I was happy to oblige. Later in the party, Ellen introduced me to her friends as (I kid you not) her “personal bard”. I managed to keep it together long enough to give over “Tam Lin” to an enthusiastic crowd of authors, editors, and other creative folks, which led off a lovely little bardic circle. This is one of those memories that I will cherish all my days.

I hope that all of you had the opportunity to touch some of your dreams this past year, and if not, that you will in the year to come. I have a few more big plans in store for 2016, and will share them as fortune allows. I hope you’re safe with cherished loved ones tonight to ring in the new year, and that the challenges ahead will lead you to joy.

Happy New Year.

I have been quietly enjoying a trickle of acknowledgment that others have begun making their way here and browsing around.  The blog is getting followed by one or two other bloggers, and pages are getting “liked”.  The Facebook page I set up for Drake last year (quite prematurely, I soon realized, when what I really wanted at the time turned out to be this website) has been picking up a few “likes” here and there the past few weeks, and from people I don’t actually know.  Small confession: it makes me smile. But I’m sure many of you have the same experience.

We had a lengthy discussion on the Facebook group this week about whether we should abandon, de-emphasize, or clarify our use of the term “bard” in the SCA. I won’t rehash the discussion here, though I probably personalized it more than necessary. I will share, however, what I wrote when Isolde de Lengadoc challenged all of us to quit navel-gazing and pen to virtual paper and write a sonnet of our thoughts:

A fellowship I have, and hold it dear,
These kindred spirits lately have I found.
A fireside among these, ’tis sacred ground!
And yet, ’tis lately discord that I hear.

For we’re a motley group with several aims:
We’re singers? Writers? Hist’ry lovers? Fools?
Are we one clan or many? Have we rules?
And oft, I too get caught up in these games.

So long have I this life sojourned alone,
I dread the splint’ring of this merry band.
Whate’er the name, I know for sure I stand
In such a circle as I’ve never known.

Can we all stand together in our art?
Or shall we (with my soul) now fly apart?

(With apologies to Frank Miller and fans of the Dark Knight)

So, as summer comes to an end, I find myself reflecting back on my first full year as a “working bard” (participating in actual bardic events, interacting with the bardic community). I tend to mark a Scadian year as falling from one Pennsic to the next. It is the biggest and oldest event in the society, and affords opportunities to live one’s passions like nothing else on the East Coast, at least.